As the crank turns… tales of life on the rims

This just in….

...I suck at racing. I was happy with my performance today, but in the big picture I was a giant heaping pile of suck. The races were fast. I knew they would be...come on...it is a race, but they were faster than what I would even expect.

The course is super flat and in the morning there was a tailwind down the longest straight. I held on the the CAT 4/5 for about 5 laps. Then when I was OTB I ended up trying to work with a guy. He was just barely hanging on and I ended up doing most of the work. He was tiny too so even when he was in front I was getting nothing.

Just before we were about to get lapped I took off trying to hold the pack off. It was a pretty impressive effort if I do say so myself. It delayed the inevitable for another lap. We got lapped a seond time with 3 to go. Picked up a xXx rider who kind of worked with us - when he wasn't busy trying to tell us what to do (is there a rolleyes smiley on here?).

The Masters 4/5 was faster. It was brutal. Actually it probably wasn't, but the morning's race had taken a lot out of me. I did manage to stay in the front for a while. I was even in front going over the line one lap. I actually think I was in a 3 man break off the second lap or so, but I was going hard enough that I couldn't see. One guy came flying up and wanted me and the first guy to work with him. We put out heads down and I hammered for a bit. The second lap of that was obvious we were fading.

Pretty soon I did my usual OTB and just tried to hold on. The sun was intense and it is really hot out there today. After getting lapped a second time with only 6 or 7 laps left I decided to call it a day. I shouldn't have because it was then that riders were starting to get shelled and I could have found people to work with, but the gas tank was on "E" and the pounding headache was signaling dehydration.

DFL, DNF.

Rule 5,246 about racing: "Don't expect to ony go out a couple of times a year for races and still do OK."