This was a good thing since I rode like I had never ridden a bike. I was jittery in the corners, waiting for people to stack it up around me in the chicanes. I was losing position every lap even though I tried to move up and stay in the hunt. Fortunately I pulled my head out about midway through the race and got to the correct side of things when the wind picked up and split the field.
Kevin made it into an early move that he later said he knew wasn't the one to be in, so he sat on and everything ultimately came back together. The first half of the race looked much different than the second, compare:
1st Half
2nd Half
You can see not only the shift in the wind in how the group echelons across the road, but also the fact that the wind picked up and made the race shatter. Kevin was in a group of 5 further up the road from the smaller group I was in towards the end of the race. I won't lie, I had no real idea what I was supposed to do with 14 laps remaining. I knew I didn't want to put in efforts to drag anybody up to the first group. I knew I didn't want to get caught, but beyond that my best guess was to follow one of the 14 Vitamin Cottage riders still in my group of 8.
The first effort didn't pan out with about four laps to go. I followed Ang Sheldrake with Tarkington in tow. After that got pulled back I decided to try to get rid of a few more people. I threw it in the gutter and put in a hard 20 second effort to see if I could gap anybody off. I don't know if that worked or not, but shortly thereafter Joey Pinkerton got a small gap and I followed. When I looked back, we were clear, all we had to do was hang on for a couple laps and then "sprint" it out for 6th place.
I didn't win that sprint and ended up 7th. Kevin took 5th place . . . not a bad day for a team of two.
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