Weekend Update

Another weekend of racing in the bag, another weekend of quality time trial training, but no displays of real racing intelligence. Both courses were new to the scene, both were nice and wide open. An occasional change of scenery is nice.

On Saturday I got to race with both Ryan and Tim, the first time out as the full squad. As soon as we made it out of the first corner, I saw Mike Carter moving quickly up the outside and responded. A group of five of us got up the road a bit, but there wasn't enough horsepower or representation for it to stick. I made the mistake of not following when Mike went after the first prime and dropped back to the group. The break formed shortly thereafter, comprised of Mike, Zak Grabowski, and surprise, surprise, one Kevin Nicol. I spent a good chunk of the rest of the race playing tug boat, just dragging everybody around, but didn't follow some wheels I should have, Henk Vogels being a great example. A chase group formed, never caught the leading trio, but stayed clear. I got somewhat stuffed in the sprint for whatever place we were racing for at that point and ended the day 21st, just behind Ryan.

Sunday had promise to be a very interesting race given the wind, but it miraculously died down just after the start of our race. I was active early on trying to get in the mix, but also wasting energy just pulling people around. I got up the road a bit midway through the race, once with Zak and once with Randy, but nothing significant. Some moves stayed away for a little bit but most everything came back. Tim got himself in the right place at the right time, following Vogels up the road as he made his move to bridge. Unfortunately he lost contact and that was the move that stuck. There was a crash with three laps to go that I was lucky enough to get around and not lose contact with the group. Going through the last lap, I did a terrible job of keeping position and found myself merely trying to stay close to the sprint instead of being involved in it actively.

There is still plenty of room for improvement, that's for sure. There is a lot that fitness allows you to get away with, but a little intelligence goes a long way. I should be able to race my way out of a wet paper bag, but right now I need somebody to tear it open for me.

The rest of the weekend was pretty mellow. I took some time to do a few things around the house. I'm pretty sure I hadn't cleaned my windows inside and out since moving it. The view is now amazing and relatively dog nose print free. I also plucked some of my "inherited" dandelions in the front yard. My neighbor altered the landscaping in their tree lawn, opting for some slate pavers, artfully laid in some mulch. The left some of their weed infested lawn assuming their fence was the property line, not the property maker. We'll see if I can successfully make it as lush and green as my little patch of grass.