OSRS #3 - Hueston Woods - Team Hungry/BigDaveSports

Pretty windy day. The field took it easy the first couple laps then things picked up. In hindsight, wish I had tried to stay away after one of the hills. Spent a bit too much time on the front with no real objective. Attacked on the flat before the climb which didn't work. Ended up getting second to Ian C. It was cool that he was able to get the win after a bad crash. Gotta love that storyline.

Avoided a big crash and managed to stick with the leaders till the end. No sprint left at the end, but everybody ahead was strong. I'm movin up to cat 4!

Finally rode well. Quite a relief. I will spare the boring blow by blow. After all, I instigated the early break of six and rode in it for a few miles, but with 40+ to go I was too chicken to keep up the pain-Dave Minner of Dark Horse was drilling it and he eventually won. On the hill out of the parking lot area, I rode away from the remaining group with five miles to go to get 8th after the break of six and one guy by himself in between the break and the group.

Beautiful day to race. All started well and I was feeling giddy. Next thing I know I am on the deck looking around for my bike. I see it over there under another bike and possibly it's driver. Nope that driver was not the owner and this driver had a major finger issue. I know thats not how it looked when he started the race. Spectator "I am a doctor and I can put that back the way it was before". The face of the hand owner did not look convinced in the least. Nice to get the crash out of the way early. Spent the rest of the day hanging solo and hoping to catch back on. Never happened but did get to enjoy last last few miles with a fellow teammate who also managed to find the pavement at 40mph. Overall a nice day and great course. Solid training ride that has me itching for the next start. Happy that no one was seriously injured. If only I could have dodged the ball. Lesson learned crashing sucks and never under estimate the power of the peloton. Real Deal you said being up front was safe...safer...equal opportunity I guess. Ride on.

Started out great and felt really good after a couple of breakaways to secure a comfortable position in the top 10 on lap two. At the back of the breakaway, at 39 MPH, on a good downhill, I found a crack in the road while riding on the wheel of the person in front of me. I didn't come out very well and after hitting my head a second time (presumably I rolled twice), I realized I'd crashed. The bike was rideable, all bones were in tact, and I ended up riding in no mans land for 20 something miles until Nate joined me for the last half of lap 4.

Started off in a bad position but managed to work my way slightly up the peloton and stay with the pack during the first few climbs as people were spat off the rear. Less than 10 miles in there was a big "incident" where several people, including two Echelon team mates went down. I managed to go around it and worked to catch the peloton but pushed too hard and wasn't able to catch them on the next climb. After that I spent the next 30+ miles riding solo in no mans land.

I've always enjoyed racing here, though the legs still are not used to racing along with all the other positional changes I've been working on through the winter. Getting better though, and that's all I can ask for.

Fun race. Mostly easy for the first lap, Luke attacked at the finishing line on the second lap and a few people went with him. Joe and I were on the front and realized no one was really chasing or paying attention. Joe caught a free ride up to the break and I tried to keep the field rolling along slowly.

Eventually, the break of six had a minute and no one wanted to chase. The field let me ride tempo up most of the hills and no one ever really chased hard for more than a few minutes. With a lap or two to go the break had more than 3 minutes on the field.

One lap to go people started chasing hard. My legs were feeling dead and cramped and I was shelled at some point. Turned around to see the finish, Joe and Luke took 3rd and 4th. Kudos to the Darkhorse guy who took the win for the strong kick at the finish.

Crashed on the first lap. Disappointing result for one of the nicest days so far this spring.