Coulda Shoulda Woulda
A lot of mixed feelings about this race. I don't feel like I've been riding to form lately and I was very apprehensive about riding a 123 race, albeit a short, ABR version. I felt that I needed some kind of respectable finish just to feel like a cyclist again.
As I suspected the ABR format meant that the race was essentially two fields together, a half dozen or so cutthroat 123's and the wankers.
The course was a lot of fun. A five mile circuit with steep rollers and not a bit of flat. The climbs were not intense for the most part as the momentum seemed to carry us through most of them.
So I rode pretty hard covering the front the first lap before I settled back into mid-packville while the big dogs toyed with us and kept the pace fast and aggressive. At exactly the midpoint of the race they all said goodbye and I was left with the wankers. Suddenly the rest of the field loosened their belts and sat down on the couch to watch TV. Without an ally I couldn't do much about it athough, in hindsite I should have pushed myself anyway. The big dissapointment was the Bike Authority team that had about 25000 guys in the field and did absolutely nothing. I take that back, prior to the last lap one of them made a solid break. A couple solo guys made chase attempts and at a good point I jumped and picked them up to form a chase group. In the end we only dragged the field along up to the attacker. I warned and encouraged the few workers to watch for BA to counter. It never happened. I pulled the field along at a stong pace, they didn't counter. I pulled the field at a tour pace, they didn't counter. I sat up and started filing my nails. They rolled past at a tour pace, no counter. It was such a perfect opportunity and they completely wasted it.
So, a sloppy uphill field sprint with a requisite crash, which I happily avoided, finished the race.
