I felt pretty lame starting the day on a Non-2008-Compliant bike while everyone else rolled around on their shiny Yellows. It was not a good weekend for components but thankfully the shop (TREK Bikes On Michigan Avenue) is taking good care of me.
Fortunately, the racing went a little better. Four of us (Daley, Loney, Mindeman, Wat) lined up for the Masters 1/2/3 race. I had no real intentions for the race and hoped to save some legs for the Cat 3 race later in the afternoon; But you know what happens when racing starts.
Again, I felt pretty lame sitting in the pack as all of my teammates jumped into the wind and crossed the great divide to make it to the break that looked like it was going to stick. They were amazing in the break and all worked hard to keep the pace high so as not to get caught. I did my best to sit at the front of the pack and disrupt any chasing taking place. I had a lot of help from Chip on Get A Grip. Not sure what his motivation was considering he had no teammates, but it was fun and he was quite helpful. After the race, he quipped that he could not believe the pack let us sit on the front at 10MPH.
With two to go, the pack was VERY close to catching but it didn't look like anyone was really excited to get there in a hurry. So I sat 2nd wheel for the lap and waited for the brutal headwind section at the start/finish to make my leap across to the break (not sure if it all came back together). I used my momentum to get near the front for the sprint during the final lap and came up with 6th.
**********
On to the Cat 3s.
"No chasing today because we're already going to be in the move" was the final word from Mindeman as we lined up. Check and done. The race was pretty exciting but I thought it strange that no real break got off considering the amount of represented teams and the wind. A number of moves looked like they would work, only to be reeled in due to the tough headwind and motivation of the pack.
The team was great today with a lot of communication all over the place. Mindeman, Goodwin, Fischer and myself all worked hard to go with every move or start attacks as moves were coming back. At one point with about 5 or so to go, I got in a good move with Kirby and Luke from xXx, along with about 10 other "meh" racers resigned to keeping things together for a bunch sprint. Foiled again.
With one to go, Goodwin got me close enough to the express train and I yelled "ChooChoo On." Mindeman quickly knew what was up coming into the final turn. The door opened up on the right and we took off. But alas, it was not to be as the door quickly closed when the pack swished right in our path and I had to ease up. I think we got 3 in the top 20, but who knows, as the results were a bit crazy.
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No biggie. We had a great day as a team, and I look forward to more of this type of active racing as the season steamrolls along.