A group of 23 turned out for the "B" race including several Stark Velo guys, the Westlake Regulars, Rick, Gwenn, John, and Jason, who I haven't seen for a while. Robert Sroka also raced. Some "A" field riders, like Chris and Rudy did the "B" race warmup/rolling coach thing again.
My legs felt good, but mentally, I was pretty flat and tired. I thought I would just ease into the race, unfortunately, other riders had other plans. Soon after the start, Jason attacked on the back stretch and opened a pretty good gap. I thought he might be warming up and just taking a flyer, so I didn't react.
Pretty soon his solo move became a group of all the stronger riders in the field, and the gap started to open. If I'd been more attentive, I would have tried to jump across. Instead, I just waited for someone else to close the gap that was still manageable. The cross wind made it difficult, though.
Finally, I woke up a little and tried to pace us back together, but didn't make any dent in the gap.
We had a bunch sprint for the second group. I basically TT'ed to the line and got 8th or 9th.
Not a great performance. I was too passive through the race and had a tendency to take it easy on certain sections of the course which actually caused me to do more work overall. But, at least I managed to finish with a group. It was also a lot of fun. That course is great.
The last couple weeks has been all short jumpy races. I think it's time to get out and do some longer rides down into the valley with some good climbs. No racing this weekend, so I plan to really pile on the miles and see how my body responds.
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