You get out what you put in. . .

What a week... with two days off work; I met Chuck Hutch, and we did an awesome ride, set a new high hour FTP and was able to get in some nice hill repeats before work on Wednesday, all of which you can read about in previous postings. With all that done I took it easy Thursday on the way to work and Z3 on the way home, same with Friday except I had some leg openers planned for the afternoon.

Well Friday morning after getting to work my boss told me I needed to go to another site to go work on some servers. Well not only was it software but hardware, we ended up having to move quite a few severs and equipment around, not my idea of taking it easy but oh well. I am trying to find words to describe the ride home but am coming up short. The wind we have this weekend came in Friday afternoon, and I was headed southwest, well the wind was blowing from the southwest, it was a head wind the entire 18 miles home. There were times I had to check my wheels to see if a brake was rubbing or if i had a flat, it was horrible.

After getting home using more energy than I had planned my legs were actually exhausted. With a combination of hard riding all week and that ride this was definitely going to be a C weekend for me, just survive and be safe.

When the alarm went off this morning I hopped out of bed and did the routine, pretty much everything was ready just had to take it down to the car. My wife then told me she felt like she was having another kidney stone. This would be her 8th one, and third in the last 12 months. I asked if she wanted to go to the hospital but she declined saying we can go after the race if need be. Although she did tell me she wasnt going to be able to make the race because the pain was pretty damn bad. I was a little sad because this being a local race I wanted to see her and Christian there at the finish line, but I knew she was in a terrible amount of pain.

I arrive at the course at 6:30 so I can help setup and volunteer as our team was hosting this race. I helped with the setup and the first hour or so of registration, holly cow I never realized how hectic it is. I generally always try to make it to the table with everything ready but for some that doesnt seem to be a priority for most and the line grew very quickly as we had to wait for people to unscrew themselves.

After that I made it over to the car to start my warm up, planned on doing close to an hour or so but only managed 25 minutes after deciding to swap wheels and use my aluminum wheels with the Conti Supersonic tyres, mainly because of the wind and the deep section wheels being prone to getting blown around.

At the start it was Evo all up front, since we were hosting out title sponsor paid for our entry and we had 15 Evo riders in the cat 5 field, that was almost a third of the field right there, NCVC had a big presence along with WWVC with Nick Taylor. We've been keeping an eye on him lately as he has proven to always be there at the end.

We didnt have a real strategy in this race except to do well and with the wind and past experiences racing into the the wind no one really wants to do much work, everyone wants to sit in. This happened last week at Walkersville and odds were it was going to happen again today. I kept that in mind and let all of my teammates know that.

From the bell, horn, or whistle whatever the hell it was we were off. Luis off the front like a bat out of hell, he was saying he wanted to do well and he was certainly putting himself in a position to for that. One thing about this course, it is short, .85 miles and dead flat, 14ft of elevation gain per lap, this didnt suit our body style as most bigger guys can produce more raw watts than us which matter in this type of race. Also being so flat and short it is very rare for a breakaway to stick on this course especially in the Cat 5 since no one wants to work together.

Shortly after Luis took off I was up front, a little freaked out by the people riding next to me and not being able to judge their handling skills especially in turns I wanted to get the hell away from them. On the second lap I think, I cant remember I took off and caught up to Luis and passed him, he was exhausted after his lap. I spent the next 6 or so laps riding by myself, setting my own pace and taking my own lines at speeds I was comfortable with.

I was then caught by two NCVC guys and Luis who bridged the gap as well. The two NCVC guys and myself worked to keep the breakaway alive and I kept Luis in the back so he didnt have to tire himself in case he need to sprint. At one point one of the NCVC riders let a gap form from the lead and we had to sprint to catch back up, he was toast, used everything he had. From that point on we knew we had to work together for this to last. Later I was told it was Matt Davis who we riding with, the dude was a freaking power house. On the back straight with the tail wind he was crushing almost dropping us and then we would rotate every 20 seconds or so, Some how I usually ended up pulling down the front straight into the wind, never really getting a chance to recover.

As hard as I would try to take my lines through the turns Matt would always seem to be in front and I would have to slow down or not be able to hit the apex. Again it is crucial to always hit the apex people learn how to corner / turn what ever the hell you want to call it, read about how race car drivers drive. Time and energy can be saved in the turns it is crucial. After a couple close calls with Kristopher it came down to the last few laps.

My legs were burning with every pull but I knew if I didnt bust my ass out there and put in a good effort it would be all for naught. I used the same mindset at Walkersville last week, if you give it your all you will get results, it may take time and it may not be first or hell even top 10 but if you truly give it everything you have it will pay off. With that in mind we kept the breakaway alive.

In to the last turn Matt in front goes off and I standup to go after him trying to give Luis some sort of a lead out but he was gone before I knew it. Luis came around me and sprinted to catch him almost at the line but no dice he got second and I rolled across in third.

I was very satisfied with the result, and even happier that our breakaway lasted on a course we were told odds are it wont, I love being able to prove the normal wrong. Right now my legs are killing me and fatigued but that is all apart of the game.

With a quick look at the roster for Carl Dolan tomorrow it appears that there will be a lot of fresh legs and the forecast looks to be just as windy as today, should make for an interesting showing. With no real ambitions for tomorrow except to stay upright as my final weekend as a Cat 5 closes. I just hope my legs get in the car with me tomorrow.

Congrats Luis on your second place, I am glad you were able to hang in there as I was about to fall off myself.

Heather, I hope feel better and thank you for watching Christian this morning as you guys continue to put up with my obsession. Love you guys.