STATE ROAD RACE

So, it's been a month since my last race and I don't feel that great. The good thing is most of the people I talk to feel the same way. I have been bothered by my left hip for a while. Then I fell on it again during cross training and am developing sciatic pain that radiates down to my little toe. That being said, the race started without a problem, or should I say the neutral roll out. I don't mind this course and have rode it frequently with the team ever since we started riding. We also sponsored a leg of the Chicago time trial here last year. Good communication on the hill led to everybody agreeing where the hill opened into it's full width. "Is it now, is it here? Well the guy did wave the flag." Right after the hill somebody goes off the front and the pack responds. No big deal. That pretty much summed up my race. There was really no place to go on the course and I knew that nobody would be able to stay off the front. My hip felt good not nagging me at all. I tried on the hill on lap 2 and 3 to get good jumps and I did, then slow myself down in the middle to see how passed me. One thing that I noticed but few did, was after the first hill, after the cones, just before the second hill, there is a slight l hand turn. The left hand side of the course there was flatter and more of a straight line. Nobody was really riding that section and boy could you pick up some places. That would be my plan for the last lap. On the last lap I didn't feel that I had good positioning. It's hard to move anywhere on the course and the pack was just surging back and forth the whole time on Archer. So into the hill for the last time and I'm postionined about 25 back. I come into the hill in the middle and i'm not really pounding moving onto the right side of the course safely. Thank goodness I did that because a short while later, right where the cones ended I hear some carnage going on. You know it's bad when you hear a rider who is caught up in the aftermath of a crash hollering because he knows he will be going down also just for the simple fact he's behind it. And I'm sure going up a hill, the crash must have been like slow motion in his mind. Needless to say I never made it to the point on the left side of the hill that I wanted to. I did pick up a bunch of places peddaling hard into the base of the last hill where it seemed like a bunch of guys in front of me were soft peddaling, waiting for he finish. I did end up at the finish line getting caught by two of those riders but held off the rest for 13th. Not the worst or the best finish for the end of the road racing year. Now onto cross!