This was leg 1 of a big, two-race weekend. This weekend Ryan, Rob, Chris and I did the tour de state-champs. Saturday we hit the IN/KY regionals near Louisville, KY. Sunday found us 400 miles away, near Chicago, for the Illinois state championships. In between was a whole lot of driving, watching DVDs (including the 4 hour director's cut of Das Boot), eating Mexican food, smelling the roses (or at least the best approximation of roses that Ryan could produce), and generally just having a good time.
The reason I go into so much detail about our road trip is that was the best part of the weekend for me. My racing was a disaster. I figured coming off a mid-season break, my legs would be a little stale. But I didn't realize that I would get smacked around like a chew toy in the cat 4/5 race. After watching in disbelief as my only teammate (Todd L.) drove his 3 man break right off the course and down a dead-end road into the Ohio river, I began to realize I how bad the race was going to be. It took everything I had to hold the end of the peloton over the first climb. The following lap, without a teammate, I had to pick my breaks carefully and cover the ones that looked promising. I chose incorrectly and then watched as the next break stuck. It probably didn't matter as I got shelled on the final climb, chased onto the 2nd group and then got blasted again on the finishing climb.
