WeekEnd in Paradise

So my weekend went like this... Upside things... Start time for my first Race was at 12:45 Saturday. Upside thing... Able to leave at 7:00 Saturday. Good thing... Got to Madera with
plenty of time to spare. First event the Crit! Went to registration, and met with John and Nelson.

My riding partners for the weekend... 45+. Got my number Left side... Right Side... Left side. Yo Yo musical numbers... I look left, and who's signing up for the 45+ Bubba M. Well that just up'd the ante for the weekend. Bubba likes to hurt people... You know rip their legs off kind of hurt! Watch'z ya gonna do? HTFU! First event the Crit... Normal roundy round ride'n... Few attempts to get off the front early by a few riders... Nothing sticking... 8 mins gone by... 40 min Race... Lot'za time... 20 min in, and another break... Bubba! Not good but still early. Lapping the 55+ for the first time... Why does this always happen right when you are coming into a corner? Bubba and another rider still off the front, don't seem to be closing... Fast forward final 3 laps... Up to the front I go. 2 laps sitting about 5th wheel good but not great. To far forward sometimes is not a good thing especially if no one is setting a real fast pace. Sure enough BELL LAP! Fighting to stay near the front! One corner down three to go! Next corner still good... Stegall comes flying up along my right side... Yelling grab my wheel! Hesitate (Stupid) for a moment... Problem #2... We are about to lap the 55+ for a second time... Problem #3 we are all heading for turn 3 at full speed! Now last time I had someone tell me about Physics... IS... That two solid objects cannot occupy the same place at the same time... This is not a good scenario un-folding in front of us! We're all SCREAMING LEFT LEFT! Brakes coming on! Through the corner... Lost John's wheel... We're into the last corner everyone one going full gas! Sprints are on! We never caught Bubba, and I finished where I needed to be two corners ago... On John's wheel! That Sucks... I hate making stupid moves! One down two to go...
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Up next the Time Trail... Report goes as follows....

Fu#&'n Bee!
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Up next the ROAD RACE! This was an early one... AM start... Good and Bad... Bad up at 5am. Good... Done early. Met John at his hotel for Breakfast... Hmmmm Pancakes and eggs... Looks good John! Hmmmm, I'll have some Oatmeal. We down our breakfast, and we're off. Get to the Race with plenty of time... For what ever stupid reason I just don't stress about warming up for a Road Race (especially the flat ones). We roll out neutral for about a mile... Left hander onto the course. Had I mentioned Bubba before! Swoosh 35 mph in an instant... Git in, shut up, hold on. We motor along for the first lap... Few attempts at a break, but nothing sticking. First laps are always a gamble for a break... Too many guys with fresh legs willing to chase things down. Second lap we roll by the feed... Tempo still high. As we make the right hand turn back onto the main road I see a group start to roll off the front... Looks like about 6 guys, and guess what! All the main Teams were represented... Not Good! There still close enough to bridge... Off I go... Up the left, on the line coming up on a slower rider... Move left a little... You know what I would call a "Center Line Fudge" about in my book 3 to 5 lines, just enough to get around one guy! I'm clear and starting to bridge... Then that familiar sound of a MotorCycle... Then comes the look, and the FINGER POINT! Back to the back DAVIS! Crap... Guilty! What could I say. Caught with my hand in the Cookie Jar! Had I mentioned before I hate doing stupid things.Drift to the back, take a few minutes to recover. By now the breakaway had open a gap that would be to hard to jump across by myself. So up to the front I went, and began to chase!
The bad part about this whole deal was that the power in the Peleton had guys in the break!
Any Help? NOT!... Soon Nelson and John came up to try and help. We kept the pace high, and began the slow process of trying to pull the break back. VOS had put a guy near the front (great tactics) he wouldn't pull, and did not try to interrupt the chase (very professional), he was always willing to let us back in line. This Cat and Mouse game went on for the last lap and a half.
We were able to bring the gap down, and finally a couple other smaller Teams came up and, started to help with the chase. As we came on to the rollers, I gave it one more effort hoping John and Nelson could stay near the front. Might still be able to pull a top 10 for the DBC.
Into the last roller to the finish line I finally popped, and resigned myself to finishing at the back of the group. Good Finish? Hmmm maybe not! Good Racing? You bet! Being in the break would have been awesome! Deciding to try and do something about it... Priceless

Ciao...