Bleah!

Did the worlds at Westlake last night... well, I raced stupid making loads of mistakes. We had about a dozen Spin guys in the field of about 40 or 50. Here is the list of my sins...

I knew where the back of the race was almost all night... cause that's where I was sitting.

I got up close to the front right as the field was splitting. I saw Derek, one of my team mates was on the move, so I sat up. Yes, I said ONE of my dozen or so team mates. I guess I'm not used to racing with team mates... cause I actually was thinking something about not wanting to chase Derek down. Of course, he was only about 10 feet in front of me when I pulled off... and I may have been able to actually help him had I continued across the gap.

No sooner had I let that go, than I returned to the back marker for a while. Paul Martin was still back there... so I figured we were comfortable. He'd bring the move back with a patented PM 30 per pull. I saw him moving to the front... but didn't follow. Then I watched him jump... and no one was on his wheel. I was still sitting at the back.

A few of the team were then working to hold the gap to the split constant. We had about everyone on the wrong side of the split... and I was still sitting at the back. Then I saw Derek had come back to our group. So... I finally got my head about me, and went to the front to work. We got about 5 or 6 of us pulling, and we were making progress... until they rang a prime lap. We continued to work, and then some guys went for the prime. John Bodell was there for us, but couldn't get around Bob Fernandez. That pretty much killed our motivation to pull, if we were going to get jumped for the primes.

We still managed to keep the split reasonable. Mostly with some help from some unattached guys. All the fast guys were in the split... except Tom Frueh, who had flatted, taken a free lap and was sitting in our group. Well, Tom didn't like our group so he decided to try to bridge across... and a Saturn of Columbus guy went with him.... so I decided to go also. Ah! A decent decision. I made it up to the Saturn guy... just as he blew up. So I came around, and tried to grab Tom's wheel... ever so close.... then Chris Riccardi and another guy came around me... and I still hadn't made it on the wheel. When the three guys got together, the gap started opening. I tried to get the Saturn guy to help. He took one pull, and then said he was done... the whole operation took almost a lap... and I was cooked. So I again went to the back.

They rang another field prime. It looked like the Saturn guy was working with Fernandez to lead him out... and I was pissed enough about the last prime to sit on Bob's wheel...then surf to the Saturn wheel when Bob wasn't on it... It was cool to see how they worked it to end up right where they wanted to be at 500m. Saturn pulled Bob and I to the front... Bob saw me on his wheel so he jumped at 400m. I followed, and start to come around at 200m for a drag race... The head wind was a killer, so I fell back onto the wheel. I guess Bob thought he had it then, so he slowed, and I jumped again at about 50m.... and lost the prime by about a tire width. Stupid, I should have trusted myself a little earlier and made Bob really work for it the whole 400m. As it was that effort had him almost off the back for the next two laps.

I screwed around a little, more... but mostly stayed at the back. And that's how it ended... Everyone thought they could win the sprint for 25th place, I decided I didn't need to risk that...and I rolled in about 200m off the back.

The good news is I rode harder than I would have alone, and I can come back and try again next week. I should remember to bring my racing brain along though. I feel better when I do...