Uh.... I've got milk on my face???

In an effort to NOT procrastinate... I'm going to keep this short. Plus, my result was not stellar, though the team did well again.

I did the 2/3 milk race on Sunday. I showed up late, enough time to register, relieve myself, and barely get to the lined dressed. The team was great and pinned my number on while I straightened out my clothing so I could race the 50 miles in at least some comfort.

I took the first lap to warm up while Dave, Pete and Brent did all the work for the team. We had 8, and only the three of them did anything like race their bikes. One of Dave's attacks was nullified as much by the official chastising for the yellow line rule as any concerted effort of the pel. And being rather toasted from working like crazy, Dave drifts back and asked me if I could, you know, maybe help out a little. Oh yeah, this is where I'm supposed to be in a RACE that I PAID to do.

After an initial whine "I'm trying", I actually do try and go to the front for some more work.... and find I can actually participate. For the next three laps, I raced my bike. I followed some moves. Patrol when Aussie Rob (who Dave also asked to help) went off the front. Basically, work with the team. It was good to be there and help as I could.

I followed one split with a few danger folks in it, though only 5 of us, out of 15, were working, so the Carbon guys called it off. I thought we were caught there were so many sitting on... Dave ended up bridging to that move right about when we called it. At this point I decided it would be OK to drift back for some recovery.

At some point, a group got up the road. I'm not sure if we had anyone up there yet, but I decided to try to bridge. A Cat guy followed me but wouldn't pull through.... so after burying my self for a while and not getting there, I sat up. Then the Cat attacked me. Of course. So I jumped on that and he also didn't make it across. I was pretty sure that I would be fine for the remainder of the race, as long as I controlled my efforts. Another short recovery session.

A bunch of guys got across to the front group, and it included Aussie. I followed another move, which ended up having Dave, Justin and myself in it. Somehow I ended up on the front, and with Dave's encouragement, I went to work HARD. I knew then I would not make it to the end of the race, but I figured I'd throw everything into this effort. What would I consider success.... making it to the end with the field, or contributing everything I had for the team and possibly throwing myself away?

I decided I would throw myself away. Every time I came off the front I would recover for a short bit, then go back up there and pull as hard as I could. Until we were caught, with a bit over one lap to go. Dave and I discussed that Aussie was still up the road, and if we were chasing him or not. There was a rather large group up there... between 10 and 20 maybe? Was it in our interest to put all our hope in Aussie?

Looking ahead, we were coming into the base of the only appreciable hill. I got concerned.... If I could get over that with the group, I'd be alright. Unfortunately, the work had taken it's toll, and I was 50+ meters off at the top. I chased but the gap was going the wrong way. I chased hard for the remainder of the fourth lap, until it was obvious. I did contemplate a 10+ mile cool down lap, but figured that would be a good way to get lost. So I took a DNF. I have not DNF a race ever before this year, and now I have 2. At least in this one I raced my bike hard, and the team had success, as Aussie Rob once again raced smart, and sprinted for third place. Congrats to Aussie!

This is really just training for me know anyway. It was a 2 hour effort. I figure it as a warm up, an hour+ of hard work with some recovery and a cool down. About as long as a cyclocross race, and cyclocross starts in 3 weeks. So my season is really just about to start.

Enough procrastinating.... back to work.