Bring Down the Rain Part II- Hopkins Crit

First let me start by thanking Ted and Ben. It's always helpful to have teammates out there.

I was pretty excited for this one after my performance at Northfield. I guess I'm on form right now so I'll milk it for all it's worth. The race started out same old same old. Some attacks that didn't really get away. Then with about 12 laps to go Ben jumps and gets a pretty good gap on the field. I was hanging out in the back reserving myself for later. Once I noticed Ben up the road I tried to make my way to the front to block for him. Thing about Hopkins and it being square, it's hard to advance on the field. So after he was out there for a few laps I decided to be a little more aggressive to get up front. So after the group made it's way through the start/finish and around the first turn I decided to sprint up the inside to get to the front. This turned out to be too successful. As I approached the second turn I was concerned about cutting people off so I went real hard into the turn. Upon exiting I had created a little gap on the field and only soft pedaled for a little bit when some dude jumped on my wheel. Indistinctly I pedaled a little more until I realized that I was and idiot and sat up. I didn't want to help this guy bridge up to Ben sucked onto his wheel. He wasn't slowing down so I let him go. I figured that if he wanted to chase Ben down he'd have to do it himself.

Even though I let him go my actions created enough excitement to stir up the group and unfortunately bring up the pace. That wasn't good, my bad. Eventually the group brought Ben back. Sorry Ben. My intentions were good. It was my experience that sucked.

Note to self: Next time in that situation be more stealthy!

At this point I was up at the front and everyone was getting rev'd for the finish. With a few to go Ben asked how much I had left to set me up for a lead out. Just as he started to set it up I got blocked and had to go around the opposite side to link back up with him. No dice!. :( I wasn't able to get back on his wheel 'til the next lap. Which worked out just fine. With one to go I launched off his wheel and jumped off the front right after the first turn. After making it through the back straight my legs started to feel it but I decided that I wasn't going to blow this for anything. As I made it around the last turn I looked over my shoulder to see how hard they were coming. Looked back up the road to the finish and buried the needle. I've never had so much fun racing in my long 17 year career of racing bikes.

This sport rocks!

Thanks:

Ben

Ted

Mike

The Fam

Everyone else who cheered (it makes a difference)!

My family

*Thanks skinnyski and Bro for the pics