Crash bang boom

I'm about to complain.

The day started out on a positive note (the security guard in my garage had jumper cables to start the dead battery in my car), and I got out to Chantilly in enough time to get a quick warmup on the trainer.

I know there are a lot of reasons to stay in the front of the group during a race. The winner stays in the front, riders in front don't get crashed into, breaks come from the front, corners are less contested in the front, and so on. Given that I know all these things, I am an idiot for not staying in the front of the group today at Syn-Fit. I was sitting in at about 20th for the first 8 or so laps (of 18 in the Cat 5 race), and just as I was making a pull towards the front, a break got away. So I helped pull it back with one of the Whole Wheel guys (Whole Wheel dominated lunch, by the way). In all honesty, I didn't do too much work, and I suppose that's what turned a potential gap to the break operation into a reel in the break with the whole damn pack operation. I let myself sit back for a few laps, and that's when the shit went down.

By "the shit," I mean the rider about 8 feet in front of me. I was pretty sure the sad little carbon frame in front of me would pull me down with it, but I managed to squeeze the hell out of my brakes and hop out of my saddle in enough time to step inside the downed bike's front triangle and hop the poor sap on the pavement like a cyclocross barrier. So that's what I get for riding in the middle of the pack.

I foolishly didn't pull out and explore my free lap rule options and worked my ass off to bridge the 8ish second gap back to the group. I tried to work with a couple of guys--another unattached rider and an ABRT guy--to bridge back up, but they only seemed interested in the idea when my nose was in the wind. If I'm pulling 25mph in the front of the paceline, please have the courtesy to do at least 23 when I peel off. That was me complaining. I was making a second or two of progress in the next couple of miles, but at some point--round 3 laps to go--I remembered I'm racing tomorrow too. Slow down, Rich. These legs have other things to do this weekend.

So now I'm refueled, resting my legs, and ready to give it another go tomorrow.



First, I just have to figure out how to cut $40 billion from the defense budget (and use "up to" 15 pages to defend my choices).

Listening to Miike Snow's remix of Vampire Weekend's The Kids Don't Stand a Chance.