shame on me

Strange race for the Memorial Crit in the p/1/2 today. Felt like no attack was going to stay off, but I kept waiting cause I haven't been in one that hasn't had a break stick to date (admittedly only four races). So I go with the first attack of course, mostly just to get a wake up call, but it took me over a lap to catch Paul Penn and others so probably wasn't advisable.

Decided to sit in for a bit, and for a while the pace was really slow, which made me nervous. Halfway through we had some hard laps as some attacks started to look dangerous. I managed to bridge up to a big one of eight riders that I thought had a chance, with Riggs and other team representation, but that got caught.

Finally, with less than 10 to go, the real attack went. I didn't give it much attention at first cause it didn't have Lombardi or the one BMC rider, or VMG, but they got a big gap in no time! It was Coble, Vince Owens (always finds the break, maybe he's in all the breaks), Reaney (CalGiant, with alot of teammates), Paulsen (Safeway), DeltaVelo.

With 8 to go, there was a lot of fragmentation, and I managed to get into a four person break in no man's land but it wasn't working too well together. Still, thought that will all the teams not chasing maybe we could stay away. As I was getting worried, a blur of the white and black VMG kit came flying by. This is the US national youth development team, Eric Riggs and Dan Halloway. I was able to jump on their wheel thinking this was it. I usually like to think I work hard in these things, but now I'm thinking there was two of them, Riggs can win this thing: let THEM do the work. I pulled some but tried to conserve and now we're at 2 to go!

Riggs sits up with 1 to go and I let Halloway pull me. I do take a short pull on the back stretch, but I never looked back I figured we were clear of the field and then we see the six in front of us. I'm all proud of myself thinking I could get into the top five, maybe better. While thinking all that through a BMC jersey comes flying by me on the left, then a bunch of other guys. We had been caught! I had no awareness at all. I could have worked a bit more too.

They semi caught the break too. Four of the six finished ahead of the field but that was it. Coble was caught. Vince Owens, soon to be a Cat 1, got third.

Lesson learned. Be more aware and don't be so selfish I guess. Lots of fun though. Andy JacquesMaynes just about killed himself headlong into tree in that last turn. Hope he's OK.