"Pancake" Stage Race

This weekend was the Pancake Stage Race in Indiana, and they weren't kidding when they said pancake, there isn't a hill in sight.

Day 1:

The course(RR):
15 miles loops, first half - tailwind, second-half - headwind. Pretty strong winds. Length -5 laps(75 miles) Field - 35 riders

The RR:
I wish there was a most aggressive rider award cause I would've gotten it. Today, I was our teams "breakaway" guy, which meant I had to be on the front following attacks from the get go. Right off the gun I saw Tom Burke, a good man to watch, attack in the very first K. I went after him with one other guy and the three of us worked well together from there, putting over 2 minutes on the field. After one lap, I looked back and the field was about 30 seconds behind. I was definitely the weak man in the break, and the truth of the matter was, either I skipped a couple pulls or I was getting dropped. I was on the rivet ever since we got out of the headwind. I opted to getting dropped and waiting for the field, the more demoralizing option, but it turned out to be the better choice. The two riders stayed away for the next two laps. Finally, when the two riders were about 40 seconds in front of the field, I told Chris (same team, same team), to sit in and recover while I took hard pulls on the front in the head wind section of the 3rd lap. I don't want to brag and say I pulled them in by myself, but basically I did just that. I got them within 2o seconds and the field took over from there. A series of attacks went off when the break was caught, but nothing seemed to be sticking. Big Ray got off the front with 2 laps to go, however, with one other rider, and I knew I couldn't let that go. I jumped up with one rider on my wheel, and started the second of two breaks of the day. We dropped a guy right away, so 3 of us worked hard to put the field out of sight. A big thanks to Chris and Rob for blocking for me while I was away. John Rigdon flatted early on in the race, where Eric and Alex went back to bring him up to the field. Unfortunatly the pace quickened in the field, and they never made it back...

With a half lap to go, I thought I had the win. I knew I could beat both riders in the break in the sprint. I was already riding this blog entry in my head, that's how confident I was. My legs were cramping big time in the last headwind section and I knew if I stood up to sprint, me legs would seize. So I attacked with 1 km to go, starting my attack a few bike lengths behind so I could ramp up my speed before I passed them. It worked! I was in the clear! But then my legs seized up and I lost. 3rd for the day wasn't too bad though, best cat 1,2 result yet. Big Ray took the win and the other guy got second.