Alright so it's been awhile since my obligatory blog post, but I wrote a 2 and half page Valley of the Sun story for the website last week so I figure I'm covered. Since it's been so long I've got a couple of race weekends to write about, even though about 1 day of all of them was significant.

A couple of weekends ago I went down to Orlando to do the Sanford and Lake Mary criteriums, the route of the former resembling a drunk stagger through the lakefront downtown and the latter a wide open circle in the heart of overdeveloped Orlando. While I would traditionally think that the wide open course would favor me the most, but it was in fact the technical course that gave me a better shot. Not to mention that from about 6 in the morning I woke up till about half an hour after my race was over it was pouring rain. While a lot of riders forfeited their 28 dollars instead of reducing the surface area of their epidermis, I bravely saddled up for the 70 or so minute swim around lakefront Sanford. Remarkably, there were alot of people who cornered worse then me, and I didn't have much of a problem getting to and riding on the front (except when it actually mattered at the end of the race). I did, however, have a problem with team Herbalife, who has decided this year to sign just about every bike racer in the state of Florida, resulting in nothing short of ridiculous domination. To make a long story short I ended up about 14th place.

There's not much to say about Lake Mary, mostly that junior gears suck on tailwind finishing straights.

Now for the much more thrilling Georgia Cup race in Albany, GA, a city that despite being larger than Gainesville, I've never heard of in my life. The two day three day format is usually better suited for an omnium, but the race organizers decided it would be much for fun to see everyone battle it out for 2 second time bonuses and made it a stage race. Anyways there was a 3.3k prologue, 60 min crit, and an 85 mile road race. I had a decent ride in the TT, less than 20 seconds down on the leader and I felt I could have pulled off much better. It was particularly impressive considering I missed my start time by about a minute or so, but luckily the transponders didn't seem to care and I got my normal time (or I'm really just that fast). I figure the fact that I had to pass a guy in the first 15 seconds cost me a place in the top 20. As for the crit, it was my worst performance of the weekend. Instead of being aggressive in the first few laps and working my way up, I got stuck at the back and spent my time just trying not to get dropped as I dealt with the exponentially increasing degree of difficulty as I slipped farther back. I consoled myself a little bit considering that I haven't had much practice in 8 turn crits with big fields and that there were a couple professionals attacking up front, but this type of racing defiantly need some work on my part.

As for the road race, it was probably the highest result I've had in a field that had a few big names (certainly more than the local Florida competition). I started out the day in near the back of the field, chatting with some friends while the group let a couple of guys get off in an early move. Being a little envious and wanting to get some fresh air, I half-jokingly remarked that I should go make a move myself. To my surprise I suggested that it wouldn't be a half bad idea, so I did something uncharacteristic of my wimpy riding style and moved up the sketchy shoulder on the right. I made a quick move and got a little ego boost when I was pulled back in by a Jittery Joe's rider. A couple more attacks followed, and I ended up riding up alone to another group of two. Feeling sore in the legs from they day before, I wondered what kind of suffering was in story if I was starting the day like this. The two up the road waited for me to bridge and we started working gradually to the lead couple even further up the road. With the leaders in sight, one of my companions broke a shift cable and for some reason didn't want to ride in his 11 for 70 miles. The other member of my group followed suit, and I was left to bridge on my own. Once I finally reached the two on the front, a rider from Tri-Star and a 40+ master, our chances looked grim. The field had stepped it up a notch and an attack of the front had made them hungry for blood. Miraculously, they sat up within about 200 meters and the three of us made a last ditch effort to establish a gap. It paid off, and within no time the group was well out of sight. After about 10 miles a pack finally appeared in the distance, but this time it was much smaller. To my surprise and joy it was a group of about 11 guys rotating like a well oiled machine and captained by de facto leader Tim Henry of Jittery Joe's, who got this status not by merit of GC standings but by the amount of baby oil on his legs. Anyways we rotated smoothly for another lap and a half, pausing only briefly to watch somebody crash as they made an attempt to take musette bag in the feed zone. With about 15 miles to go rotation began to stagnate a bit as the sprinter types, confident that the 4 minute gap would hold, decided to endure the storm of curses hurled at them and wait it out for the last 200 meters. Whether it was because I'm just a sucker or I felt that one less man working would throw the group into a real funk I figured anything top-ten would be great and continued to work all the way toward the finish. In retrospect I think I missed a great move at 1k, but I managed 8th in the sprint. I took pride in being the only junior that far up the road (and the only one still wearing knee and arm warmers), and gladly had the officials roll out my bike. The gigantic gap I earned in the road race should give me top ten in the GC, so hopefully I'll be getting a check in the mail sometime soon.

Anyways, this weekend is Rouge Roubaix, so I'm sure I'll have something to say about that.