Superweek - Block 3

Holy Hill Road Race
After a good rest day yesterday with an easy 2 hour ride, the legs were feeling good.  We made the trip up to Hartford for the noon start time with the weather looking a little dreary.  Crazy to think it was July 17th with the high only at 62, overcast windy and scattered showers to make it feel quite chilly.  I knew it was going to be a tough race by looking around the parking lot.  Kelly Benefits had guys, Ouch had a few, and of course all of the regulars of superweek were here too battle it out on the 8 mile circuit course.  Noon rolled around and everyone was lined up ready to go when we learned from the race officials that the Wisconsin state troopers were taking a lunch break for the next 45 minutes.  So while we all shivered around the start line, the troopers ate subway.  The race finally got away about an hour late and I focused on my position near the front.  There was a couple sections of cross wind, but I managed to make almost all the echelons that formed minus 1 or 2.  Since the yellow line rule was being enforced it was pretty tough to move up, but once I was there I did a better job at keeping my spot.  There were some early breaks that tried to get away but kept getting caught.  With a few laps to go a group of 10 got away.  I just missed that break, but the last 2 laps I sat 5th wheel and tried to get away a couple of times with some others.  With 1 lap to go 2 more guys went (Nick Frey and an Ouch rider) and no one seemed to want to chase them down.  With 1/2 lap to go 2 more jumped and I went with them and we weren't followed initially.  We had a gap we rode hard with the other 2 pulling through as well.  They pulled at first but in the last K they stopped working so I buried myself to keep us away.  I tried looking back a few times to see where the peloton was but could never tell if they were gaining or not.  Well they both beat me in the sprint but at least we didn't get sucked up by the field.  In the future I need to be aware of the approaching peloton more, becasue I was definaltye the strongest out of the 3, but at the same time I was terrified of getting caught at the line by like 40 storming riders.  I was happy with the result, with it being my best place of the superweek races I did.  A good confidence booster indeed going into Cascade and nationals.

Rest Day - Easy ride on tap and packed for the AM departure the next morning.