Superweek: Round 2 | Day one

In the video, I'm seen between the two leaders. Video quality isn't great, but you can see me chugging up that hill!

Whew! I shake my head in disgust as I remember that race today...I quit early. It's that simple. I lost at least one, maybe two places because I COASTED--stopped pedalling--before the line. Actually, I thought I quit at the line, but it was the WRONG line. And I am dumb. Why race my butt off for an hour and 25 miles worth of racing to give up one half second short? You can see my legs just hanging there while Carrie's telling me not to quit. If this video had better resolution and slow motion you can actually see the line I sprinted to, me realize my mistake and flail to make it up and throw at the line. No dice. 5th.

What's the difference between 5th and 3rd? A really big deal? Just $10? We'll see.

Here's my dim recollection of the race:
It started out aggressive, more so than I was giving credit to a 3/4's race. There was a steady incline after the first turn and a brisk start and an attack on the second lap dropped quite a few in the back. Then a crash on that same hill in the fourth (?) lap, left a lot of racers scrambling to hang on. Prime laps in the second half of the race mixed it up some more and a field of 40 starters was reduced to about 15 in the front group.

On the bell lap, a girl jumped in the start/finish and made a final attack attempt. I recognized its potential and quickly grabbed her wheel and tailed her up the hill. On the backstretch I expected her to lose steam and didn't want to get caught pulling the pack through the last two turns. I gave up my 2nd place position and let an Atlas girl who'd won two of the prime laps get on her wheel and another girl who'd done good attack work in front of me. I felt good about my fourth hole, considering a long, uphill sprint after a fast downhill last corner.

As we turned the last corner, my wheel (the girl in front of me) started to let a gap form in front of her and at that point I conceded to be sprinting for 3rd. "OK, third's OK, do it right....wait....wait....not too early....OK! NOW!" and I went and was worried about having jumped too late. I wasn't getting around her. I kept on until what I thought was the line. And the rest is disappointment.

New day tomorrow!