The Results are in...

It was another windy, cold day for racing in Kirkwood but at least the rain past the night before. Waiting for the start is horrible in those conditions. Your teeth grind down to half their size from chattering so much. When the gun finally went off (at 10:50am) it was a go. The pace was fast but not like the first lap at Strasburg. The peloton held together in the wind pretty well too. No crashes even. We made it about 4 miles into the first lap and the pace slowed to a crawl. I decided to use this slow speed to move up to the upper third of the pack (the safest place to be). I was moving up nicely too. Then we made a right turn into a direct headwind of 20-25mph. I was caught with no one in front of me and no one letting my slip in. I drifted all the way to the back of the peloton. No big deal I thought. I was with Chad so I knew we would be able to move up at a better time. Chad and I were hanging back to stay out of the wind when a gap formed. The riders in front of us were letting the draft get away. In a headwind as strong as it was yesterday losing your wheel is a major no no. If you are hurting you suck it up until you are out of the wind and can recover. I didn't want a repeat of Strasburg so I jumped up to close the gap. The guys that couldn't hang on earlier amazing hung on and then refused to pull through when I wanted to peal off. I knew if I put a big pull in we would catch the peloton but did I want to use all that energy that early in the race? I had to. Chad was sitting about third wheel and couldn't pull through and those in front of him were content to let the race get away so I put the hammer down and big ringed it back to the tail end of the peloton. When I went to rotate behind I was too far in the red to hang on. I was in no man's land again but I got Chad back to the peloton where Jeremiah was sitting comfortably. I used the rest of the race as training miles. When I finished (40th) I saw Jeremiah and Chad waiting for me. They finish with the group and Jeremiah was close to actually being in the top 5 until he was run off the road in the sprint. Long story short 25th for JW, 26th for Chad, and a 40th for me.

Unfortunetly our women's team is done for the season. Mel accepted an offer to ride for a pro feeder team. She later found out she will be out all season due to a hip injury. Then Kim broke her foot. She is supposedly going to write an entry for us.