that's racing

Not sure I even want to post on this but hey a top 10's not all that bad considering a big field of 100 guys all with their six shooters drawn. I think some guys had machine guns. We had ten guys in the field and ended up being pretty much decimated. Two crashes, a flat and a couple hitting the eject button early made for a tough day, but hey In N Out afterwards made it all better.
Head was in the sand most of the race and maybe focused a bit too much on being patient as that's been my biggest weakness among others. Fact is that by lap three it was just as hard to be in the gutter in the back of the pack vs. the front. I know that shit from the river ride - oh well. By lap four I was still just hanging and dropped back to give a teamie some food - had and extra Enervittene for backup. I always stock one of my bottles with CarboPro and Cytomax for enough calories for the whole race. Plus it does not litter up the course with gu or gel packs and its easy to digest. There is one notable team that I've seen litter in just about every race with those things, which does not help the racer's cause.
I was too far back to be a part of the second break, which looked like it had one certain angry rider, two Safeway and maybe one other. The only thing left to do was either attack or just hang out for the field sprint. Many guys hit the eject button on that lap and parachutes were flyin' everywhere. Got positioned up toward the front on the last stretch and was ready to take a pull or two if necessary to stay positioned. Luckily I ended up on the very left and last spot of the echelon the whole way. I was able to stay put, block the gutter and keep position. Pab was just to my right and CVC did a great lead. With only about 1K to go or so, the leadout gapped the rest of the field, which actually made it nice and safe. Now for the sprint timing. Two CVCs peeled and had done their job with their sprinter left at 200 to go or so - maybe it was 300? I think the mistake here was coming along side CID, not committing and then backing off just a bit thinking it was just a bit early. That killed my momentum just enough when the CVC guy (Bosch?) jumped and they got me by a bike length or so. Good news is that positioning was good down the bumpy stretch and my confidence is a lot better than last year at this time when it was my first race as Cat 3. Merco's gonna be an even tougher field with some SoCal dudes and most likely a better contingent of AMD guys - bring it on!