RATL#3 No Howitzers, lots of guns!!

Isnt weather always a part of spring racing in Ohio? All year for that matter. Today dished up rain and low 60's. The nly decision was knee warmers or no for me. I went with, but sort of regretted it, not that it mattered.

About 23 A racers at RATL with good representation from all local teams, but no Howitzers like PM or Grimm. Lots of guns, no heavy artillery!! Zak and Tris are the first break of two laps.

Pic by R. Sroka

On lap 6 the pace was starting to level out so I rolled right off the front casually and Dan Quinlan caught my move and we started to pull up then down the hill and through the parking lot. Dan loved to kill it through the lot. This time he sprinted one end to the other. Nuts!! I tried it later too so maybe nuts for me to.

I am not quite sure the particulars, but I think first to bridge was Andy Moskal now of RGF and Batke my teammate. Once this combo was together I almost got dropped and felt horrid for a lot of laps. Just weak. I was going all out in my mind, but I wasnt keeping up or able to pull through.

Someone in the peloton said Shawn Adams of Team lake Effect and Tris (another team mate) were next to go and bridging for quite some time, but once we ballooned to 6 the pace got easier and we were gone from the field. In fact it didnt seem to take too long to lap two groups of riders in large groups. Up the finish hill Shawn attacked for a prime and we all caught on but Tris, but he caught us that same lap.

With three to go I attacked through the parking lot thinking maybe I had recovered, but I didnt and got dropped up the hill that same lap. Luckily the pace wasnt too hard and I never stopped going as hard as I could (which wasnt very fast) and I caught on eventually too.

With 1 to go we had the numbers so first Tris attacked before and through the parking lot and I attacked down the hill to the bridge, but my legs gave out quick and i didnt even make it to the bridge before sitting up. I rolled in slowly and watched Brian start his sprint on the left, but from the back of the group of 5 and still got 2nd. I watched it from about 100m behind and thought he had won. Tris got 5th and I got 6th. Andy too the win.

So although we didnt win the break, we did put our whole team into the break which is pretty cool for me. I dont know why I had such pitiful legs today, but I guess it didnt matter since I launched the winning split and we got 3 of the 6 paying spots. And I got another point for my license!! I wanted 3 or 4 points today, but I had unwritten duties as team mate to uphold too. Weakest guy cannot dictate the team tactics. Maybe it was the wind and rain that got me. For sure my after race download showed me with the most time in Tempo and Threshold HR in a crit this year or maybe last. Usually theres a lot of Zone 2, but not today-it was almost 100% Z3, Z4. Being in a break for 15 laps I suppose will do that. Average speed was ~25.5mph which isnt bad considering how slow we were up the finish hill and other spots due to the wind.