3rd....And A Little Worse......

Well, I had my best result of the year this weekend and also the worst result!!!! I placed 3rd in the Whilly Street Criterium in Madison although I should have absolutely won the race. I realized as the 40 minute criterium progressed that I was feeling great on the day and that the pace was slow enough that a break would work with either 1 or 2 laps to go, so I went for it. I tried to position myself to take off with two laps to go but right at the end of the 3rd to last lap a Chronometro rider took off and the pack let him go, which turned out to be a perfect setup for me and I knew it right away. We let him get about 15 yards ahead until the last lap and then we caught him on the back straightaway after the 2nd turn, and just at that moment I took off and had a 10 yard gap going in to the 3rd turn. As I took the 4th turn in to the finishing straight the gap was down to about 5 yards and although I gave it my all the pack caught me just as I hit the line, with only two riders nipping me for a disappointing 3rd place finish. Yes, 3rd is disappointing because I should have won it, I probably could have stood up to sprint for a few more seconds but the body was saying "no way!". I should have suffered just a little more regardless but I guess I'll just remember that next time. Anyway, I got a few USCF and Wisconsin Cup points and a little money to make it a good day. The second race was not so good to say the least, as after avoiding about 7 other crashes I got caught in the last crash going in to the finish straight on the last lap. I haven't raced a Category 4/5 race this year yet and after today I won't race any more this year, as they are way to squirrelly and they race like they've never ridden a bike before. I was extremely disappointed as I was in 6th position coming out of the last turn and the guy in front of me cut it too wide, hit the curb, and then bounced back in to my path and I went down with about 5 other guys. I am now completely scraped up from head to toe as I have road rash on my ankles, knees, hips, hands, elbows, and shoulders and also a sore neck and head because someone ran over my head which cracked my helmet. As far as bike equipment, I obviously need a new helmet and other than needing my rear wheel trued, everything else made it unscathed. Overall, I'm a little sore but will take a nice 30-45 minute ride with the wife tonight to loosen up the joints and then I'll resume normal training tomorrow. Here are some nice pictures of my oozing road rash sores..... nice, hey?