24th Best

Today was a beautiful day for a race at Whitnall Park in Hales Corners and the race couldn't have been run any better, of course I'm biased since my team (Wheaton Franciscan) ran it today. Unfortunately I couldn't race up to the standards I've set so far this year with 4 top-10 finishes thus far in my first 4 races. As I've been saying this week I was pretty much at about 70% all week with a head cold and some lung congestion and the lack of intense training this week and basically the lack of riding for 3 days out of the week really hurt me today. I felt maybe 85% this morning when I woke up and I had a quadruple espresso to put me at about 90% before the race started. I felt really good just sitting in the pack until about 4 laps to go and then I moved up to the front and by the bell lap I was sitting 3rd wheel coming around the 2nd turn. Unfortunately it all fell apart from there as I was following the wheel of Aaron, who is in 2nd place in the WCA standings and as we made the 3rd turn and went up the hill he kind of peeled off to the side and I was left out in front going down the hill in to the finishing straight which ends on the top of another small rise. As we hit the start of the finishing hill I completely blew up as I tried standing for the sprint but had no speed in my legs at all and I ended up getting passed by about 20 guys. The more that passed me, the more demoralized I got and I think by the time I hit the finish line I was basically coasting and could barely pedal anymore. Luckily for me the field was big with 80 riders, so starting at the front and getting passed by 20 guys still left me just about in the top quarter of the results. Unfortunately though I didn't get any WCA points. Aaron who was in 2nd didn't get any either but the 3rd place rider in the series finished 9th overall and so I'm now out of the lead for sure but still hanging on to 2nd in the series. I have no doubt that if I was healthy all week and was able to ride and do my normal program that I would have been right at the front in the sprint, but as it was I didn't do much to build up that speed in my legs this week. I do feel really good this evening and I think after one or two more days I'll be back to 100%. As it stands right now I don't think I'll be doing the 1st of 2 races next weekend as the time and traveling is probably just a little too much for the things I have to get done around the house. I'd have to drive from New Berlin to Reedsburg on Saturday and then back home and then on Sunday I'd have another long drive from New Berlin to Neenah and back. Basically I'd be looking at about 6-7 hours out of my day Saturday and 4-5 hours on Sunday and I just can't afford to do that right now. My wife's b-day is next weekend and so I'd like to be home one of those days to spend with her. Right now I'm still probably a little slow up the hills so I'm going to be heading to Neenah for the Crit I believe as that suits me better. We'll see though, maybe I can do something really nice this week for my wife to allow me to go to both races. Well, time to get some rest as I've been up since 5:15 this morning to help set up for our race. Until next time........