Time to toughen up

Snelling M 123- my goals were modest, and luckily so- to stay on for one lap out of five.

The first lap went by quickly, but nothing too crazy, I stayed sheltered on the lee side and tried to avoid mishap.I must say, the masters ride exceedingly smooth considering 100 guys in a headwind on a 15 foot roadway, a couple of small kerbumpity- bumps, but a big difference from the cat 4's.
We turned onto Keyes and I could see the lead fellows jumping hard up the hill, one unfortunate fellow dropped his chain, causing a bit of swerve and such and needing a sprint to get back right there over the hill, where I found a long single line of pain awaiting me.

I moved up about 20 spots in the line following wheels, but then felt like I was in a good spot and hung on, looks like I should have moved up more, I came off with the rest of the bunch from behind by the feed zone and was screwed sixteen different ways to Sunday.

Rode for a couple more laps, then just lost interest when a rain drop hit me and I turned left for the car.

Monday morning quarterbacking-
for someone that is reasonably strong in the wind I certainly have been riding poorly in it since I jumped in with the big fish.

I need to just hang it out there a bit more, push for the front of the race harder and let the natural aggression fly, a little less smarts and more legs would have kept me on for oh, I dunno, maybe another few miles?

Sunday I went out with Jimbo in the pouring rain for three hours,fenders, jackets, and bad attitudes a' bristling.... I think I speak for both of us when I say we will stew about this one for a while and hopefully learn our lesson....

On the flip side, the team rode well as a whole, several victories in different categories was very cool to see, and the juniors raced way hard, two of them taking falls and getting up and finishing very well, great stuff!