I've been waiting and waiting for all the mileage and hard efforts to catch up to me. I've also been waiting to find a race where I couldn't fair well on pure strength alone. Today, I found both. I lined up for the 4/5 race not knowing what to expect, but fully willing to make pace if the race was slow and boring. From the gun, it was faster than I've seen in the MABRA area races. It was also my first combined field in a MABRA race, so I think that had something to do with it. I never had to worry about getting the pace up.

Even in the warm-up, I hadn't been feeling very strong, my HR was elevated and my legs weren't sharp. I didn't feel as strong going up the hill as I might have usually. But I was going to give it my best effort and had no intentions of backing down. Without remembering a great deal of specifics, the race went basically like this: I attacked many many times. I attacked after each of the four primes and even attacked hard and early enough on the fourth to win it.

The Harley guys (Jose and Steve) were great about trying to work a break. I think they wanted to see it succeed as much as I did, but never could get anything near enough to be dangerous. I just didn't have the strength to keep us away. I should have been smarter and become resigned to the fact that we'd end in a field sprint, but I was stubborn and kept trying to get away. I don't feel as if I've raced unless I attempt a break, but in this one, I think I tried a little to hard. Without great form, I had no chance to stay away today.

Even with all that attacking, I was in decent position for the finish. I found myself on second wheel coming up the hill and gave it all I had. Unfortunately, that wasn't nearly enough and I was passed by many riders. I finished 6th of all the Cat. 5's. This was a very disappointing result. But this course and this race just weren't my style. In the future, I need to recognize this quickly and change my stategy.

I wasn't feeling so hot after the race, but after talking with a few other Coppis, I decided to put myself on the waitlist for the 3/4 race. I was eligible for the 3/4 race because the 4/5 race was my tenth and I'd already received the upgrade sticker in the mail. I was anxious to try my hand racing with the 3's, but I wish I could have started with better legs.

Seeing as I wasn't on good form for the 4/5 and now my legs were trashed, I knew I wouldn't race to win and I decided to do everything I could to help the team. After the first few laps, I made my way to the front and planned to cover every break as best I could. Time and again, I countered even the smallest break. Nothing got very far.

Coming up the hill with, I believe, 3 laps to go, I was riding next to Bill Gros. He told me to go hard up the hill and see if anyone went with me. I did just that, sprinting all out up the hill and past the finish. I brought three guys with me from different teams. We went through one round of a paceline before the other guys gave up and fell back to the peloton. I decided to see what I could do and stood up to get away a bit further. At this point, I was so tapped out that I knew I had absolutely no shot of doing much, but I did it mainly to put some pressure on the field.

When I was on the backside of the course, I was riding solo at only 20-21 mph at one point. That was very slow considering the race averaged 26+mph. I knew then that no one was really concerned about me being away and they were all saving it up for a sprint finish. I enjoyed my moment in the sun and then succumbed to the field closing in on my just before the hill going into the bell lap. I tried to stay near the front and go for my best finish possible.

By then, however, I was pretty zonked and really didn't have much spirit to fight for places, but I gave it my best effort and hammered up the hill one final time. The sprinters really took off and I had lots of folks going by in the last 200m. I have no idea where I ended up.

This was a more pleasing effort than the 4/5. I was able to contribute something, however small to the team goal and I gained a lot of experience racing with strong riders. The pace for this race was nearly 2 mph faster than the 4/5 race and it was a lot smoother. Of course, it was smoother because I didn't attack so often!

After leaving the race, we drove over to Poolesville, MD to recon the course for the race on May 6th. The loop is 10 miles with a one mile section of gravel road. I had a lot of fun on the course and I expect a very exciting race. I was so tired when I finished riding that one loop though that I know this week I'll be taking it as easy as absolutely possible. No hills on Wednesday for me and no commuting tomorrow. Unfortunately, I do have a VO2Max retest Monday. After that, I'll be watching the HRM very closely and giving my legs a rest.