There was no rain in the forecast today, so I got back to commuting. I slept rather oddly, waking up at 5a ready to go only to go back to sleep and wake up late at 6:40 feeling really tired. But whatever, I did my best to get good sleep. The Hurricanes kept me up a bit late, but not too bad. The NHL desperately needs to get back on ESPN. Although last night's game was on NBC the rest of the playoffs have been on OLN and ratings confirm that almost no one is watching.

But I digress. The commute was lovely. The weather was perfect, with just the usual morning cool but not enough to make it uncomfortable. I was spinning along nicely a little faster than standard recovery pace when I passed the Vienna Depot. Just as I passed that, an Evo rider blew by me. I don't usually let that kind of thing happen, so I did what any self-respecting racer/commuter would do and flipped it over to the big ring and chased. I rode right in his draft through the entire Powerhouse stretch. We were turning 30 mph for the duration. After we crossed the road there, I took the lead up the false flat over the hump and on the remaining false flat. After that, it was his turn off, so he left me on my own. "Nice job," he said. "Thanks for the pull," said I. Good times. It's been a while since I picked up a guy rocking through there in the morning. The rest of the ride was pretty standard.

Will joined me on the way home. We rode our usual struggling to talk kind of pace riding side-by-side. It felt good and we chatted mostly about racing strategy and what kinds of racers we both are. I think Will would be more in the mold of a Boonen--a punishing rider who can climb the hills he needs to. I'm not sure what that makes me. So I'll take suggestions. Right now I just want results. After Will turned around in Vienna, my legs started to feel the pace a bit and I think I needed some food and drink. But I managed to get home ok and in time to clean up a bit for the Bible Study crew.

A dissappointment of the night was having my upgrade to Cat. 3 denied. I have 12 points plus 9 more from when I was a Cat. 5 racer. I was worried they wouldn't count those and I was right. I think it's stupid, but it's understandable. But less understandable since I was a 5 and only racing those races for experience. I'm pissed, but I guess I'll have to get out there and race hard in time for Toona. And I should say that I only care about the upgrade this fast because I want to race the 75 mile RR at Toona and not the 20 mile RR that the Cat. 4's are relegated to do. Otherwise, I'll keeping racing 3/4 fields, so I don't care.

As for Saturday, things are looking really great. Originally, John Larson, myself, and Steve Robinson were signed up for Pieffer Hill, but after an emeil to the listserve, a bunch more signed up. Brad Evans, Owen Hassig, and Tomas Quijano all signed on and as usual George Milinkovic is a VERY tentative. But that's a solid solid crew--the best I've raced with since Poolesville. I'm hungry for results, so hopefully we can work together and get a little something for everyone. This may be do or die this weekend with regards to Toona. I'll make the decision whether or not to try my hand at a crit in Richmond depending on the result Saturday.

Hills in the morning. And boy is this Sox game good . . . Santana vs. Schilling, then Nathan vs. Papelbon then . . . T12 now, I'm not sure I'll be up till the end. Crap. Grand Slam off of Tavarez. It was a great duel anyways.