Glad I Went

I'm still feeling pretty sore from the weekend but I knew I needed to get a good effort in today to loosen the legs and get an idea of how things will pan out for CHIN. I got home from work and slept until 5:30 which gave me just enough time to get ready and head out to the tuesday night rr, I'm surprised I woke up that early without an alarm. Looking back at tonight's effort, I feel confident and not so confident at the same time, let me explain. During tonight's club race on the Niagara Classic course I felt great, legs were good, breathing was under control and I was very responsive. However, there were a couple times where we would drive the pace super hard for a bit and I would get shelled, I think it happened twice. I fought hard to get back in the group and having my team mate Chown drop back a bit to give me that last pull back in to the group helped a ton because the last 50m or so away from the slip stream is the hardest to bridge, thanks man.

There was a group of two out front, Holtzman and Hopkins, and it took us quite some time to bridge. Once we caught them everyone sat up and I attacked and had a pretty big gap for a little while, that got shut down before our third time up Saylor's. Last lap Chown told me he was going to attack and I was to sit in and wait for the catch then go, a pretty standard team move that I just wasn't getting at all previously. He launched into a massive head wind and got a good gap quick, the small peloton that was left started echelonning and I was feeling good, pulled through every time while a few others were fading and just hanging on. I knew I would have a good kick once we caught him.

The deciding move of the race came when we caught him and as I was getting ready to go on the left Perry was going on the right so I got around the group, grabbed his wheel and we peaced. Maybe I did a little more work than I should have but I was feeling good and I really wanted to get away, and we did. Hopkins bridged before the bottom of Saylor's but faded halfway up where Chown came flying by on his cross bike and ran out of road before he could catch Perry, I thought Perry's attack was a little too soon on the climb but he had the legs to hold everyone off, nice.

In other news, I bought a dog, a border collie/lab mix, he's black with brown paws. I'm picking him up Friday after work, then it's a ballin' 2 weeks vacation! First week will be spent in Gravenhurst where I'm hoping to get a solid 4 pre-rides at Buckwallow and a long ass road ride before race day, the week after will be a big week at home, there will be a ride out to Hamilton to climb a few times.