Round 2

Ding!
Today was a delightful 80 mile frolic through the dessert, where it was hot and windy. Unlike way up der in da Nord, they start the pro/1 and the 2's differently (at least for this race). So the field was unfortunately not all that big.
The race itself was pretty normal. Hard at times, really easy (to easy) at others. For the first 3 laps (20 miles each) I laid low, not my usual jumpy self. I know I am not in as good as shape as these guys, since they have been racing for 2 months. I just hung out, sung some songs, that kinda thing. About 1/4 of the way on the last lap things picked up real nicely, the whole way back in it was a bike race, it was delightful. Sean got some new orthodics yesterday, and he said his feet were going to explode, so he had to slow up around there.
Anyhow, back to my race since this is my blog...Coming into the final corner I was in what was left of the peloton, 12 guys, I was on the far right of the road blocked in, the pace slowed up before the final rush before the finish. I took the opportunity to hit up the grav. on the shoulder to get better position. It worked, I came in 4th or 5th in the group sprint. I can't complain for my first real race of the year...
I don't have many complaints, but there are some things I did not like. First, people kept attacked through the feed zones, not just light attacks, but hard. That is not cool. The only other complaint was how sketchy some of the riders were, not looking around at all and such. On the first lap some cones got hit, just scared the pack thats all. The second lap coming into a different corner I yelled watch out for the cones, about 2 seconds later the kid right in front of me ran straight into one cone, stayed up, then blasted into a second, and flipped around. Luckily he went left instead of into me. I hope he is alright, he hit pretty hard.

The finish, I stole this from Nate.