Leatherface and Sore Legs

The legs are bit on the sore side this morning after riding my third race, and first at the Cat 3 level, yesterday. It was a bit longer than the previous couple at 104k and the front group that I was in averaged a good 37km/h. As the race was in the area that the Texas Chainsaw Massacre was filmed in(Manda, Texas I think?) they had some fella dressed up like leatherface swinging a running chainsaw around to start each race.

Since getting caught in the arse-end of the group in my first race and finishing a fair way behind the leaders I had ridden the second race and the first portion of the race yesterday just plain scared that this would happen again. After about an hour and a few good pushes I realized that there wasn't a dirty chance in hell I'd let that happen again and started feeling confident and actually had some fun. I found Derek after a while and asked him how he was doing, he said he was hurting pretty good or something and then the next thing I know he's driving the bus at the front chasing attacks.
http://www.firstpics.net/gallery/7760108_hEbDU#501921407_ZKapK
(Derek hammerin')

Seeing this I got fired up and decided to put some work in and tried a few times to bridge gaps and join attacks that went but ended up bringing the whole group with me everytime. At one point we were cruising along a road with no center line and I noticed that a bunch of guys were riding on the wrong side of the road which I know from experience is a pretty big deal. The commissaire drove up alongside the group screaming and honking sending people to the back. There happened to be an all mexican team who must not have spoken any english as the guy was just screaming at them and eventually told them to get out of the race, but they had no idea what was going on and just kept on cruising and he eventually just let them carry on with the group..disqualified.

I was really pleased and surprised at how my legs were feeling, though, as the race went on and everything was smooth sailing until about half way through the last lap when a bunch of wild stuff happened. I got caught in the gutter in a cross-wind twice, draining the legs. Both times I figured that I was done as a gap opened between me and the guy in front of me, but the pace slowed soon after and I was fine. I tried to be smart, seeing the whole group aside from the lead echelon pinned against the yellow line and swung to the right of the road alone to start another echelon but that was a wasted effort as nobody followed me. Shortly after this I heard a tire explode and about 5 bodies and bikes slapping the ground behind me, and then a fella blew a spoke, making a racket, which spooked me a bit, too. But I made it through that and I'm in the last km with the leaders. This was my first go at a group sprint. THE CHAOS! I guess this is something you can only get better at with experience and lord was I shaky. The pace lifted and everyone started fighting for wheels. I jumped up to giver only to have a fella bump hips with me, knocking me off the road into the grass, which he actually apologized for after the race. http://www.firstpics.net/gallery/7760108_hEbDU#501925128_oSSck
(I'm coming up the left side of the pic with green and orange sleeves)

That was pretty much it for me, not that I likely would have had enough left in the legs to do much if I hadn't of been put in the grass, but I hopped back on the road and gave it everything I had anyway to get 20th. I'm not sure how many started but it was a hell of a lot more than that and I'm happy with the day. I really wanted to steer clear of grinding big gears, which I have a terrible habit of doing, and I also wanted to eat and drink more which I've been too nervous to do so far. I made sure of spinning a high cadence yesterday, though, and managed to take my hands of the bars long enough to put 1 clif shot into myself and a full bottle of water. I definitely needed more to eat than that and should have brought a lot morewater, which are mistakes I'll not make again.

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