Vernon Hills Grand Prix

My buddy and I were talking last week and we came to the conclusion,
well he told me, in order to get better at racing you need to test
your self and see what you can do in and outside of races. With this
in mind I went in to this races with a some objectives. The first was
not to worry about winning because what is important to me is to test
strengths and weaknesses during the race. 2. Attempt break ways and
see how long you can hold them and then recover. 3 Watch wind and
pack position. 4 Weave in and out and move up and back inside the
peloton not on the outside.

So before the start the ABD guys (Chris, Jay, and Brandon) discussed
a strategy. But just like life things don't allways work as planned.
So I decided it was a good time to test my solo break. I jumped
about an 1/8th from the front and dug in as hard as I could go for the
first minute and from there I picked up a nice cadence and settled in.
On the 4th lap of the solo break I sat up to get caught by the 1st
chase group and then drifted back to the next group of 5. Jay and I
hung out for a while and I started to wonder if the 2 man group ahead
was thinking about getting away. So to test the recovery I bridged up
to close the gap and all was well. With this group of 7 or so it was
a lot easier to weave through what little pack there was.
Unfortunatly they were not working together and the guy who was
pulling us dropped off the front not to mention the road hazards of
Coltavia who forced another rider into the curb (I guess the just took
his training wheels off). The pace started to slow because it seemed
like no one wanted to be out front. The last lap bell rang and the
pace was still moderate and I was getting frustrated, even though I
was in a good position I really wanted a work out so I flew off the
front again but this time with out any snap. (Probably due to the
4.5hr tempo ride from Clarendon Hills to Yorkville the day before)With
a sram guy on my wheel and Jay right behind him all was well. I dug
in again and got to the final turn where I blew up and pulled off
where the sram guy, who for the life of him would not pull through
earlier in the race, was forced to be in front leading Jay out where
Jay swooped around snatching first. I looked behind me and there was
no one so I sat up and coasted in for a 5th place finish. Good job Jay!