Holiday is Over Biyatches!

UCI race day #1 Southampton NY has come and gone and the team has definitley taken a few lumps. The fact that I have no UCI points dooms me to start in about the fourth row, meaning the back. I would complain more about how I was so far back and it was so hard to move up, but Ben Jacques-Mayne was dissed on call ups and started right next to me and T Wolf (Wyandt). The start was a long and fast pavement stretch which would dump us onto the course and funnel us down into a rocky dry stream crossing. Every one in front of me hit the brakes and we came to a near halt. By the time I hit that ditch, the front of the race was gone by about a minute. I was shut down by some sketchy riding and a hack-pass by Troy Wells on lap 1, what he was doing behind me with a second row call up I have no idea. Maybe it was because he was riding Wicks' spare bike which he was calling the "clown bike".

I struggled to find my rhythm for the first 3 laps and had a hard time moving up through the field. I could see Josh up the road in a big group and Wyandt a bit behind me. As I descended off the top of the course I could see that Ben had joined the front group and attacked it! He would be caught and finish up in 6th place. I got caught by a dude from Target training and as he rolled by me I focused on sticking to his wheel and attacking out of every corner. We started moving forward, caught Snead who had crashed and with 3 to go we caught a group which cointained six guys vying for 13-18th spot. I could sense they were starting a cat and mouse game and with 2 to go I attacked them and caught the dude in 12 place, hoping I would be able to split the group or even stay clear. When I looked back I had all but 2 guys on my wheel and no one would pull through. I sat up hard on the last lap and hopped on the back of the bus. I was dreading the sprint and decided to make one last move at the top of the course in a corner I had totally dialed, but I completely botched it and came off the back by two lengths.

I would spend the rest of the lap trying to get on before the sprint and was totally done when we hit the finishing straight. I was a bit deflated as I had ridden into the points and was too tired to sprint and would finish in 17th just 2 spots out of those all important UCI points. Really, though, just making it to that group was pretty huge and I certainly didn't hold back at all. I had the worst cross gut all night and nearly cleared out the super market we were shopping at with my 'King Kullen' gas.

Simon.