Originally Posted by Allegheny Jet

26+ miles @ 25.1 average mph this AM after a good warmup. OK, it was a race with 45 other guys in my catergory. I did the Medina Twin Sizzler and entered the Expert 35+ race instead of my 55-59 age group. Our race left 4 minutes after the Expert 19-34 group and with 3.5 miles to go we caught that pack. Passing the other race group on a long 3% climb really impacted our race. Some of the first group jumped into our's making it difficult to know who's who. The 2 miles before the finish ended up being 30+ mph single line racing so moving up in the pack to set for up a sprint was very difficult. I got with 15-20 yards of the leaders but couldn't close the deal. With 1/2 mile to go we made a left, went up a little grade and across a bad RR crossing then made a right, then the finish stretch of around 350 meters. No one caught me from behind and I picked off two guys ending up 19 overall among all groups. I heard there was a 4 man break from the first group and that 4 or 5 of the first group were mixed into the front of ours. My best guess is I finished somewhere from 10 to 13th in the Expert 35+ race. I'll find out when the results are posted. I am very pleased with the result as a lot of the riders are Cat 2's and 3's and some may be as much as 21 years my junior. Last year was my first year racing and I entered the 55-59 race and got dropped on a defining climb around 10 miles into the race, not this year, I finished the Kennard Rd Hill climb in the top 10 riders and was even talking to a team mate at the top. So I'm done for the day and have some serious choices to make while I'm sitting at the computer drinking a Yenguling Black & Tan. Do I watch the National T& F Championships (where my sport roots are), the Tour, or Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Championship? Praise be DVR's.