mattm

Thanks!

Did the Early Bird crit yesterday. Rode 30 miles to it, then did it, then rode home.

The 1/2/3 field is a mix of unfit 3's, semi-fit 2's, some seemingly-fit guys that I've never seen before, then me, a legit cat 1, and a neo-pro on Axeon.

I attacked a lot, if only to make the race hard on myself for training purposes. Legit Cat 1 of course attacked a good deal as well, and we were in a few moves together but they fell apart.

At one point towards the end, Legit Cat 1, a tiny junior that is strong but stupid, and I were in a break that probably could have stuck. Legit Cat 1 & I independently decided we would gift the kid the win if we stuck the break, but he kept surging and riding away from us, even though we were both yelling at him to keep it calm.. Once we had that gap we didn't need to go 30 mph, just hold 25+ and we'd be fine. We would've made that's kid's day (year?) but no, he had to screw it up!

The Axeon kid was in a few moves but seemed to be focused on screwing over the jr kid for whatever reason, so was annoying to be in breaks with.

It came down to a reduced field sprint but my legs were cooked. Legit Cat 1 & Axeon kid battled it out and the Axeon kid won.

The race was way harder than the real crit on Saturday! Training races are funny like that.