John Davies Memorial RR - 50 mile RR on a rolling circuit, field around 50. 3/4.
I had one teammate in the race, and he's felt like he hasn't been able to ride enough this year, and maybe now getting starting to get better. We had this race today, another 3/4 next weekend (our club's race) and then Scottish national masters champs on the 28th.
I had great legs today and suprised myself with how often I could load up and go. I was off with one other very briefly on the 2nd lap and then got a 20-some second gap on the 4th or 5th lap of 7. On the last lap, on a tiny drag halfway through, a guy attacked, and a couple of minutes later I just rolled off the front; field must have been tired. I got 10 or 12 seconds on the field, and he stayed just up the road as we turned into a cross tailwind, headed for the home with maybe 1/3 of a lap to go. I was slightly gaining on him, and for while I couldn't see the field, and I thought I'd stick it for at least 2nd, but they put in a late surge and I was caught with a mile or 2. They swept him up too. After all that, my teammate, who's been feeling subpar, road that armchair to a W, so that was an awesome consolation. Me=12th.
In hindsight, I was going great and go in some really promising moves, including the last one solo. The fact that I was able to sort of mix it at the finish and get 12th indicates to me I should have gone harder when I was away. I should have tried to push 50 more watts for those 6 or 7 minutes and maybe gained another 5 or 10 seconds. That could have been the difference between the field digging in or figuring I'd flown the coop. I might have tied up completely, but nobody's writing home about 12th place.