Da Beach

Had a great weekend. On Friday and Saturday did the beach/pool thing with the kids (I say kids because we went with our neighbor & her 2 kids). Saturday morning I did get out in the am for a 2.5' 145TSS ride. I felt great and just hammered with the horrible Hilton Head traffic. Spent the rest of the day lounging and drinking. I got a great rate at this resort by looking at THIS website and using Priceline.

Sunday I raced in Beaufort. Pouring rain and a very small field of maybe 30, with 25 real strong riders. Eric Christofferson and Scott Minor were the 2 heavily marked guys there and one's I was watching pretty closely. We rode fast with lots of attacking but there was nothing gonna get away with a field that's strong and attentive. Less guys also means it's easy to mark an attack as you're never boxed in. I knew that the only way a break would stick was if Eric AND Scott were in it so I let everything else go. Eric would let someone get a 5" gap then get on the front and TT them back...amazing.

It was pouring rain most of the race and I felt pretty sketchy at times cornering through a 4" river of water...lots of rain/spray and grit in the eyes. Bars slippery and hard to see. And we were really motoring the entire time. Coming into the last mile I was sitting 4th wheel as Eric hammered on the front and I sat up to look back to see where everyone was (esp Minor). Right then they slowed a bit and I overlapped wheels and really should have crashed...don't know how I pulled that one off but I ended up about 20' into the grass then back on the road and back into my 4th wheel spot. Wow...crazy, very lucky. Tom S. got the close up as he was on my wheel at the time.

Coming into the sprint I really wanted to attack from a ways out cuz I was feeling really good but didn't have great position being near the front and then a Carolina Masters rider flew by at about 600m. I went after him and probably would have won if I had gotten his wheel sooner but once I latched on at 100m I took a breath then started my sprint. I wasn't able to get around him and then Eric C came roaring by for the win. I got 3rd.

This week it's a few hard days, a couple easy days then two 80 mile road races on Sat/Sun.