Lago Vista Blues Part I of II

Heading into the annual Lago Vista I had high hopes for some good results. My legs were feeling really fast Walburg/Pace Bend weekend and I wanted to earn some spending money before I head off to team camp.

Going off the start line I knew that I needed to be more patient. I had my own little pep talk and knew what I needed to do to get a result. As the race rolled, I was very surprised to see a split of about 15 riders go up the road in the first 3 minutes of the race. All the teams had some people in the break and I was stuck at the back with no way to move up. I watched the mass of people quickly get out of site up the road. There was no incentive from any team left in the group to try to get the break back. The race was pretty much over at the start. I sat patiently in the field for the next couple of laps. It was not till the break was close to 3 minutes up the road that the group finally felt like they wanted to start racing. As the race started to intensify I could feel that my legs were in a "not so fresh" condition.

Somehow I was caught sleeping the pack when the big chase group got away from the group in pursuit of the leaders. Once that second group started putting some serious time on the group I started to become very jumpy. I started to work with some guys at the front of the group during the long cross wind uphill section of the course. I was trying to keep my chances alive. I quickly realized that I started to do a little too much work. I could feel my legs starting to get very sluggish. I was trying out a different tactic, When a group would attack and go up the road I would wait till they got a solid gap. I would then sprint across and bridge solo to them. I did this 2 times, which would end up shocking my legs as well as lead to me and that group getting quickly run down by the pack. Finally with 4 laps to go I was sitting in the gutter as the pack moved up towards the top of the hill. Race was over with me. I did too much work and did not have anything left in the tank to go with any late race attacks. I lost connection with the pack and finished off the back in 26^th place. I could tell my form was a little off this weekend. Which is 100 percent due to the insane amount of schoolwork that I found myself doing. This work carried over into my training and prevented me from riding for many days.