I am Jack's complete lack of strength

I'm weak. I'm coming to terms with that.

The 'B' training crit last night was really difficult for me. I almost got dropped and as I was closing a gap right at the back I got yelled at by an 'A' teammate helping with the race and then he shoved me forward and told me to get on that wheel.

I worked harder all race than I can remember and that seems to be the case for most of my races including the whaling city crit. This was a little different though, since I was just under my threshold for about 30 minutes straight. While that doesn't seem like a terribly long interval, it was during a crit so there were intermediate sprints and such thrown in. It hurt.

Right before one of the primes, I found myself on the wheel of teammate Dave C who looked back, saw my nod, and went. I got my first bonafide leadout, and it rocked rocked rocked.

I launched at like 28 mph into a headwind and got up to around 34.5mph into the headwind for the sprint. That was the last sprint I had left in me for the night.

I sat up after the first corner post prime. And the pack soon caught up.

I was a little beat up after the prime and breathing heavily through my mouth while making all sorts of wheezing-ish noises. I managed to recover enough to ride well again in 2 laps, and the 5 to go cards were put up soon after.

Since CVC had a LOT of people in the field, we had talked about doing a leadout at the finish, but an early attack by another rider strung out the field and the quicker pace had gassed a lot of people. I was one of those people, but I want to see how hard I can push myself when I'm in pain and so I came out of the last corner and started pushing harder.

There were a bunch of gaps opening up as riders were trying to get to the front. I took advantage of this by hopping from wheel to wheel, shielded from the wind coming on the outside, and then jumped when I saw no more wheels on the left but a few guys on the outside. Teammate Kim provided the launching pad, and I went as hard as I could go. It was a pretty pitiful attempt in all honesty, but it was still good for 2nd. I guess I can still muster up some gas when fried. That's good to know.

Biggest learning experience of the day:
Gaps that were once there might be gone by the time you find yourself filling them in.

Out of the 2nd corner towards the middle of the race, I was on the outside and I was coming around a few people on an open lane. I didn't realize it, but the inside was kinda squeezing out a little bit and I ended up bumping into a teammate who wasn't happy with it at all (duh?). Rightly so...

So note to self and others, watch for the outside or inside squeeze right before/during/after cornering. You don't want to be caught making a mistake when something like that happens.