Stage 1 (TT)- Goal was to keep my cadence up as much as possible and have an average HR of 191 for the race.  Was bang on my numbers for the race: average 191!  Happy with that.  Still got smashed: 36/81.  Boom- tough field.  Caught my 30s and 1minute men within 2 miles (the ascent) and had no-one to chase thereafter which was a shame.  I tried.

Zoom to the end.  Ryan makes what was easily the best attack of his racing career 10km to go. Legend.  Gets to a little over 1km from the finish before eventually being caught- such a hero.  Konrad was saved for the day and rode conservative throughout which meant he got a great 9th place with a strong final climb.  I came in 25s on him back in 15th.  Would much rather have been out front for longer and imploded on the climb.  At this point I will highlight that the race was in fact won by a two-man move that went 35 miles from the finish.  

5 laps later, same thing!  Luck ran out this time.  End-oed into a crash.  Got back up, thought that it was BS that I would DNF, scooted to the pit and then was 'inserted' back into the race by the referee.  For the remainder of the race I was mostly thinking about if my bike was going to work OK.  It did, thankfully.  So, managed to finish after 1.5 crashes.  Would like to have helped Konrad more but wasn't to be on the day.

After all was said and done, ended 17/81 on GC.  Whatevs.  Don't really care so much, would rather have attacked some more.  

For instance, my attack on Baby Gap was dramatic and exciting, but in retrospect I may have had a chance at riding into the top 5 by NOT doing it. I didn't plan on attacking. I planned on riding with Konrad up the climb. I just did it on instinct. Post KOM-sprint, fast guys sitting up gasping for air, field looking uninspired, steeper slopes coming...time to go!

It's just that on the whole at our level conservative riding seems to get rewarded more often.

The same could be said of Adam's racing. To be clear, I'm NOT saying that either Adam or I made bad decisions. The attacks were kind of textbook really. That said, I do feel a little like "damn, 3 in the top ten would have been bad ass." And its hard to look at the top ten and see guys that I have dropped on climbs on many occasions in front of me by 90 seconds. 

But I think you need to look at a few things here, in my opinion.  And again, to re-iterate that there probably isn't a right or wrong answer.  

1)The Cat3 fields are SUPER STRONG.  I am going to say that again: SUPER STRONG.  It is not like the 4s where if you just sit in a ride conservative you can gun it out for the win at the end.  Also, it really isn't like park racing where you can fake it by getting in the move and hoping that you can hang on for dear life when the big engines drive the break.  There is no hiding with 60-80 miles out on the road with thousands of feet of climbing.  Fakers need not apply. Of note, every significant race I have done this year has been won by the break (Battenkill, Killington Queen's stage, Purgatory, Tokeneke, Tour of Catskills Queen's stage [I didn't race in that one], GMSR circuit race and GMSR Queen's stage). To have even a 1% chance of winning, you NEED to go for it.  Simple.  There are always 2 or 3 guys in the field who are super strong, pretty much pro level.  They will ALWAYS beat you unless you go for it.  Also, ignoring the top 5 guys, but after the TT 40 guys were separated by 60s or so, never seen that before- strong field!

2) One can sit in, like Konrad, and do a great race and get a good result.  We mentioned it pre-race and figured that more or less, if any of our team sat in the opportunity for 8-12th place (and upgrade points) was up for grabs.  Konrad exceeded expectations and took a cheeky 7th- good work Bro!  But, realistically, that was the best any of us would ever get riding like that.  There was no-chance of a podium riding like that.  In our filed of over 80 there are simply 4 or 5 guys who are just man against man a bit stronger than us.

So, in our case, we really covered all the bases.  We tried to get results and win stages.  But, we also played a conservative race card to have some insurance and Konrad did a great job.  But, just to re-iterate, the races are so, so hard.  For us to be at a level to attack and shape the race, when literally over half our field are just trying to miss the time cut up App Gap and finish the crit is exceptional.  Also, we placed someone top-10, another top-20 and a third top-30 (out of over 80 riders).  In that respect, can't imagine how we could do better- we raced like animals and still got some good placings.

I was the first of our team over Middlebury, but there was no way I was staying with those two.

I caught the first chase group by torching the descent. Konrad got back on shortly after, and then a group Adam was in joined as well.

Although the attack from the gun may sound like a super crazy move, and 90% of the time it is, that stage was perfect for it.  Everyone was riding scared, so in terms of separation from the field it was relatively easy.  No-body would give you much hope, so no-one was that interested in chasing.  Also, the first 20 miles were slightly uphill.  For a solo guy that's golden as on descents the field goes faster than you without even pedalling.  This worked- Ryan was able to take a nature break and casually rejoin the field without much effort! That's how slow the group started out at, which we had discussed and knew was likely.  Also, in terms of me getting my ~60s, I was below threshold doing it (about 97% if you like numbers) so I wasn't in any danger of blowing up.  The problem was with the confusion.  Instead of me drawing out up to 2 minutes, or 3 after 5 miles, I slowed 2 times to "wait" for people bridging up (who were not in my field- a little help referee who was next to me on the moto??) and then when I was neutralised on a descent portion, a few miles before the sprint, that was it, the field easily took back their 60s.

To further explain the logic.  It would have been superb for a couple to come with me at the start, but wasn't to be. I didn't expect that either to be honest.  As a back up, although I was willing to go for as long as I could solo, the idea was that if I had stayed out until the first climb at mile ~25 and got over it with a gap, that would have put me in a great position to get caught by any leading group.  In this instance, it would have been the winning move.  Of course, this is hypothetical, but I was fully committed to the move.  Also would have had no shame whatsoever to get caught by the leading two and sit on their wheels.  Dude who attacks from neutral gets to choose when he pulls!

This race is really almost impeccably, organized, but they did mess up massively on that day by starting our field 5 minutes early. Then instead of stopping us to make up for it, they kept us neutral rolling literally 5 miles an hour for some time.

This resulted in a lot of leapfrogging of pissed off masters breaks with our field, and lots of neutralizing. I thought maybe this was the day where the guy with the guts to go out early would get lucky. 

Their four man break included the yellow and polkadot jerseys, and they were slightly ahead, behind, or beside us all day. Of course they believe that they ride perfectly, while the Cat III field is a mess, so we were never going the speed they liked. They were right, in some respects. But the real problem was not our speed - it was the underlying issue of race organization messing up the start times.