See you out there.

I'm hunting for points, so my plan had been to abandon John and his green jersey defense and hunt for the break in the second half of the race; following the well-known strongmen like Paul C, Lance, etc.

I was also hoping to follow John's wheel in the final sprint if it came to that, but I made a bad choice - more on that later.

After a quick Jersey-drop & pin for our newest Kissena Ingrid we lined up and were off.  Nothing very exciting happened until about 20 minutes in when a large break (6 guys?) went up the road.  I was caught out but I thought "40 minutes to go they aren't going to stay away."

Still, as they continued to roll farther away and we continued to not-chase I began to second guess myself... this is "Floyd" after all...

As my unease was reaching it's Zenith I saw Patrick tear off the front in a bid to bridge.  Twin pangs of envy and relief assailed me; at least I wouldn't have to worry that the winning break was up ahead with no representation.

Still, I patrolled the front waiting for the inevitable bridge.  Gradually we field began to reel them in and before long a slender lad from Sids jumped out and I followed. 

I sat on his wheel and once I was sure we were away I encouraged him, "Dude you're going like a f-ing motorcycle!  What do you eat?!?"

As we closed the distance I saw a familiar green & white bike peel off the break and drift by on our left.  Patrick.  He'd been dropped from the break - that bridge must've been hell.

As Sids got me closer I came around and put some gas on the fire dropping him instantly and when I got to the break I went straight to the front to hammer.  I think we did a turn or two before the pack caught us.  Le Sigh.

I continued to follow breaks when I could; Paul and Danny from Axis took turns countering one another's attacks and I chose to follow one or the other so could rest between, but nothing was sticking.

At one point I went out alone and got a great gap, and settled into TT mode; far enough ahead of the pack to be hopeful but not so far as to discourage a bridge.  I stayed out there until I rounded turn three into a wall of wind and thought, "Jules you ignorant <BLEEP>!"

There were still three or four to go at that point.

At one to go I got a good gap with the Rockstar - tattoo guy after turn one and again I had that glimmer of hope that we'd stick it but with only one to go everyone will chase... and they did.

My last mistake of the evening happened here; I looked around and saw Danny from Axis and got on his wheel expecting the late, "long attack."

Sure enough after turn three he turned on the gas but was still in the saddle - I figured either he was trying to get away or was winding up for his sprint way, way out... I decided then & there that he was my wheel - late attack or sprint... be neither came to fruition; he peeled off before the final turn and that was it for me.

John lost some of his green jersey points margin but finished 4th.  Next time I'm following his wheel, if I can find the courage.

Just got back from FBF. Damn that was hard. They combined fields so there were about 40 folks racing for 5 places. 

The race got off to a fast and furious start, and I was definitely a part of that action. The were splits everywhere and I was having a hard time recovering and missed the big move with 2 Alexander brothers (Foundation) Jermaine and a few others. 

Then the Evan and Kyle Murphy got away with a few others and formed a chase group. I missed it. 

The chasing was ineffective and the field was starting to shatter. Mostly cat 4s left and a few cat12 sprinters. 

Eventually, Michael Boardman and I got to the front and took turns leading the chase. We got a tiny bit of help from United who wanted to bring back the chase group but not the break. 

We caught the chase group (I was surprised!) with 2.5 to go. With one lap to go Me, Boardman, and Lance got a gap and worked together. I won the sprint. For 6th. 

It was really tough. Good to be out racing. 

Yeah, that.