It was hot when I clipped in for my ride to Floyd.  The kind of heat that made me think I was making a terrible mistake.  A heat made worse by red lights and idling buses, bumper to bumper traffic and no shade.

But as I got closer to Floyd, the smog helped block the sun, and with the first scream of a gull, I could feel the ocean cooling the air.  It might have been about 10 degrees cooler out on the course.  The course, with the cracked cement, potholes, stray pebbles ready to shoot at my face like a BB.

Charlie had the 3/4s line up in front of the 123s, which is unusual.  I clipped in next to Phil, Sebastian, Vladi and Chaim.  There were 25 of us, probably less.  Someone attacked a few seconds after the whistle.  This always sucks, and is the reason why it's crucial to get a good warmup, but also (sometimes) indicates it's going to be a lively race, especially when the attack is met with hard efforts.

The first couple of laps were on and off efforts and some fast pacelining, with an early sprint lap helping bring everyone's HR up.  And just as things were getting difficult, we were neutralized.  As I assumed we would be.

A small break from the 123 went passed at breakneck speed, and a minute later, the rest of the group.  We were neutral for a half lap, and when our pacecar picked it up, there was slight hesitation with our group, having enjoyed a casual ride together for a moment.

But someone threw down the gauntlet, and we were off again.

Small attacks went off the front, and breaks formed and were brought back.  Until a couple of guys went hard.  They managed a few bikes lengths, and then more.  We came around the first corner after the start/finish, I was in the lead paceline, maybe 6 back, and watched the front guy pull off and, instead of the next taking a turn to pull, they all snaked behind the first guy.  No one was going to pull.  I looked up the road and thought I saw a Kissena jersey.  Phil came up on my right, and helped me confirm, Chaim was in the break.  

At last, the skill of my soft pedal could be employed!  The problem with a small group, however, is that when a few guys pass you and you look back, no one is there.

Vladi and Sebastian looked very good during the race, and Phil was always up ahead of me, and towards the end, I started getting depleted.  I was feeling the heat and the race.  And though a previous lap had me chasing onto the back of the peloton, on the last lap, I shot passed everyone and was on the front, exactly where I didn't want to be (but it's so damned exciting!).  I got out of my saddle and moved my bike left and right, but no one took that bait, so I sat back down.  

At the second to last turn, once everyone had passed me(!), I found Phil riding along side.  We kept up a good pace and chatted as we turned the last corner, only to be confronted with a pile of people on the gound and a single front bicycle wheel shooting off to the left, rolling in tighter and tighter circles until it collapsed, like the riders.

There were 6, maybe 8 riders on the ground, and Brett from Dave Jordon standing in the grace looking a bit miffed.  We crossed the finish line and found all of our teammates accounted for.

Chaim, master breakaway artist, got 5th in the break.  Nice job.  And Vladi rolled in top 10, I can't remember if it was 7th or maybe 9th.  Sebastian finished strong and narrowly missed the crash.  None of us knew what happened.  One guy had to be treated by the ambulance crew, and one guy was still on the ground when Phil and I rolled out, the EMTs working on him.  

It was a fun, tough race, wrinkled by someone knocking wheels, perhaps.  Nice to race with teammates on a Tuesday night.  I sweated off a couple of pounds out there.  Looking forward to racing it again.
Next week is cancelled, due to an event.  It starts again in two weeks.