There was a lot of pre-race talk of various tactics, the plan we settled on was on lap three to lead a Pega-break-away and hope for the best. Everyone got lined up for the start, just a bit under 60 riders. Some familiar faces/bike/jerseys were there. The race got off to a decent start no-one trying anything crazy but the speed was high. The usual new kids went off in a sprint ahead of the pack and burned themselves out never to be seen again.
The first few laps were fairly uneventful, nothing crazy was happening just yet. Towards the end of the second lap, I jumped near the front and got a good position to hopefully set something up for the planned third lap. After we crossed the line and started the third lap the pace picked up a little. I then jumped and took off with Chris, Henry, and a few others in pursuit. I was really pushing it averaging 28.5 mph and much to my own dismay the pack was still only 20 ft behind and not falling back any further, we tried this for about a mile and then decided to sit-up and just sit in with the pack. Nothing was going to get away today.
The pace stayed high through-out the rest of the race, the pack stayed together the entire way and no-one got out ahead. As we were heading into the last lap, I was sitting in the middle of the pack conserving energy to hopefully sprint it out at the end.
Through-out the race I had been taking note of what corners were generally more open to hopefully bridge up to the front on. Since the course was counter clockwise the right side of the pack tended to be a little more open than the left. I decided to move out to the right to hopefully work up to the front to get into a good final position for the end. I began to move out and decided to sit right behind Jason. I sat there for about a minute and then yelled something to the effect of "The right side will open up and I'll take it." Meaning I wanted him to let me in and I wanted him to jump on my wheel to lead us up to the front and set up for the end. There was a misunderstanding and he thought I meant that I wanted him to stay there. I ended up getting stuck out of the far right side and got pinched off on the final turn going into the final sprint because of it. I kicked out the sprint and passed a few guys to finish ride behind a group of Pegasi. We took 24th-28th, Henry got 5th, Chris pinch flatted his wheel and Ben's body disagreed with him but still fought out a good finish.
For a generally smooth, safe turning course there was a lot of squirrlyness from various riders. There were maybe only a handful of BAD riders that were just scary to be around. A lot of people were getting pushed off the side of course onto the gravel or grass and some people would purposely ride through the grass. I learned the importance of clear communication between teammates.
Chris and Henry leading the pack around the corner.
Jason training for cyclocross season
Kind of hilarious crash from the Cat 3 race, towards the end you see their bikes are somehow stuck together... Everyone walked away with only minor road rash.
EDIT:: Matt wanted me to mention that I ran him off the road at one point and made him go cyclocross style. This wasn't entirely my fault, all the people next to me, swung hard and I had to go that way too, I had less than 1 inch of pavement left myself and to Matt's demise he was next to me.
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