This was my first road race so I was pretty fired up. The start was uneventful but the field went out pretty strong for the first hill. MY plan was to sit in the middle and watch for a while and try to mark the strong dudes. No much until around mile 12 when a young 3 dudes took off (including on of our teammates). We reeled them in a good distance later after we had also overtaken some Cat 4s. I and the rest of the field was certain we had gotten every one back......(missed one dude...). I kept back save for some rolling hills were we put a small surge on to thin the pack out, worked but not as well as we thought. Into Atchinson (little more than 1/2 way) we put on another move uphill and the pack responded as we hoped, we started losing dudes on the hills on the way home. We we got to the last 10k we had about 15 (started with 50). With about 3 miles to go a two ship broke off the front and the guys up front did not respond, we kept them about 15 seconds in front but people were getting nervous with the finish approaching. The pack responded when the break got out of the saddle and we went full bore. I hit the bottom of the last hill 2nd in the peleton and then attacked (HR was about 170). I was able to open about a 15-20 meter gap at the most on everyone to the false flat, took the flat hard and went at the last hill with the HR around 180.....half way up the hill my legs were dying, lungs screaming, HR was spiked at 189 (new PR by over 7 beats per minute!!!), trying to hang onto my lead. John (teammate) passed my with about 100m to go and then one other guy was with him, then I started to duke it out with a KCI dude for 3rd (we thought at the time). I lost by less than 1/2 a wheel at the finish for 4th which we found out later was actually 5th. I was spent had to get off the bike because I couldn't pedal!!! Now that was AWESOME, never had pushed so hard , felt great as that is livin'!!!!!

The dude we missed - was out with one of our teammates (at the first break from above) and said to him 'Let's go' he didn't have the legs to hang and came back to the pack after had caught him, the other guy and a Cat 4 dude (who we thought was the third dude in the break). Mark comes back and says well that was fruitless, no mention of letting the dude go off the front. At the end of the race we asked him if he knew he went, 'Yeah he was fast I couldn't hang...' I think next time he'll let us know....
Side note- The dude was awesome..he rode 40+ miles by himself and finished about 2 minutes in front of us. He weighs about 125 and has a marathon PR of 2:18!!! Holy buckets he is a monster and won't be a Cat 5 long!!!


Better bean counting...
Keep track of the HR and don't attack with HR above 170. I would have had a better shot at the final hill attack

Some light riding then back to the house to change.


Gave myself on mental effort for missing the dude off the front.