The day began with light drizzle, fog and mist. The rain came in waves; clear for 10 min then a brief shower. It let up just at the start and we're off. I'm holding with the group for about the first 5 miles and I realilze I don't have the luxury of time. The entire race is 19 miles. I start working my way up the group to the front and do so on the left of the group (closest to the yellow line). I'm nervous since I need to cross it occasionally, but am careful of the paint. The sun comes out; it rains again; inconsistient. About 10 miles in, I'm in the lead 8 riders where I want to be. Coming down to the beach head which splits the island into 2 logical parts, I'm pulling the field and out in front. Out to Beavertail light, the road goes up and I get dropped back; hard dropped. I work like a dog to get back at the lighthouse and barely reach my lead group of riders. After we round the light house with ~2miles to go, it happens again; they take off and drop me. Now it's a time trial to get home. I drop my head and push with whatever is left; HR must be >175bpm at this point and I can barely breathe. I pick up 2-3 stragglers who also were dropped from the group. On the descent I see 1 last placing to grab and I sprint with everything and cross with him! By the eventual results, I got him!!

Not get dropped on those longish rises. Learn how to maintain speed on these climbs.

Find my wife and daughter and collect my hugs


I'm stoked with 6th overall! For some reason, I race really well here. It's a true road race course and not a crit, so I think it lends well to my power strength instead of my poorer technical skills.


Great venue and a good excuse to take Columbus day off