Back on January 30th, I raced in the Cat 5B division of the Poor College Kids Road Race with some guys in the club I'm part of. We had a good time and managed to put one of our guys (Paul) into 4th place, just missing the podium.
The race started fast. I was concerned Paul was doing too much work on the front of the pack too early in the race as we approached one climb so I caught him and offered some wise advice. (This coming from a guy who is in his third organized road race - yeah I'm a real genius.) I told him to take it easy and he said he was just trying to soften the pack up. Oh, yeah, good idea, and I faded back a couple of spots. I manged to stay in near the front of the pack most of the race, but when we were about 2/3 of the way through one guy attacked. I was sitting third wheel then, Paul was second, and the guy on the front had been there a while so he didn't have the gas to go get the attacker. I didn't want Paul to because I knew he had a better shot at a good result than I did. So I went after him and told Paul to come with me (what a hero, eh?). Well the problem was that I used up a ton of energy chasing the attacker down, and I brought the whole pack with me. (Usually you want to leave them behind.) So when we reached the foot of the last climb in the race I didn't have the giddy-up in my legs to stay with the pack. I managed to claw back a couple of places on the climb and descent, and work my way into a true middle of the pack finish. Oh well. Lessons learned that I will apply in future races.
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