Bananaowowowow

Made the break this time, at last. Sort of started it, too, which had me grinning.

We were doing 7 laps clockwise around Hagg lake this time, which is the direction with a fast descent to a right off-camber turn onto a dam, and a kicker climb maybe 4k from the line. My legs felt fine in the morning but once we got going I felt like complete crud all day, though, probably a hold-over from a 4.5hr ride Friday in which I rode up and down Fox Hollow all afternoon, and got rained, sleeted, and snowed on. I stayed out because my core was warm - but it might not have been that smart after all.

Anyways, Banana Belt #3: by lap 5 of 7 I had followed wheels near the front all day and was pretty convinced that it was going to stay together for a bunch kick to the line, which is never fun for me. So on the dam on lap 5, which was maybe 7-8k from the line and with around 40-42k left to race, I came off of being third wheel and hit it into the wind. The group had started to show signs of being a little tired and since we were strung out from the gentle climb up and the descent down to the dam, plus on the straightaway there it's actually a bit tricky to see what is going on up front, it seemed like a reasonable thing to try. Also, everyone always attacks on hills, so why not try something else? Well, it worked. I went about as hard as I could, and was away with a tiny gap all the way across and got joined by two of the strongest guys in the peloton in Donald and Ryan as we past the next boat ramp, and voila, le break du jour was formed. The turbos came out and by the time we passed that same ramp again 11 miles later, the lead car pulled over and told us we had 2:10 on the field.

2:10 meant we were putting a minute on the pack every 5 miles. Holy crap. It was full throttle, and I was feeling pretty outclassed and starting to crack with a lap to go. Ryan, winner at Sublimity, pressed a lot of the rollers and Donald, Mr. Big-motor-big-legs-big-sprint, looked like he could do that crap all day as we more than doubled the lead again in the next lap. Well, I couldn't do that crap much longer and completely cracked for good on the last hill before the finish. But it didn't matter, the gap was so big (I think I heard it was over 5 minutes - we motored like mad) I could have ridden to the line in my 39t ring and still gotten 3rd. I tried to keep pressing for what it was worth to the line, because I'm paranoid like that, and watched the sprint go down from a handful of seconds back.

For feeling like junk and riding with two of the strongest guys around, I'll take it. If I had been in top form I probably would have finished the same.

So that's it for OBRA racing for me for a couple of weeks. Next weekend is the UO road race on our home course in Veneta, followed by Western Washington U in Bellingham, and then I'll get back to it with Kings Valley, the Ice Breaker Crit, and whatever else is to be done.

And of course... the time changed this weekend. Which means that the Thursday Nighter is ON. Heck Yeah.