Superweek, continued: Holy Hill

Last year my chain skipped with every shift and I blame my 34th place on that, but really I was underprepared for such hills. Not to say I was any better this year, but I hoped that Snake Alley, Blue Mounds and Fox River Grove would count for something.

Lap 1: I feel ok, stay up front, out of trouble. Some junior goes off the front and no one cares but he's caught after 3/4 of a lap.

Lap 2: I see a lot of faders up the hill, so I attack over the top. I know it's easy to catch an escapee on a downhill, but I thought if a xXxer and 4-5 of us got away, we'd have blockers. No one responds. I keep a gap on the eastbound leg, but let myself get caught. For the next 5 miles, I press the pace, get hung out in the crosswind, and take too many pulls...the pack stretches out but no one lets a break happen. On the feed zone hill, my efforts catch up with me, I take it in the wrong gear and get swarmed and start to bonk. Shit. I barely keep pace up the hill, but the pace is steady, so I'm still in the pack.

Lap 3: Trying not to burn matches. Trying to recover, but really just drifting towards the tail end. The junior keeps attacking, but nobody ever goes with him, and nobody really panics, so he eventually comes back in.

Lap 4: More of the same. I keep thinking I feel like shit, and I'm gonna die on the hill, and I have to do it 2 more times. I make it over. I'm at the back, better to find spots to hide from crosswinds.

Lap 5: I'm the last guy in the pack...for the entire lap. 2, 3, 5 guys slip off, I leapfrog them to rejoin. Repeatedly. I'm thinking I'm fucked. The pack has gone from 60 to 40 but I'm still on. The follow car is right behind me, about to pass. At some point xXx Liam is off the front? Textbook xXx, but not my problem right now. The pace has been pretty solid, but nobody's panicking and the blocking doesn't seem to work. He's back in after a couple miles.

We hit the hill for the last time, and I'm waiting for the blitzkrieg. Everybody's dying and I just thank the fucking stars that I didn't get dropped 3 laps in like last year. I don't want to get stuck in a packlet of droppees, so I bury it and go from 40th to 30th. Over the top, again, I'm waiting for the blitz, but it's pretty limp. Everyone's dead. I hammer and get 5 more spots, make the turn, 5 more spots. We make the turn to the finish. I'm in 20th and there's a sprint in the distance that's not for me. I build speed for 300 meters up the hill and get 10 more spots. I finish 10th. It's not a W, but given the situation, fine with me!

The junior won it, and he deserved it, if only for the fact that I wish more people would race as aggressively as he did. Turns out his limited gearing was probably perfect for a climbing sprint. Note to self, when reporting results, it helps to know who the winner is. Oops.

The kids won't let me live it down when I don't win a little something for them, so the cheese castle kept some of my paycheck. Vive la road! Next year, less crits and more of this.