At It Again!

So this weekend six of us went down to Lagrange, Georgia for the Georgia cup of the weekend. My cat 4 boys threw down and came out with I believe 3-4 top 10 race finishes (not counting TT’s), and two top 10 overalls! Our new guy Gary Papka threw down in style even though it was his first weekend racing with us. We all also got to know him a lot better and learned how cool of a guy he was; “Guys if I don’t eat something soon I’m gonna start flippin tables and throwin stuff up in here!”. On a personal stance, I got third in the TT, which was a tough little 3k course with some technical turns and such. The crit went fairly well, with me covering breaks and such trying to watch out for the MAR (Most Aggressive Rider) laps to pick up some time bonus’s. I ended up picking up a whopping 0 of these, but got a decent 15th pack finish. I was a little angry with myself (for chasing breaks for nothing) and had a little energy left, so I entered the Pro/1/2/3/4 category Win and Out race. This was a crit of 15 laps where the first 5 laps were warm-up, and afterwards there were 10 laps each worth 100 bucks each. The pace was high and I won no money, but I did get a taste of how fast some Pro/1/2 crits are. I was dropped on the last lap due to trying to chase a break and get a jump on the two guys in said break. The only problem was these two guys were of the higher category persuasion, so my chase was in vain. The Road Race went fairly well on the first lap, but I chased WAY too much when I should have been sitting in. I got a little sore on the second lap, but the miles rolled on and with 5k to go I was feeling pretty good. We rounded the turn for 3k to go and something happened. A friend who was behind me said my rear derailleur jumped or something, but when I finally got up and looked at my bike my rear cable was broken, so I’m not sure if this happened before or after my solo exploration of the pavement. All I know is I dropped my chain while climbing a hill at 955 watts (or so my SRM says). When the chain dropped it surged me forward, which caused me to unclip my right cleat, smack my mid-gentlemen very hard on the top tube, and spill knee/elbow first into the asphalt. I got the pack finish, though, and ended up 7th overall for the weekend (sound familiar?). Enough to make me happy! This weekend is the Rome GA Cup! Let’s Climb!!!