Yo, Yo,

Two races down already in this early season.

Cherry Pie

• Meh. I did quite a bit of work all races because I wasn't feeling very well. I don't know what the deal was. I had had a pretty easy week before the race. Yet for some reason I just didn't have anything in the tank. I ended up 14th, even after some late races shenanigans; i.e. taking out people's front spokes with my rear mech. Not a bad way to start the season, but nothing special.

Sublime Sublimity

• Much better day out. I felt much better. Even though I rode alot more during the week, go figure. Anyways, my plan was to sit in all day and wait for the finish. I lasted about 10min and then I was on the front. I just hate sitting in knowing that everyone else is just resting. The course was really difficult. All up and down the entire time, with pretty steep ramps. The field split pretty early as the guys who can usually just sit in all day were forced to work, and therefore had their weakness exposed. I made the front group and just tried to keep everyone working all day. I knew that the harder the race was the better off I would be. I didn't want people to get a chance to rest. On the last lap things started to slow down as people began thinking about the finish. No one really wanted to pull any more and risk hurting their chances for the sprint. I wound up on the front with about 5 miles to go and was just riding tempo. When I looked back I had a gap of about 50m. I knew that people weren't very motivated to chase, and they would probably look around waiting for someone else to bring me back. So I just put my head down and went for it. I thought I would either take first or last. Well as expected, no one really wanted to sacrifice themselves to bring me back. One guy was able to bridge up to me and I couldn't hold his wheel. He ended up beating my by about 15 sec. I was able to hold off the field by about a minute to take 2nd. I'm really happy with it. It is my first semi-successful break away. I'm glad that I had the strength to hold my effort to the line, even if the chase was half hearted.
  

Leading up the main climb

The finish

The finish II