Saturday, June 21, 2008

Tour of Ohio Stage 4

Today was another crit, actually it was the same course as last years Worthington stage of "The Tour". There was an early break that I missed, and so I spent a good deal of the race stuck between the break and the main field, trying to motivate people to work and pull smoothly. We didn't really make up any time on the 8 man break, but we held them at the same gap for pretty much the whole time we were chasing. Our chase group came back after about an hour, and the field was finally motivated to get the group back together and we caught the break with 6 to go. I was pretty spent from my efforts earlier in the day, but I tried to fight for the front to salvage a result. I put in a good effort to get to the front, but had nothing left to go when the Inferno train hit it with one corner to go. Inferno went 1-2, and I got pipped by a nice little group as I was running out of gas and ended up in 10th. No real result to speak of, but I did feel better about the way I rode, actually putting my nose in the wind and doing some work to get a shot at a result. The real tragedy from the day was that John lost the sprinters jersey, but may get a crack at it one last time in today's finishing circuits.

One more chance to pick up a W. I'll be racing today with a heavy heart, with my beloved Bloomington Crit taking place without me.

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