A little bit'a taste o'da glory

Well it's about time I get'r dun, and by that I mean race my bike. This weekend was the Tucson Bicycle Classic (TBC) and my first race of the year. Well kind of the first race of the year, I'd done the shootout down here a couple weekends and got totally powned. I didn't even make it half way through the "race" before getting dropped. So I was a little unsure how the weekend would go. I'll save you the boredom of the first 2 stages, basically I went really hard in the TT, but not really fast. I missed the move in the road race on day 2 but made it into the second move and finished over 7 minutes off the pace. I did glean a few gems from the second stage, namely don't listen to Wingerz and look at the lame race bible they put out for the start times. Oh and don't neglect to warm up, oops. Now for the cherry on top, stage three. I was given the green light by TH to "ride myself sideways" and I wasn't about to miss an opportunity for good ol' fashion flogging. I played it a little conservative for the first couple laps because I'm still searching for fitness and I didn't want to ala Sammy J, swing the battle axe right out of my hands. In the mean while there were a couple moves that went up the road and then got dragged back. Finally on lap 4 a move got away and the group was seeming complacent to let it go. I moved up near the front and Daniel from Colavita turned to me and asked if I wanted to go to the break, uh no thanks I'll just stay back here and circle jerk with the rest of the peleton. Of COURSE I want to get to the break. So he gives me a lead out and I bridge to the break on the hilly section of the circuit. Once in the break I go to work immediately. We roll like this for 4 laps and on the final lap with a gap of about 2 minutes to the pack the break starts to fall apart and people start sitting on and attacking. I keep rolling through trying not to let any gaps open. With about 2K to go I pull through when I turn around everyone has sat up and let a small gap open to me and the guy who just pulled in front of me. This is it, time to get out of dodge. I stomped on the pedals and gave it everything. They started chasing immediately but I created enough of a gap that to close it would have taken the person out of the sprint and they were working as cohesively as a pack of seaguls fighting over a happy meal. I was able to hold it to the finish for the win. I moved up to 8th overall and made enough to afford a victory meal at In'n'out burger. I'll have a Double double animal style without special sauce. Oh and don't forget copious amounts of ketchup, lycopene please.