Day 2 started with a 10 mile ITT on a mostly flat course. It was a torrential downpour and I'm sure it affected the final results. Some riders got lucky and no rain, some (like me) got intermittent rain, and some got hurricane like rain and winds.
I ended up winning my TT and so did Steve. On the back stretch I went off of the road once just because I wasn't really paying attention. Then on the return on Snake Rd I almost wrecked in the first corner because I was carrying too much speed. That really was a difficult road in the rain (lots of turns).
Things started to dry out for the Cat 5 crit and Steve managed to stay safe in the pack for a good finish and 5th place on GC.
I was really tired and wanted to go home but decided to stay and do the crit simply because I had already paid for it and the weather was getting really nice so the course was completely dry. I'm glad I stayed. I hovered around the back of the group for the first half of the race and then moved up to about the front 1/3 of the group. From there things were status quo until the bell lap (that's when all Hell broke loose). We took the first left hand turn3 wide and I was on the outside line. The inside guy didn't hold his line causing the middle guy to jerk his front wheel to avoid him. This sent the middle guy towards me but I was leaned hard into my turn and I wasn't moving for anyone. He ended up smashing his face off of my shoulder and then wrecking. I got bumped a little off of my line and I was skirting the edge of the road so rather than trying to save it and catching the edge of the road and possibly wrecking I decided to do some cyclocross action through the field and then rejoin the group. Problem with this was that it relegated me to the back of the pack and with only 1/2 lap to go I just sat in and rode to the finish. Then on the final corner there was one final wreck involving a couple riders in the top 5-10 positions. Who says the front is always the safe place to be? I went looking for the guy who wrecked into me to make sure he was OK but I couldn't find him so apparently he got up and walked away.
I ended up tied for 10th place on GC. Only 2 points from 8th place (and in the money). Who knows, if I hadn't been bumped off the course and to the back of the pack on the final lap I may have got those points. I would have only needed a 18th place finish for 2 points. Oh well, it was a great time and I learned alot.
Thanks to Steve for coming over to race with me.
Very special thanks to Hanna (Steve's wife) for coming to cheer and for taking some wonderful photos.
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