Long sleeves and a bottle of wine

It was just too cold to ride and warm up in the short sleeve kit. 60
degrees plus the wind chill saw me shaking like a ninny. I raced in
short sleeves though.

Prob 70 racers and in typical fashion, I rode a lap then vaulted off
the front. Another guy joined me for a nice 8 lap solo effort never
gaining more than 15 seconds. No biggie.

I countered the 1st preme and had 4 guys away again. But apparently
the big teams didn't like their players in that break. Brought back
again. There were prob 5 teams with 5 or more guys. This made for
some predictable and reasonable racing. Teams controlled the race as
they should.

This meant that instead of making something happen myself, I was at
the mercy of the larger teams. Just as I realized this, a group of
six got away. Teammates were blocking forthis group. Great
opportunity for me. I waited until they were almost a complete city
block ahead and then took off on my bridge. No one came with me.
Nice, two laps by myself and I was able to close. But when I got
there, too many softpulls allowed the single file main group to get
within 10 seconds.

Our break didn't stick. I never understand this, all the $ is up the
road and no one is willing to work.

Some kid was sitting in front of the lap board and I didn't see it
until one to go. Bad news for me. Finished in the teens.

The good news is that I felt fine even after only 2 serious riding
days in the past 14. And the race announcer loved it that I tried to
innitiate or cover every break. He named me the most aggressive rider
in the race and gave me a bottle of wine. A Pinot called cycles
gladiator. Cool.

After this accolade, a bunch of dudes congratulated me and asked about
le bleu. I guess it's time to look for a new bay area team. One team
is light blue pocadots. I don't think I can do that.