If a picture’s worth a thousand words…

Then a race is worth a thousand excuses.
The Tour De West Lafayette Stage Race.
I could write a thousand excuses as to why I didn’t do very good: it was super windy, it was cool (borderline cold) weather, I was sick week before…But the fact is: I just didn’t too very good.
Crit racing isn’t my thing. The crit (stage 1) was shortened to a ~1/2mile square, which makes it even less my thing. Whatever, those are excuses. I got dropped and dropped riders were pulled form the course. I rode about half the race. Dumpster.
The Road Race (stage 2) went okay, but just okay. Again, super windy, cold-ish and a nasty little climb. However, it was the wind, not the hill, that saw the pack split right in front of me w/ (I think) 3 of 7 laps to go. I rode the remaining laps in a group of 5, which turned into 3 by the finish. We finished w/ the main field in sight, but out of it all the same.
The Time Trial( stage 3) went well, relative to my shitty over all weekend. Again, cold/very windy. And it went up the aforementioned hill form the RR, but I buried my head and pedaled. I felt good, and rode well enough.
I ended up 26th in GC for the weekend, out of 48 or so riders. Not even halfway up, but that’s the way it went. Our team (3 of us) got 3rd in the team comp, so I did get paid for that, but I barely feel like I deserved it.
Overall, I give the race a grade "C." It was semi poorly run, the director (Mike Handley?) was (is!) a jerk, and it was far too expensive.
Josh and I stayed at my parents house Saturday night and it was nice to hang w/ them for awhile. They showed up Sunday later in the day when we had just finished the TT, so they missed all the hot action of watching their son get his ass handed to him, but it was nice of them to show.
Next scheduled race is June 1. MTB race @ BCSP. I still need to ride MTB before this. And I need to get fast on two wheels.
Later.