And so it begins

First road race of 2010 done and accounted for. It was the feared Brown County State Park Road Race in Nashville, IN. It's feared for its multiple laps up the "Horseman's Camp hill" which has two 18-20% grades. It's also known as Pan-Am hill because the Pan Am games used this course when the games were in Indy.
I woke up feeling good, which is nice for a race day versus feeling like crap first thing (believe me, I've woken up feeling terrible many, many times) . I haven't raced since December, so I had to attempt to get into my race morning routine, though I was mostly winging it because I have been out of my routine for ~3months. But since BCSP is only ~30-35min away, I had time to get things going.
Compressed recap: I got to the park warmed up for 30min and rolled to the line (again trying to remember a general pre-race routine). Our field was very small due to 1) it being March and 2) an ominous forecast (it didn't rain a drop and was super nice BTW).
I think we started w/ 11 guys or so. We shaved a few numbers each time up the climb until w/ 2 laps to go it was just three of us. Despite a few attempts at solo breakage, we ended up together to the line in a sprint and I took third of our group of three.
Below is a video shot by G.Parry of our finish. He's no Scorsese, but it was shot w/ an Iphone and is ~6seconds long. If you're unable to play it, I'll summarize: my crap-tacular sprint for 3/3 (and yes, I do lunge for the line knowing I'm 3rd just to "give em a show').



I was bested by my nemesis Drew Dillman of Louisville. I say nemesis in the best possible way; the kid is young, super talented, super fast and super nice. Class act.
It was a good race, and I rode well and felt good. I'm happy with that start to my season.
The race was put on by a new guy and I guess it was the first bike race he's ever done(he has done running races). The event went w/out a hitch and the guy had a rockin 80's soundtrack bumpin at the finish line; I'm talking G-n-R AND Def Lep, solid playlist.