Regionals!!!!!!

Saturday may have been the most epic race I have ever done. It was definitely the hardest I have ever worked in a race. It was an 80 mile road race in the hills of South east Ohio and it was about 85 degrees at the start. The race started and a break that included my old friend Matt Jones. That break had a 12 minute gap after 20 miles!!!!! There were 2 tough climbs each lap and another break went on the second lap of 4. I decided I should be in it so I bridged up on the descent and flats which was really hard. I made it up and then we dropped the Wisco guy on a climb. It was me, 2 marians, Clayton from LWC and Will Nowak from Northwestern. We were motoring and by the end of the lap had caught the entire break and dropped most of them. A Wisco and Tim from Lindenwood managed to hang on. Our group of 6 ended up being the winning group. I felt pretty good but unfortunately I screwed up my feeds and ended up getting water instead of Heed for 2 laps which caused major cramping problems for me on the last lap. Will and the Marian guys rolled away from me and Tim on a climb but Tim and I worked together to the finish. I was basically dying the entire 20 mile last lap and Tim beat me in the sprint because I was cramping so bad I couldn’t really pedal. I was very happy to take 5th in the regionals road race though and pretty much clinch my nationals spot. Joey broke away on the last lap to take 11th. It was a weird race with huge gaps between groups. Luckily there was a lake at the course to cool off in.
The crit didn’t go as well. I ended up in the break that got away and lapped the field but they kept attacking and I was so tired from the day before chasing every move was just killing me. I ended up back in the pack after 20 minutes of being off the front constantly chasing down attacks! Chris managed to get away for 9th and I won the field sprint for 12th. I am getting pumped up for nationals. My goal is the podium but I will be extremely pleased with another top 10 in either the RR or crit. I can’t believe I am graduating! Only 6 more days of school left for me and then off to Colorado for my last collegiate race ever!!!! This week I am taking a few finals early and going to Warsaw for the RR on Saturday. I also plan to try to train hard to build up my form a bit more.