The bridge too far

Well, one thing I can tell is that I'm still not 100% recovered from the fatigue attack earlier in the year. I got down to St Albans early enough to get a good dinner and a decent hotel room. I didn't notice it til the next day but the famous, or rather infamous, Pink Pony club was located just down the hill from it. When natz was last in Louisville, a friend and I drove past there at about 10PM and it was lit up with bright Pink flood lights. The next morning, the hot topic of conversations was that the guy who had won $330million bucks in the Powerball lottery had 475 grand stolen from the trunk of his car there. What kind of a moron drives around with that amount of cash? Anyway, back to the races. St Albans is a smaller crit, but they always have a decent payout. This year, with most of the riders doing either, Fitchburg, Nationals, the Lil Moe's WVMBA race or a race in Virginia, there was a definite drop in attendance. It was disappointing for the promoters, but for the riders who made the drive, it was worthwhile. I didn't have the same spark I had the day before and I also think I was a bit overconfident in the 40+ race as I repeatedly tried breaking the others by hitting the turn hard and gapping them. This saved me some energy on the climb but after a while, they were all looking at me as the rider who would do the work to bring back any attack which eventually came. In the end, I didn't have it for the finish and only wound up 5th. The 123s brought the same result, but I cracked late in the race when it was down to a few riders. It wound up being the bridge too far and the body told me "NO" when I tried getting that little bit extra ummpff for an acceleration. With the riders who were there, I should've been able to do better, but the body was talking back. I did a deliberately slow drive home after a good lunch in Charleston at the Paris cafe. My teammate Chris was having a good chat with the chef and son of the owner in french and we got to watch some of the Tour. Chris' mother is from France as well so he grew up speaking the language. Overall it was a tiring weekend though and I was glad to be a total veg on the couch on Sunday. I did get the time trialing equipment ready and am getting the front wheel hub re-lubed with the lead lube that I now have in almost all of my hubs. It makes for a bit of a crunchy ride til it gets worked into the metal, but once it does, all I can say is 'who needs to pay for ceramics?' The wheels really do turn much better. I guess that is one area where an engineering background does help. I'm not a trained engineer, but I am quick to learn the hows, whys and ways things work.