Pedal for Proceeds RR result for BrianTurany

Whitewater was a ride-together-or-die-trying event. The original break of 6 became 5 by the end. The chase group I was in collected the dropped rider (who looked like road kill) half a mile from the finish. I don't know how long he was fighting the wind on his own, but from my experience any distance was too long.

MCVC results:

13 Brian Turany 35M4 35-39 1:01:37.4023.4m
32 Chris Larson 49M8 45-49 1:06:01.0521.8m
39 Chad Yonkus 31M4 30-34 1:07:16.7021.4m
52 Shawn Bass 33M6 30-34 1:10:01.3020.6m
60 Steve Wehrley 63M1 60-64 1:10:47.3020.3m
76 Dave Erickson 63M2 60-64 1:16:16.2518.9m
82 Billy Hammond 41M12 40-44 1:18:51.6018.3m

My lesson learned: In a windy race, get into the break or save your powder.

I got boxed into the should on the start and found my self in the back third of the field. Panic fueled a dash to the chase group. On the way I saw Shawn also boxed into the shoulder and Chris in good position towards the middle of the road. I wanted to work with teammates in the wind, but as I watched the break escaping I decided to make a move. No MCVC riders up front so I figured "why not me"?
The answer was "because you're surrounded by riders with teammates in the break and the course just turned into the wind"... dummy.
I tried. I tried really hard to pull up to the break. My highest HRs came in a 5, 3 and 3 minute efforts as I burned match after match trying to catch the leaders before they disappeared. Nothing. Big Ring Flyers and Michael's Cycles riders let me push the pace as hard as I wanted but blocked and protected their teammates when I pulled back looking for anyone else to pull. All I managed to do was spit a few riders out the back and fill my legs with fatigue.
After that, I fell in line and worked with a group of seven. They dropped me easily in the final sprint.
1st race of 2011 is in the books and I had a blast. Definitely putting this one in the deck for 2012.