And so, the punishment begins.

First UCI race here in the Hamptons, it was pretty rough. I had an alright start, I tried not to kill myself and just stay steady for a few laps. I had a 2nd row call-up so I was pretty set up for success. I was solidly in the top 15 after the first 2 laps and I was in a decent group. There was a bit of back and forth with some fellows that were catching up, Troy Wells tried a hilarious pass on the steep switchbacks- he's staying with us and he and I were talking earlier about him trying something like that last year and getting sent into the tape, which I think was actually me... it was pretty sweet.

So, I was riding clean and having a bit of trouble with a kind of stomach ache that I was hoping would go away. Unfortunately, I totally bit the shit on an off camber bit just before the course came back to the pavement. It stunned me a bit and I got up and rode to the pits for a change so I didn't have to try and straighten my bars. I spent a lap trying to decide wether to keep racing- that was a mistake. I saw the promoter on the sidelines and asked how deep he was paying... 30 deep so I kept on riding... Simon came by me with a couple other guys and I wasn't really able to keep on so I tried to plug it up some and make it hard for the guys who were with him. I made at least one of those guys accellerate a couple extra times before I got broke off.

After that I resigned myself to some tough training and finished up the race in 21st. Got my entrance fee back, so that's good. I expect that tomorrow will be more of the same, but unfortunately it is a cat.2 and points only go 10 deep. I'm just determined to get some solid 1 hour races under my belt at this point and hopefully I'll be good next week... It's going to suck because they are doing call-ups based on points accumulated this year, so I'll likely be in the scrum with my elbows out. Oof.