Off to Lafayette

It's been a busy week and my mileage has suffered a bit. Tuesday was basically a wash-out for me, although I heard that the lakefront time trial went off anyway. I made it out to the lakefront Wednesday evening for the training race, arriving a bit late and jumping in near the end of the first lap. It was already going pretty fast when there was yet another attack up near the front and that time the group split. Naturally I ended up on the wrong side of the split. A chase ensued, but then riders started dropping like flies. Howard took a massive pull and got us really close, then Matt followed up and brought us to within four or five bikelengths. I was on his wheel completely maxed out, but we were practically caught up when he suddenly eased up. I didn't really know what to make of that, but it was enough to open the gap again and there was nothing I could do about it. Matt was on his TT bike and I was just hanging on for dear life. So the gap got bigger and by then it was just Matt and I, and I was about to crack. With about a lap to go Matt made one last attempt to close and brought us up to 34 mph. I couldn't quite hang on and came off of his wheel, but a bit later he managed to close it. Good workout!

Thursday was a short day for me because of a little crisis at work, so I didn't get to do the whole long ride in the morning. Today, though, we had a nice little group that rolled out the Friday ride at a nice even pace. Later this evening I'm heading across the lake to pick up Steve and then West to Lafayette for this weekend's Vuelta de Acadiana. I'm feeling kind of dragged out lately, and this race is flat and hot, so it may turn out to be more of a hard training ride for me.