Notes
First race of the season, wanted to see what kind of shape i'm in. Course was pretty nice, 2/3rds smooth roads and 1/3rd covered with potholes. 4 laps of 5ish miles. The pace felt too easy to start, and I found myself accidentally pulling a few times. I didn't want a field sprint, since I assumed that was a good recipe for a crash, so I tried to make a selection with some hard pulls. Unfortunately, I'd string the field out, pull off the front, and then the pace would slow dramatically. Nobody else seemed to be interested in what I wanted. About halfway through lap 3, I found myself up front and feeling impatient, so I went off the front. Of course, nobody came with me. I slowed up after a bit, and ended up basically on the front of the field, but again, the pace slowed dramatically. After 30 seconds or so of soft pedaling, I was still leading the field, so I just kicked again right off the front. Again, nobody. I got a gap of 15 or 20 seconds, for a few miles, but they were chasing and caught me a little ways into the last lap. I fell to the back of the field after my break, and after some confusion with the pro field catching us I was out of position to contest the sprint, so I just sat up for the end.
Happy with my level of fitness, but unhappy that this race didn't feel like a particularly hard effort.