Tour of Murrieta

This was a 2 day omnium event. Saturdays course featured a .8 mile 4 corner crit course that ran right through Murrieta's old town center. Corner 1 was pretty tight and ended up wreaking havoc in the pro field sending 2 cats to the hospital.

The 4's field was very large, the road was narrow, and the pace was extremely surgey. I was getting frustrated trying to move up in a big field and having the pace practically stop in the corners and then sprint out of them so about 25 minutes into the race I jumped on the back side inbetween turn 2 and 3, by the time I came accross the start finish I had a pretty good size gap and I heard the prime bell. I wasnt quite sure what it was but I was a little upset as I thought for sure the field would respond I would be caught in no time... I didnt look back I just put my head down and pushed the pedals over... I looked back coming out of turn 3 and realized that I might just hold the field off for the prime... well at about 200 to go I still had a pretty big gap on the field but 2 riders had bridged up and were sitting on my wheel, I put out a pretty big effort and took the prime... But then my legs kinda shut down, I tried to sit in a recover for a bit but I was having trouble with breathing and my legs weren't coming around, I got gapped and then just turned it in. So to summarize: Off the front then right out the back -well not right out, but you get the idea ;) I was pretty disappointed until I went over to the reg table to pick up my prime which included a set of super nice Easton bars, a specialized pump, and three pairs of socks. A prime valued at over $200!

Sunday ciruit race was another pretty tight course with a narrow with a couple of tight turns as well. It was pretty uneventful. I was in a 5 man break with three laps to go but we got caught on the final lap. I tried to maintain a good position near the front and was sitting about 8th wheel coming into the 2nd the last turn, but the pace had slowed just enough to allow all sorts of cats to swarm in, everyone hit the breaks, and It started getting a little crazy with some of the cat 4's laying it ALL on the line to sprint for 20th so I just sat up and let the chaos reign.

I didn't feel particularly strong either day, today I feel weak and there is a little lump in my throat. I'm not sure if I'm sick or over trained or Its just really bad allergies or maybe a little combination of both. But in either case I think I'm going to take it easy for a couple of days.