Two down, two to go.

Despite knowing better, I began drifting to the back of the pack from the very start. Acutally, I was comfortably tucked into the pack early on. Further back than I would have liked but feeling good and without much worry about moving up. About 15 minutes in there was a wreck on the finishing stretch. Never saw the crash happen but there were lots of swerving, braking and rubber smell proceded by a lot of chasing back to the unaffected lead group. As I passed, one of our guys (a Texier?) seemed to be involved in a two-man pileup.

That was the beginning of the end for me. No longer was I tucked into the pack, my legs began to tire of the repeated efforts to catch back on to the pack going up each hill. Eventually I popped and pulled out after 38 minutes.

This was a first time event. The course is difficult enough and had decent crowds. Probably the roughest course all year with approximately 386 manhole covers dotting the course. Seriously, though, there was probably 40 covers. Some big, some small, some round, some square, some single ones, some in pairs. They were a little bumpy but didn't cause much concern if you simply rolled over them. The covers in the middle of the turns got into my head a little, I think. I don't like surface changes in the middle of turns when you are leaning the bike over. Bad images float through my head. Nevertheless, Washington Ave was a good race.