Another Hot One

This weekend was another hot race. It is kinda weird, last year all we had was rain and could have used some sun, this year all we have is sun and could use some rain. Oh well. We were up at 9-mile in Wausau. The course is fun, there are a few small gradual hills, lots of flowing single track, and painfully fast double track.
Cathy had a really good race. She had a good start in a HUGE field, acouple miles into the first lap She seen a girl make a move to the front and knew she needed to be on her wheel. She pulled away from the group and the two of them were gone. From what I seen Cathy was doing a lot of the work up front. On the second lap the other girl got around her. Cathy said she could have cut inside of her coming into the last single track but was afraid of taking both of them out. The finish was great both of them out of the saddle sprinting to the line, Cathy was coming hard but just didn't have quite enough. It was really fun watching both of them push each other, Cathy said that was one of the funnest races so far!
Acouple hours later it was time to do it again, I lined up way in the back, I knew we would have a fast start and they were going to cut out part of the single track this would allow me time to get into a decent spot by the second single track. The plan worked really well. I started at my own pace, and let the draft throw me past a lot of people. The Maxxis tires did wonders too, lots of people were using semi-slicks and my MiMos were just totally hooking up on the highspeed loose corners. I settled into a spot around 14th place for the rest of the first lap. As we lapped through our group started to dwindle down to 3 then Jeremey fell off and it was Justin and I. We were working really good and I think we were running between 8-10th. I was feeling good and just hoping I could hold that pace for one more lap as we came through the start finish area. Justin was starting to get nervious about the guys behind us, we couldn't see them but from spotters I guess they were coming strong. He really upped the pace on the 4th lap. I was doing everything I could to stay on his wheel. I held on for few miles then he make a strong move and dropped me. I tried to keep my pace but at this point was shot. I had 5 more miles to the finish that felt like 10. Quite a few people got around me, I tried jumping on their wheels but I had nothing left. I had to just go with what I had and hope that I could hold a couple people off. At the finish I had dropped down to 26th. I was disappointed, but one of these days I will be able to hang for the entire race. That is the goal.
This morning I was up at 4am. Cathy took off for work at 4:30 and I went for an easy ride to flush my legs. This week I am going to work on longer rides, I have been putting in a lot of intensity and now I think I need to get longer endurance.