Races are hard enough to win, and even harder if you race stupid.

After you'v been racing for a little while you tend to see patterns develop. When to attack, when to sit on, it's probably a good idea to eat and drink, etc., etc. These are the things we learn after countless bad decisions on the bike. All of these patterns and tactics are crystal clear in our heads before a race but as soon as the whistle blows, it all goes to shit.

Let's take today for example. Fort Richie Crit. Nice little course with some beautiful weather. Not a lot of starters maybe 45 or 50. DC Velo had the biggest squad, NCVC had a big squad and we had myself, Evan, Chuck, Eli, and Todd. Johnny Sundt was also there from Kelly Benefit. We knew it was going to be a good race and figured Sundt would be instrumental in how the race turned out. Wrong. One man can only do so much and a small team can only do so much also. We had a small team there but tried to race like we had a full squad.

You only have so many matches to burn, bullets to fire, jet fuel to drop*....and so on. So you spend too much time in the clean air, eventually you gonna blow.

With all the guys DC Velo had it would have been prudent to save some gas (we all know how expensive gas is these days) Did we? Hell no. DC Velo kept shooting people off and we followed and jumped and sat on the front and chased and jumped and followed and sat on the front. At least Sundt saved up a little early on and came to the front later but did we? Hell no.

If you have a full squad there with people to back you up of course it makes sense to race like that, but if your out drinking at a bar with a couple friends and you have a run in with an English Rugby team what do you do? pick a fight...pretty stupid. You can only get punched in the face so many times before your out.

Ryan McKinney had one good attack early on, it got brought back so he sat in the pack for the middle of the race and then put in another good attack with Coleman from immediate mortgage, and he was gone. How many matches, bullets, jet fuel etc. did he burn, blow, and drop...2.
How many did we blow trying to attack and follow Sundt after they were up the road. A lot more than 2. What we should have realized was a coalition of the willing would be a lot better strategy in trying to bring those two back than jumping off the front one by one until we get so tired we can't even pronounce tactic or strategy.

I tried to jump with 2 laps to go and DC Velo lined up at the front. Then I watched them take third place in the sprint from 200 meters off the back. Stupid.

I would like to say you learn from your mistakes but when your doing 28-30 with your toungue dragging and your racing next to stupid, then stupid rubs off. Congrats Ryan you race smart and have as long as I've known you. I should have been riding next to you.
Stupid, Out.