Nutmeg

[Jacob]

Funny story: I signed up for 40+ and cat 3; 40+ was first, then a short break, then the cat 3. I was a little confused at the start line because they were going about 20 minutes earlly, but I was futzing with my Garmin and didn't think much about it. The field was pretty small and one guy went away fairly early. The chase was spotty, so he stayed away and we sprinted for 2nd. I got held up a little at the top of the course, but I had a ton of snap after only 15 miles of racing so I was able to sprint to a 3rd place finish from way back. Cool! As I rode around one more lap to cool down I overheard conversation that made it clear to me that I had just accidentally raced in the 45+ field. Oops!

Well, now it was time for the actual 40+. Did I mention that it was raining? As we awaited the starting whistle, the rain intensified significantly. With rain plus wheel spray it felt about the same as taking a shower with the hot water not working. The air temp was reasonable, like 65 or so, but being continuously slathered in gritty rain water was steadily lowering my core temperature. I wasn't shivering yet, but I was losing mobility all over my upper body and my feet felt like a pair of soaking wet dead hampsters glued to the bottom of my ankles. I mashed out a 9th place finish, which sounds pretty good, but was only really mid-pack in the tiny field. Over the finish line, straight into my car with the heat full blast and it took me 30 minutes to get warm again.

The rain stopped for cat 3 and the road was actually mostly dry by the end. Incessant attacking from the group and I tried to do as little as possible. Started sprinting really early to get in front of the crash I was expecting to happen but didn't. Finished midpack.

55 miles of crit in total with 15 completely unofficial.

[Mkidd3]

That was nice of then to let you warm up with the 45+ guys...

[PJ McQuade]

Nice Jacob. You can't say you wasted a trip there, that's for sure.