San Ardo

San Ardo is the road race closest to my home town San Luis Obispo. It is an easy hour's drive north. The course is a twenty plus mile loop with some rollers. It's flat enough that it is considered a sprinter's course and normally the weaker categories stay together. The one other time I did this race two or three years ago there was little or no attacking and the one serious attack that went off in the last five mile of the forty five was brought back pretty quickly. This year was a different story for my category. There were five or so guys out of the twenty that were interested in establishing a breakaway to launch one attack after the other. There were at least a dozen major attacks in the first lap. Many of them in the first five miles. I got shed just past the start finish line after one of these attacks. I believe there were eleven guys or about half the field left at this point. I saw at least two more guys shed on the next roller. I briefly considered turning around and cruising back to the car, but then said to myself, "Don't be a pussy! Ride it out and finish". Which is what I did. I rode with another guy for about half the lap and then dropped him on a roller and soloed in the final ten. I was dead tired afterwards, but due to familial pressure ended up laying bricks the rest of the day and the entire day following. So much for day of rest. I ended up getting 11th which wasn't bad, and this result moved me up from 16th to 12th in the state rankings for my catagory.