The second race of the season went quite a bit better than the first, as you might guess from the title.

For one thing, it was at least sunny. Still not terribly warm, strange for the Boise-banana-belt area, and windy as heck, but better than last week. This time I drove, and took Terry with me, so I would at least have another 4 to ride with. Again we were quite early, and were entertained (well, not that much) by watching the organizer pound stakes into the ground from the comfort of my car. It looked like not quite as many people showed up as last week, but still the 4-5-W field must have been over 50. No sign of the girl with the Merckx, though, darn it.

This race was of an out-and-back plus out-and-back variety. From the start, the first two miles are neutral, over several cattle guards and railroad tracks. Then the fun began, as there was quite a bit of wind from the front and right side. Which caused a pronounced echelon effect whereby I was often not as much in the draft as I would have liked, and all these people kept sneaking around the left on the centerline or over it, when there was plenty of room over near the shoulder. Just not in the draft. I managed to stay pretty close to some fairly big guys, who luckily were relatively strong. We turned the last corner to head downwind and some people started hammering. I went with them, figuring I was going to blow up at some point. Terry was there too, and we splintered down to a group of 11, with me barely hanging on the back. Zoomed through the finish and headed for the other turnaround, which involved just enough climbing to split up the pack. After the turn, I kindly pulled the other half up far enough so they could bridge, and leave Terry and me puffing. Nobody was going to catch us, so we took it sort of easy back to the finish. I got tenth, half-wheeling Terry for eleventh in a moseying finish. Money to five places, again.

later, hah