To eat or not to eat...

I know eric usually recaps our events so ill make this short and sweet. I raced the 'cuse stage race this weekend and finished 7th in the CAT 5 road race. I feel my result could have been better for i made a crucial mistake id like to recap for the team...

As most of you know there is one long climb in this race. some road called old sweet road or something like that. Our race split up on this climb (as most do) and i found myself in the lead group of ten at the top of the climb. it was at this point i saw markings on the road that said, "FEED ZONE" so i figured now would be a good time to eat. i sat up, fiddled around to grab my gel, drank some water and relaxed alittle. when i began to pay attention i had realized that a gap was opening on me. i didnt really thikn much of this considering the fact we were going downhill. "so what" i thought. "we're going downhill. ill catch them." well, that thought ended with me killing myself in no mans land for the next couple of miles fighting up and down every roller until the realization had hit me that i was NOT going to catch them. (this was made even more evident by the fact that two dudes came up behind me and said, "dude...youre never gonna catch them on your own."

So long story short i found myself in a chase group of 4 that never caught the leaders and ended up 7th. Once again my mental mistakes cost me. One must even wonder why the hell i was eating anything at all considering my race was only 33 miles!?!?!? oh well...this was my 10th and last race at the CAT 5 level and now i look forward to upcoming weeks/months racing along side my fellow CAT 4 teammates. but i think my days of CAT 5 racing have shown us all that if any of us are ever in any type of break together its probably best to be doing the exact opposite of what i am. or at least pedal over and smack some sense into me. great racing to all!!!!!