Froze Toes race report

I NEED SOME F#CKIN SHOE COVERS!!!  The race definitely lived up to its name.  Of course, wearing triathlon shoes might not have been the smartest idea.

I decided to do this race two weeks ago, so I wasn't expecting spectacular results.  My only goal was to get in the pack and try to stay there as long as I could.  Well, I didn't even make it into the pack.  The race start was pretty unorganized, apparently someone said "GO", and I said "huh?" and I was twenty yards back before getting out of the parking lot.  I sprinted to catch up, only to have to slam on my breaks because someone had a mechanical 200 yards into the race.  I sprinted again to catch up to the back of the pack, someone else had a mechanical a mile or so later, slam on the breaks again. 

There were about 70 riders in the 19-40 cat 5 group, the 40+ cat 5's started a minute or two later, and caught up to us at about two miles.  So we had about 100 squirrely cat 5's riding together. We would be rolling downhill, and as soon as we hit the uphill, the front of the group would start yelling "slowing" and tap their brakes, so everyone behind had to hit their brakes as well, and then we would sprint to catch up. 

All that stop-and-go riding took it's toll on me.  I was off the back of the pack 5 miles into the race.  I pretty much rode alone the rest of the way.  My only motivation was getting out of the cold.  Even the lead pack of the women's group caught up and dropped me.  I was riding about 20 feet back of them, so I wouldn't interfere with their race, the support vehicle came up and told me I need to drop back, so I did.  I wasn't getting much draft that far back anyway, just a view of their butts.

The roads were pretty rough, I must have seen about twenty people along the road, changing flat tires, also heard there were several crashes.

Others from Team Red Wheel were Barry, Jason, and Mike.  Barry said he finished in the pack.  Jason rode with the pack for most of the ride, but did go down once.  Mike said he stayed with the pack for a while, then rode in alone.