Oval Race and Koppenburg

Well, I've got the first (and second) races of the season out of the way. Going into the Oval race (raced partially on the CSU Oval), my goal was to ease into race speed and pack riding, not get dropped, and to not crash. It only took a couple laps to get used to the high speed pack riding. While the pace was high, I've struggled more in other races, and was more than happy to finish the race with the front group.
The Koppenburg race last weekend was a little different. The race is becoming a local classic, and a lot of pros who live in the area come out for the race. In case you are wondering, Koppenburg is the name of a famous climb in the Tour of Flanders (Belgium). Our local Koppenburg course features approx 3 miles of dirt roads (along with an approx equal amount of paved road), and a short, steep (17% grade) dirt climb.
Its always a good idea to line up at the front of the group for this race, as it is always a mad dash to the dirt climb, and there is always a bottleneck at its base. I got to the front, and immediately knew the race was going to be hard, as Karl Menzies (Health Net) and Jon Garcia (BMC) squeezed in front of me, in addition to being surrounded by Slipstream/Chipotle, Jelly Belly, Kodak/Sierra Nevada, Toyota/United and other BMC riders (like Scott Moniger). As somewhat expected in this company, it was a struggle to stay with the lead group. Half way through the 3rd of 8 laps, was dropped by the front group, and was in a smaller chase group. We would swallow up riders as they dropped off of the lead group, and then usually spit them out the back of our group, keeping us at about 4-5 guys for the remainder of the race. I ended up finishing 34th out of 42 finishers, who were all that were left of 70 starters, showing how tough this race is.

My teammate Nate (far left), finishing strong in the Cat 3 race.

I learned some things from this race, like how I need to show up with more food and water for a Pro/1/2 race. Rookie mistake.