Dairyland Day 2- Thiensville

Another fun course, with a sharp chicane and narrow roads through neighborhoods. I'm struggling with the whole positioning thing in the last couple laps, and luckily since there are races every day I'm able to try some new tactics.

This race I went with the follow the leadout man tactic. Usually, my mind tells me to follow the big guns- Jon Cantwell, Bahati, Keough, Isaac Howe, etc. I know that those guys will be there at the end, so it should be good to follow them, right? The problem is that EVERYONE wants these guys wheels, so it is hectic and full of swarm to try and stay near the front. The thoughts for today were to follow a key leadout guy, for he, although not the one who will be sprinting for the win, sure as heck will be where he needs to be when he needs to be.

Temporarily following Cantwell

So with ~15 to go I found Luca Damiani's wheel, he won Athens Twilight crit this year and plays a key role in setting up Isaac Howe (yesterdays winner) for the sprint. I started following Luca from around 50th wheel, and as I got more and more ancy to move up I had to remind myself my tactics for the days. Luca calmly started to move up, 5, 10 , 20 spots, and I stayed firmly glued to his wheel. We got 4 to go and we were well into the top 20.

Me and Luca

Then people started crashing 15 guys back, and the road became cluttered with bodies. I swerved left, through someones front yard, around their nice tree in the yard, back around through the grass and back up onto the road, now off the back. Since free laps were over, I rode in for a super 70th-something place.

I uploaded my Garmin file to Strava to see if I made any front yard dodging KOMs and I did! Here is the file of me dodging the crash-

So another 2 nights of crit racin to put allllll the pieces together. Perhaps I find the breakaway??

But in more important news, I am really really good at billiards. Way better then Steve. But unfortunately, he cheats, and somehow makes it so I always put the black ball in the pocket when I am not supposed to. We've now played 9 games, I have won 4, and Steve has "won" 3 by default. Which means he has actually only won two in my thinking. Luckily, our host told us that the table was slanted, so that explains some of my struggles.

Also, I think the pleasant town of Port Washington is home to some sinister motives. While riding today, I think I saw a velociraptor.  I've been seeing a lot of turkeys lately, and I am pretty sure that down by the port they are mutating turkeys with velociraptor DNA, and then letting them free to roam around town, attacking farm animals and lost children. Seriously, beware the tall grass. And if you think I'm making this up, I just heard a townwide alarm go off- And it is wailing. I think that means the laboratory has been overtaken by the smarter-then-expected raptors, the people are panicking, and now I am supposed to run around the town looting and protecting some damsels. BRB!

And the threat is real. And this is the place it is happening. Check it out.

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