Calling it windy doesn't do it justice - it wasn't breezy - it was constant wind, and in some places around Leesburg, there aren't a lot of trees to slow it down. But it made for interesting and fun racing. Our cat 3 field started with around 25 guys, I think, including me, Ronnie, and Gabe from Neuro. At first it was mellow, then a few surges started about 15 min in as we began the first lap. About 10 miles in, the surges became more frequent and sustained. By then a couple of single riders had gotten off the front about a minute, but the largest team in the group, Krystal with about 6 or 7 riders, hadn't started the chase yet and the group wasn't concerned 'cause it was early.
About half way around the first lap when we began to turn back south the race character changed. The speed picked up and the very hard crosswinds from the right (northwest) eliminated most of the draft effect. So for some stretches it seemed to turn into basically a 20-person time trial with every rider hugging the yellow line trying to stay in contact with the group. As we approached the end of the first lap, the group was very strung out with a cluster of maybe 5-6 riders at the front and the rest in 1s and 2s over maybe a quarter of a mile fighting the wind. As we approached the turn back to the parking lot, I saw many of the small chase clusters turn left and call it a day. But I could still see the front group and they weren't that far up the road, so I held out hope I could claw them back when they decided to sit up and regroup - so I kept chasing.
After making the first right turn on lap 2, I could still see the lead cat 3 group, but could not gain ground on them. Glancing back, I saw a moto with a 3-man break off the masters field. They passed me in a few minutes and I saw a single masters rider behind me. After maybe 10 minutes, he caught and passed me. Next a group of 5 masters riders appeared behind me. Maybe 10 minutes later, they caught me - they were well-organized and rotating, trying to catch the single who was not that far up the road. I thought about jumping on the back and riding home, but I wasn't sure if there were any cat 3 riders behind me and didn't want to cheat them if there were.
A minute later, I looked back and saw a pair of riders approaching. After a while, they caught me as well. Turns out it was Chad Davies, my teammate, and one other rider from Florida. Chad had been popped on the first lap of the masters race and was chasing back. He told me there were no cat 3s behind me, so I jumped on the back of his pair and followed without assisting them. Chad gradually clawed his way up to the rotating 5-man chase group. When he caught them, he immediately attacked. Chad doesn't have much top end power, so they easily brought him back. So he repeated his surge again and again. He probably hit them 10 times over the next 15 or 20 minutes. Eventually he ground them down in the hard crosswinds and got away. His Florida chase mate bridged up to him and they rode away - Chad finished 7th in M45+. I jumped across to Chad's new chase group when the remainders disintegrated and rolled in for 13th. Not much in the way of tactics on my part, just a good solid training race in a tough wind.
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