Long weekend ? felt short to me.

I got to race my 1st large series race under the new Out-Spoke-n http://rideoutspoken.com/ flagship team. I like our weekly races at El dorado parks Tuesday night worlds, but there is something to be said for the large CBR series races. A little shorter course going faster with 4 to 5 x the amount of people.
This race was set for Monday and honored Memorial day. It was great to know they had set up free racing for active or retired veterans for there services. I am neither, but I am grateful.
The turn out was large with some race fields seeing almost 60 riders in there respected race.
My race was to be maxed out at 70 riders and we had a pretty full turn out of 46 racers.
We've yet to get are true race kits completed so for now we run the shop colors.

We are changing these quite a bit. And though I'm proud to represent, I'm looking forward to a nice race cut fit with some special design help from   http://www.theroadmultisport.com/, that is part of what he does. So we all semi agreed on a basic styling and hopefully he can get it laid out trick.

I was back on my Felt F-1 and I have to say it felt pretty good. Although I would also have to say I would have raced that Cannondale Super-Six in a heart beat. We have some bike change decisions coming up soon, so we'll see what happens. I do love this bike.

It is lightning fast, and unbelievably responsive. When you say go and put the pistons to the pedals, it goes ! But I see bigger things on the horizons, for all the right reasons.
At the race;

Not super exciting. There were 46 men in the field and It got going pretty fast really quick. We averaged the race at 28 mph and it was a bit squirrely in there at times. People just hanging on for dear life and diving into the turns to stay out of the wind can't get a bit shaky. And it did with several loud shouts and reprimands to the not so savvy riders. I usually stay pretty quiet, but there was a few barks from myself too. You have to be smart when cornering at 25-30 mph in large packs. There is very little room for error. And if your not quite fit to be in the front 1/2 that is creating that speed, then just drop back a bit a hold on. People don't understand that there lack of full knowledge at that pace can and will cause a major group disaster.
O.k. I'm off the high horse. It wasn't a mellow ride.
 I'll break it down quick. I did not struggle to hang in. I did quite a bit of work up front. I did contend for 1 of the 5 mid race sprints primes. I did not win it but took 3rd. It paid me nothing, but I tried. It took me a full 1/2 lap to recover (at the very back). But I did make it right back up front to reposition myself for the final laps to come.
I did have a decent kick at the end, but found myself a little gapped going into the final 3 turns. This took extra horse power to bridge up to the front lead out pack. I did get in a nice mid field sprint and passed several people on the way in across the line. I finished 14th out of 46 and know I could have better that by at least 7 spots. That may sound cocky, but I'm telling you what I saw and how I felt.
If I had not let that little gap form and just pushed with the front lead out I would have been right there. But for me It is still live and learn.
No one went down (I'm amazed) and it was a wicked fast pace. Top speeds strung out single file at about 35 mph for a bit. I have 2 more midweek races before my next large field race on June 12th and I hoping to have some team help out there by then.

Train Hard ,train smart, be active.