I don't want to CRASH!!!

The season is over....except for a few mid-week crits. There is money for the overall points leaders, of which I am not one, but a few teammates are. The races are competative and can be pretty fast. There are always about 70 or so, and it is a 1-3 race. This time of year is when we get the 4's who have just upgraded and sometimes they get in a bit over their heads especially near the front, so I made sure they knew their place early on. Plus, as I stated earlier, I am not in the points race, as I use this race as a training tool, not a "real" race.
Most Tuesday's out there I do intervals basically by attacking over and over. This week was no different. I attacked and attacked. I used to think it was the older "masters" out there that caused the race to be so defensive, and they are certainly part of that racing strategy. They race so they can win, and for them that means a group sprint and defensive racing. But it's not JUST them as I used to think. It's the 3's. They don't have the engine to go in a break and hold it, but 6 of them can chase for a period of time and not let the break get away. Throw one or two of those 3s in the break of 6 and you have a recipe for a bunch sprint.
On my second attack I had two good cat.2 riders on my wheel. Yet when I pulled off at 33mph, they couldn't comne through. THEN WHY DID YOU GO IN THE FIRST PLACE!?!?!?!? DAMN IT!!! Same old story as the rest of the year out there, attack, get brought back, attack again.....field sprint.
So we get down to 1 to go, and for some reason things got really aggressive. Guys were slamming into each other like it was a NASCAR race. I saw one guy stuff himself into a tiny little hole 20 guys back. Why? It didn't help him at all, all he did was make a dangerous move. I crashed on Aug. 29, 2006 out there, really hard. We were at about 30mph and some idiot in front of me overlapped and went down, taking 20 or so others with him. I suffered a broken hand and some really gnarly road rash (but the bike was fine). It really put a dent in my winter training and I started the season way out of optimal shape. As we hit 1/2 a lap to go this week I was getting banged around something fierce, which wouldn't faze me usually, but then I remembered, there was no money and no points for me on the line, so I sat up and went to the back. If that was a weekend race for money, I am hitting right back and holding my spot, but out there on a Tuesday....No thanks. I have one more of these races to go, and then I am truley done racing road until Boulevard in Feb. 09.

I did get on the dirt yesterday for a mountain bike ride. That was a blast. Haven't ridden dirt in a long time (8 months or so). Climbing wise I was good, but coming down was not so good. I was all over the trails, and my cornering sucked something fierce. I will ride some more dirt over the next month or so, and the cornering will come back.

So, one more mid-week to go and lots of surfing and mountain bike riding over the next 6 weeks. Should be a fun break before winter training begins. Not looking forward to those training blocks of intervals at all.