I got Hamburgled at the finish

 This was 4 laps of a ~15 mile course. Pro/1/2 and CAT3 fields were combined for race logistics but scored out separately. The course profile made for kind of a tough day. The front half of the course was a series of rolling hills into a stiff headwind. There was a short downhill followed by a decent sized wall to climb up before rounding to the backside. The backside of the course was a straight downhill with a strong tailwind. We averaged at least 25 mph there for all 4 laps. It eventually levels out for about 2 miles, then you make a right turn just before town and start the final half mile into the finish.



Because of the headwind it was incredibly tough to pull out much time on the front half of the course and any time you did manage to grab was near instantly wipped away on the descent. I decided to spend most of the day in the field, making sure that nothing significant got off the front but also not worrying too much about closing down 15 second danglers. On lap 3 it looked like the elastic was about to snap on the final climb so I put in a big dig to get across to the leaders when we went over the top. We split the field in half but it was able to get recombine when we relaxed in the flat.

A group of 4 rolled away in the middle of the last lap. I put in some serious work to catch them on the last climb. The field was mostly together going over the top but looking around a lot of people seemed shelled. I was feeling good so I worked on maintaining position and setting myself up for the field sprint.



I was in an ok spot going into the sprint but the field was pretty nervous. Because of the headwind everyone was trying to hold out for as long as possible before opening it up. At 300-400 meters we caught some lapped traffic, there was a lot of shuffling around in the field and the guy in front of me almost swepped my front wheel. I was able to not crash but got knocked out of my pedal and lost some positions. Once the sprint opened up I saw a gap open up to the right side of the road, moved up 5-6 spots there, then moved back to the left to grab another couple. I ended up 7th and closing hard on everyone at the line. It's an ok result, but I think I had the legs to grab a couple more spots. It would have been nice to have the full width of the road for the sprint or another lap to force a selection but there's not much use fretting over it.



Chris finished third. He stalled out at the end after attacking in the gutter. Luke grabbed 4th in the CAT3 race after figting through some cramping issues in the closing miles of the race. It was a good day for the team overall.