Cone Azaila, what a race

WOW, All i can say, is that was damn hard. The gravel sections where so much worse than last year. The field was significantly stronger than last year and a lot larger than previous years as well. The big name missing from the race was Jake Rytlweski. I believe jake had graduation this weekend and couldn't make it. Anyways, back to the race. As usual the battle to be at the front into the gravel sections was on. I did a good job of being at the front and usuing as little energy as possible to make it onto the gravel in the top 5. The first lap onto the gravel was by far the craziest. Guys were puncturing left and right and it must have been caos. My teammate Rob was unfortunatly one of the victims. Luckily Rob is an animal and chased for 2 laps and caught back on. I spent the day waiting for attrition to take it's toll on the field, but the problem was the race was way too easy in between the hard gravel sections. It have riders too much time to recover and were still strong enough to stick to wheels when we attacked on the gravel roads. Graham, Sven and I were by far the most active all day, launching attacks and mixing things up. On the 4th lap, we laid down a strong attack and a breakaway group was formed. Unfortunatly it was too big and West Michigan Coastal was just shutting it down and not working. They had a guy up the road in the leading break, but they also had like 4 guys in our group of 9. In my mind, i'm thinking, if i had 5guys in a group of 12, then i would work my ass off because the chances of filling the top ten with my whole team is too damn good to just sit on and say, we have one guy up the road. I think tha was a big mistake on their part. So anyways, the break was too big and too many guys were sitting on, so the Howard boys and i started attacking the break. We eventually got caught and it came back together. I ended up missing the best move of the day with 2laps to go, i was sitting 4th wheel going accross the gravel when Graham attacked and Stan Andries followed, i was on Stan's teammates wheel and he did a good job of sitting up and blocking and not allowing me to get around him. By time i was able to squeeze by without crashing into the ditch or really getting physical with him, they had a pretty good gap and i couldn't close it without pulling the group up to them. So i sat back in and waited for a better oppurtunity to try and go accross. The opportunity never came and i found myself with rob in the field racing for 6th place. Rob was fairly fresh and asked if i would lead him out for the sprint. I went to the front with about 3k to go and kept late attackers from getting too much of a lead and punched it with about 1k to go. Rob wa able to follow some good wheels and managed 8th on the day. I raced as hard as i could, and i guess without a little more luck it was the best i could do for the day. The course was so rough, it wiggled loose my crank arm on the first lap but managed to stay on for the whole race. It didn't really affect my race, but it was definatley in my mind when i stood up though. I managed again to get no flats. I have made it 2 years in a row now with no flat tires. I think the secret is the Specialized All Condition Armadillos. Anyways, Thanks for reading. I leave for Collegiate Nationals Wed and will be there until Sunday.