Stiff winds, Breezer and attack of the Sinus Monster

So Cone Azalia is always one of my favorite races. I have wanted to win this thing for so long. The closest I've managed was 7th in 2005. The plan for the day was to send Meurig up the road with the first move and keep me protected for a few laps and then see what materialized. Well that of course is not how it played out. On the first lap though the gravel literally in the first mile of the race. Kirk Albers and Paul Martin started killing it and got a gap with an Priority Health rider. They had a small gap by the time we finished the first section of gravel with Greg Christians and Bennet both in between bridging across. Meuring tried a bridge but I don't think he quite had it at that moment. So at this point 5 of the strongest guys in the race are up the road. We hit the right turn on the paved road and as we made the right onto section 2 Brian took me up to the front he pulled the first section and deposited me into the sketchy left turn first wheel. I gave it a go and when i looked back the group was destroyed. There were a few riders bridging up but I figured I would see after we got off the gravel what the group consisted of. Jeff Kock, Jake Rytlweski, Todd Shouberg, and a Saturn rider (sorry don't know your name) all made the split with me. Our gap was pretty sizable right away. However with a WMCR and a Priority Health rider up the road 2 guys in the group were not overly willing to work at first. Jake and I did the majority of the work in the first lap we were away. The second time through the 1st gravel section Jake absolutely crushed us all into the gutter and pulled until the elastic snapped and rode away. We ended up catching him on the finishing stretch half a lap later but he was by far the strongest. We began to work together after this and started to close in the breakaway. On lap 5 Jake put the hammer down again on the 1st section of gravel made all of us suffer. The Saturn rider was gone and I was stuck 3rd wheel and Breezer showed us all why he gets paid to ride his bike. On section 2 of gravel, Jake punched it again and this time Todd and I got popped just before the chase group caught the break. We spent about half a lap chasing to no avail. We ended up getting caught by a chase group that had both my teammate Brian and Meurig in the group. With me being pretty much smashed at this point I did as much as i could before another sinus blowout and shear exhaustion took me out of the race. I think considering how severe my sinuses were i raced pretty well, i've never had that much snot leave my body at one time as what happened every time I put in a hard effort all day. Even if I had been feeling great I don't think i could have won today. Jake was way too strong and I think that Greg Christians is also going really well right now. It was a blast as usual and maybe next year will be the one. We'll see thanks for reading.