Blake Harlan: Walburg, Racing, Austin.......warm weather.....

Well today was officially the first race of the seaon and it went way better than i intended. Walburg, traditionally raining and freezing cold, today was warm and sunny...something just wasnt right. How could this race be so great......well it wasnt. Mother nature made up for the cold temps and rain by throwing 30 mph winds at us all day. Everything was going fine, a few surges here and there and then a break went up the road. I honestly dont think they could have made it the whole way but they did since at the beginning of the 3rd lap the entire field was stopped by the race official for over a minute as she told us she would stop the whole race if we wouldn't stop the yellow line violations. Well needless to say everyone was pissed and in the windy conditions the break was not going to be caught. Half or more of the remaining pack dropped out since they are little girls. The rest of us set out on our third lap determined to beat mother nature. I felt really good and dropped the hammer along with some others and managed to stretch the field out pretty good dropping a few along the way. After a few more attacks by me and some other guys the packed was dwindled down to about 20 riders. With about 1/2 miles to go i attacked and only about 15 riders came up to me. I attacked at about 600M and only a few guys had to to follow, then one guy countered i jumped on his wheel and then won the field sprint for a 7th place finish. Since i haven't really been doing super hard stuff this year yet im pretty happy with where my fitness is. We'll see how tomorrow plays out but i hope its not as windy as today was.

Wind: