Kansas State Championship

Jane and I rolled down to pittsburg, KS friday evening for the Kansas state road race and crit championship. got lucky because Jane's sister lives in Pitt so we had a place to stay for free...very nice - thank you Matt and Sheryl. Woke up early for Jane's 8 am rollout of her 42 mile road race. 3 laps of fairly flat terrain, high winds, and a moderate climb 1k from the finish. After a few mishaps on the course she took 3rd place....out of 3 riders. Whatever, she still got to collect $25 on a $15 entry fee.
I rolled out with a plethera of teammates at about 10:30. Steve V, Joe Anderson, David N., and Brad Williams. Not bad company. We did 4 laps of the course for about 55 miles total. first lap around was spent making my way to the front and getting settled in. Wasn't really sure if it was the first or second time through the start finish line, but some people up front decided to hammer it. Got caught on a slow wheel and had to bridge a small gap in a mean headwind, recovered alright and ended up in a nice 12 man breakaway with 2 other teammates, David and Brad.
Things were looking good. Started to feel pretty nice and was contemplating on how use the hill near the finish - Brad, David and I are all pretty decent climbers. Approached the final hill and under my normal output found myself on the front with a solo breakaway rider 50 meters in front. I wasn't going to chase him down, that would have killed me for the final and only would have dragged 10 more riders with me. A bike shack racer rolled around me and I just sat on his wheel. 400m to go and people started jumping. Caught a wheel and sprinted around a few riders into 4 th place, started to fade and David, who had my wheel jumped around me and got past one more for second place. I ended up in 5th. Pretty happy with that race, you get tired towards the end and are ready for it to be over, but I was still feeling strong.
this was also my first payout. Oh yeah......$35 in the bank (minus my $25 entry).
There was a crash at the end also, brad got mixed up in that and rode out into a ditch. He was alright but nothing to claim for the race.

Was feeling decent for Sunday's crit on Pitt State's campus. conditions were windy and hot, with a crazy 100 degree corner near the end. This one got going fast and we had a another 10-12 man break from the start. Put in some hard laps from the beginning before we settled in. they had 4 cash primes which I was a bit disappointed I didn't get in on. Although on the $2o prime I was ready to break for, my teammate David jumped before me and got away so I sat in and gave a bit a block but no one was in the mood to chase. Laps were winding down and I was out of water, and in a perfect position to sprint. One guy jumped, I covered him, another jumped and passed us both. I tried to get off the wheel I was on but he was slowing down and had a good wheel rub before I was able to overtake him. By that time there were 2 in front followed by David and then myself. I tried to get to David's wheel but was cooked. The rest of the group was pretty split up and took 4th uncontested. David managed 3rd.
Got another payout. Racing is pretty fun when you can win money. A couple weeks from now is Tour of KC part 1 and then the Tour of Lawrence. These two races are going to be the real test for me. So many people are gearing up for Lawrence. The fields are going to be huge, the payouts are big and it's going to be fast. Should be an awesome weekend for racing.