This weekend i headed to my homeland of Gwinnet county georgia for my first full weekend of pro 1/2 racing of the year.  The courses both looked pretty similar, exposed 7 mile circuits with a hard climb at the end of each lap.  The weather also looked pretty nasty, with cold and rain predicted for both days.

 On Saturday I showed up pretty early and rode around for 45 minutes before the race, checking out the course.  The weather seemed to be holding off and we would race in a reasonable 50 degrees with wind and wet roads.  We started with about 35 guys, many of whom were strong and on form.  With me were Travis Hagner and Joseph Bolton, so it looked like we might be able to pull something out.  Frank Travieso and Oscar Henao let a small break up the road early, and started setting tempo, just keeping the break 45secs up the road for the first 4 laps.  Then, on the climb, someone blew it up and shut down the gap.  At this point attacks started flying everywhere, and between Travis and I we were in most of them.  After a while i found myself in a small group with some strong guys that could win, about 20 seconds behind the lead group with Travis in it.  Not wanting to jepordize his chances, I did not work, but foolishly, did not sit last wheel.  Of course, I was aired out, isolated, and was forced to chase back on.  After that effort I was pretty wiped, and was able to stay in for another lap before being popped just before the bell lap.  I am way too stubborn to stop, so I rode a lap alone and ended up 15th.  I guess alot more people got dropped than I had realized.  Travis rode super strong but couldn't get away from the group and slotted in at 10th.

 On Sunday, the race was cancelled.  But then un-cancelled and shortened.  Due to the fact that it was pouring rain and 33 degrees, with a bigger storm front moving in, we were to only do 35 miles.  From the start is was aggressive and freezing.  My hands and feet felt like blocks of freakishly cold cement starting about 20 seconds into the race.  After about 30 mins of constant attacks, the feild was pretty well blown to bits, and everyone seemed to be hating every second of it.  I found myself chasing the leading 4 guys (2 groups of 2 about 10-15 seconds appart) solo, with one rider 30 seconds behind me.  I had no idea what was behind him.  The rain stopped soon after it blew up, but unfortunately that was because it started hailing very hard.  Hail hurts.  Kind of alot.  So we basically rode with those exact same time gaps, everyone running from eachother, until 2 and a half laps in.  At this point, it was well below freezing and enough hail had accumulated on the roads and our legs, that there was ice everywhere.  I managed to get to within 15 seconds or so from the group ahead of me before easing off in fear of death.  Soon enough Oscar Clark who was behind me caught me by using his 'cross skills on the icy descents and going pretty well everywhere else.  As i rolled through the start/finish at the end of the lap, they stopped me and told me I was 6th.  Within 2 minutes i was in the car, with the heat on, still in my kit, and on my way out of there.  I was really really cold.