Mason Lake #3 race

For this last installment of the Mason Lake series, I was trying to get ready to beat my 2nd last spot finish, by trying to get my diabetes in check to the best of my capabilities in preparation.
Weather forecast was rain and cold...great!
Gina was going to be part of the support as well as my son Julien and even Zoe Gina's little poodle. Off we were to Mason at 6am again.
Got to the starting line all registered with my previous race number and ready to go. 9:35am and about 1/2 mile in you could hear the rear pacing car horn sound as we now were "racing".
First lap was hard and windy, and Mike wanted to make a statement by pulling hard in the front early on. I helped as much as I could and we started to see some fading out in the back. Second lap was a little more casual and I didn't have too much trouble staying in the group, safe from crashes and novice riders mistakes, but as we crossed the finish line for the last lap and heard the bell ring, I was stuck on the right side of the road behind a 3 layer riders and I could see Mike in the front starting to move up with 3 other races.
For about 5 miles I was trying to get myself off my isolation as no one was letting me come out. I finally managed to move to the front and saw myself striging the entire field head wind behind me. I thought, well that's not good for me to bring the entire peletton back to Mike, so I started to slow down and moved a side hoping that others would take the lead and that I could rest a little bit and keep my energy for the finish. But I quickly realized that they all stayed behind me, so I pretty much had to hit the brakes to make a point they needed to pass me.
Once passed, I quickly fond a compfortable spot in the main field, no too far from the front and instructed the riders to pick up the pace if they wanted any chances of catching up the break away.
It was a strange feeling for me as I was happy for Mike to be now way in the front with the 3 other riders, as we had now lost sight of them, but at the same time I wanted to be at his side to help out.
Finally the pace picked up and before long we could see the now 3 man breakaway in the distance. We then caught up with Mike and only 2 guys as the 4th one kept on going. I started to pick up the pace in the front to try to close the gap with mister #1 and quickly we could see him as he was fading away on the rollers.
But too little too late, we now knew we couldn't catch him as the 1k flag was in our sight.
It was now a bunch race for 2nd. I was positioned in the front with a "Mellow Johny" guy and needed to catch my breath if I was hopping to have anything left for a sprint. I moved to the center of the road, on the yellow line and waited for the last turn, 400m to go. The pace picked up, saw a couple guys move up in a sprinting pace and saw a guy about 2 bikes behind me and to my right take a spill that ended up pretty serious as the ambulance was called in.
As soon as the 200m flag was passed, I took to the left of the road and put it out all that was left of power in my legs to finish 6th. 5th from the pack.
My heart rate was through the roof as I felt I had to work much harder for this race, because of the wind and the few times I was in the front of the field.
Good lesson of tactics, I should have been more carefull when Mike took off with the 3 other guys and be part of that break as I think we could have had 2 Woodinville Bicycle jerseys in the top 5.
Next time...
Blood sugar on the finish line was 293, Julien was happy and proud to see me, so was Gina. Treated for the high, drank more Gatorade and off we checked the official results. 6th place, 4th overall for the Mason Lake series even with one race missing. Oh well.

Thank to Mike for keeping me safe in the front and hurting me with those breakaways.

Thanks for Julien and Gina for the support. Love you guys.