Another Tuesday Night Crit - Another kick in the face!

In years past, I've always have 3-6 mtb races in the legs by now, and a whole lot of MTB training that comes with that. Since MTB racing (& the training for it) make up about 90% of my overall fitness, it's no surprise why i'm not exactly flying on the pavement right now. My off-road form is OK right now, but not even close to 100% given the zero race schedule. I can do all the paved "junk" miles I can stand, but that really doesn't do much for me. Contrary to some popular opinions, riding road doesn't make you fast off-road. Last night's crit was another windy-as-hell 45 minutes. I managed better than the week before but still sat out 1 lap around mid race to nurse a leg cramp. Never really did much expect stay in the right place to avoid the wind. Few more weeks, I should be back out there on the cross bike, and probably going better. I'm only doing the Tuesday crits to keep some high-end over the Spring/Summer for cross season. The Wednesday night hill ride tonite was a good one. Plenty of fast guys. The roll out was nice and brisk. I managed to hang near the front on the first climb till the top when I got gapped a bit. Shad Shreiner went pretty hard near the top and we got an lead group established. The Renner climb was a bit more subdued, with just a few little digs towards the top. The lead group slip in two over the top and somehow I stayed in the front one. I did get spit out briefly along Renner but I got back in with the help of some 360 guys that were popped on the Renner climb. We were all together up Woodland and I managed to stay near the front, till Shad went near the top. I didn't have much left after that.