taking the plunge to admit my age wasn't as hard as i thought it would be. we got to the race pretty early and the rain and fog reminded me of east coast mtb races. showing up and the moist air and fog conceal a lot of the surrounding hillsides and scenery. not really knowing what you were in for that day. yesterday was a lot like that, my first race with the old guys, it wasn't as hard as i thought, but it was fast. good course to try out the 35+ field, nice long hill for about half of each lap. long in that it took up half the lap, not that the hill itself was long. as a team we had a plan to just watch the first 15 minutes and cover any moves of consequence. then later on we were to try to make a move stick. 6 of us got away with two of us in the break. going for a prime that i won we split the break into three. and that was about it. we stayed away the whole race from there, 30 minutes off the front. i pulled really well on the hill, that was where i decided to make my contribution to the break. each time up it i went to the front and did my work. the guy has won every 35+ race this season was with me in the break and he started to take shorter pulls with about 10 minutes left, not much i could do, he attacked at the start of the final lap and went after him and that was about it, i caught him but was too winded to do anything. i made a mess of the last lap, didn't let the other guy chase him and sat on. i think my mistake was to show how well i went up the hill, where the finish line was. oh well, it was fun to be in a break, and third place isn't too bad for a spring race where i was questioning whether or not i'd get dropped!