Glasses and Greenbelt

Being blind and all I normally wear glasses or contacts. Being poor and all I'm not going to spring for prescription sunglasses either so my regular glasses service as my eyeball protectors when I ride. But, when I'm wearing my contacts I wear some Tifosi Dolomites that I picked up from Bicycle Place. They are pretty stylish to me and they come with interchangeable lenses. You still get some wind in the eyes but normally that's not a big deal to me...unless it's allergy season. Every year when the seasons are transitioning from spring to summer, I typically get pretty bad allergies. It doesn't effect my breathing or anything like that, only my eyeballs. They get all red and itchy and I end up looking like I've taken up recreational ganja usage. There have been some bike rides where I was seriously thinking about wearing swimming goggles or some kind of snorkel mask to keep my eyes protected. One day, during the 10 o'clock ride this winter, there was a guy wearing skiing goggles. But those would be too heavy to wear during the spring and summer. Until I find the perfect solution I'll continue to deal with the redness and just take a Zyrtec so they don't itch. On to Greenbelt....

So much fun! I'm really enjoying myself in the "A" race. This time I tried to relax a lot more than last week and it helped. Just for me, it's amazing to actually get an up close and personal view of how some of our region's top riders ride. Seeing how guys effortlessly move through the pack, or fly uphill, or attack, or cover breaks is one thing watching from the sidelines but it's a whole different animal when you're right there to see it. At the end of it all, I was out of position to contest the sprint, which sucked because I felt good coming up the hill the last time. Being out of position though, when those front 5 guys took off and others started to drop off the pace, a nice little (read HUGE) gap opened. All the sprint in the world couldn't close that gap. Next time I know that if I'm feeling that good, I definitely have to make more of a conscious and aggressive effort to put myself up front with the guys that are actually going to sprint. All in all I finished in the top 10 at 8th.