I met up with Jim, Greg, and Royden to race the 3/4's up at The Pur Tour. We had quite a large field, between 50 and 60 guys. With the layout of the course and the size of the field, consensus was that no one was going to get away. With that in mind, I spent the majority of the riding easy somewhere in the middle of the pack. With three laps to go, I realized that I ought to find Jim, to help lead him out for the sprint. I moved up easily and was riding next to him halfway around that lap. With two to go, I heard him say he was on my wheel. The penultimate lap was accomplished without incidence. On the start of the last lap, the Michelob Ultra guys looked to be setting up a train at the front and Jim told me to stay on the wheel of "the big guy". After the first turn, there was one Michelob guy between me and "the big guy" and he wasn't tight on his teammates wheel. Wanting to be in his place, I decided to try to muscle him over so I could move Jim into a better position. He wasn't willing to cede the space and muscled me back. Unfortunately, he had more muscle. Net result was me taking an off-road diversion.

Stayed up and got back on the road, but had picked the worst possible time to do that. I chased hard but there was no way I was catching back on, so I sat up and rolled in off the back. Sorry Jim.

Oh well, live to fight another day.