Race before the race

So,

here we go again. Another race report.

After being spanked at the Chicago Crit, I signed up for the first heat of the Tour of(de) Elk Grove Village the same evening. I actually took my bike to work and did interval sessions very close to my Skokie workplace (a stretch of Lehigh going northbound from Dempster). I got a few good sessions Mon-Wed and was still able to get home before 8 pm - something I could not do training on the lakefront path averaging 16-17 mph.

Anyway, Saturday comes around and for some reason I estimate that it would take me half hour to get to Elk Grove from my Lincoln Square apartment. Left my place at quarter to 8, and by 8 found myself stuck on I-90 moving snail pace, screaming and shouting with my windows down. Apparently, the bridge at Lawrence Ave. was falling apart and the crews were cleaning up the debris - reducing the traffic to one lane. After that it cleared up and I stepped on the gas pedal. I parked my car at 8:35 (my race starts at 9:00 am), scrambled to pump up my tires while putting on my shoes and gloves and a helmet. Picked up my bib number at 8:54 and procedeed to put my number on MY right side. Erik was giving me advice to stay up front but I was focused on getting to the line in time that it seemed I was blowing him off. I hear a first call to the line and I had not even gotten a lap around the course, let alone a warmup. This was going to be a disaster! At the line, I realize that MY RIGHT side is everyone else's LEFT side, so I tell the official to let me switch my number. As they were reading the instructions, I put my jersey on ready to go, lined up third row or so. I pulled a sneaky move when the pace car was getting through and moved to the first row. Everyone was slow to get back to their position, I just took the open slots. But, as always, I missed a clip in and ended up mid pack as the race started.
First two laps went fine, U-turns were slow enough and there were no crashes. On the third lap I was towards the back of the pack chatting with teammate Matt. I tried to move up on the straight sections but couldn't gain more than 4-5 wheels and I again found myself at the back going through the last turn. I guess my lack of warmup finally kicked me in the ass and I couldn't accelerate to move up. Slowly, I started fading but it was a bit of good luck because there was a big crash in the pack (one rider flipping over his bars), and I was able to ride through the mess. Ended up riding the last lap and a half with 3 more riders that popped off the back and came in 27th on the day.
Can't complain considering that I almost missed the race.
Back to training on Lehigh. I hope to get to know the people who leave on that stretch of road, the kids are waving at me as I go up and down. It's pretty cool.

A big thanks to the Mayor of EGV, who's put on a phenomenal event 30 mins (well, depending on traffic conditions) from my home.