Downers Grove Cat 5 Race

So Alex and I raced at Downers Grove on Sunday morning and Andy came down to watch. The story of the race was that two guys who looked like complete jokers broke away on the first lap and no one would work to bring them back. I realize now that there were several times when I should have attacked, but I was just trying to be conservative and assumed that someone else was going to try and bridge and I would get on their wheel...but it never happened.

The start of the race was good because Alex and I got up front on the left side:
So the race was super short, only 11 laps or so, and I stayed top 5 in the pack (or the 1st chase group b/c it was down to 12 people by the end). Here's me second wheel at the top of the hill on the second to last lap:

I had to annotate the photo because when we came into the second corner on the last lap, the guy in the orange came into the turn super hot and tried to squeeze around on the inside. When his back wheel started to slide out he straightened his bike out and rode me directly into one of those metal posts you see holding up the netting. Needless to say, I was super pissed and yelled some choice expletives at the guy. I'm a little banged up on my right side, but my bike needs some expensive attention.

Anyway, the conclusion is that I could have pwnd those guys and gotten 3rd and I should have followed the early break or attacked at some point.