Hills, Heat, and the Last State Championship Race of 2008

This weekend was the State Championship Road Race in hot and hilly, Ocala, FL. Thinking about last year, I remember the uneven terrain, rough roads and mile long sprints. I also remember that races never happen the same way twice.
I warmed up on the first hill a couple of times to get those muscles moving. I also did a couple of sprints and lined up for the start. When they said go, Justin sprinted off the line but I didn't chase him because he isn't in my category. Why should I? We turned the first corner and went up the hill. Lucas jumped after Justin followed by Felipe. Ricardo also chased them but couldn't catch up. As we got to the top of the hill we went into a unspoken rotating pace line with Christian, Nick, Jay, Anselm, Justin, and I. Ricardo was a ways up the road from us and Lucas and Felipe even farther. It seemed that everyone set a goal to catch Ricardo and half way through the lap, we did. He jumped into our pace line and we just kept going, now trying to catch the break too. Suffering up the last hill on the first lap, we heard a whistling sound and knew someone had a flat. I turn my head and saw Jay sprinting up the left and knew the sound was coming from him. From previous "playing around" I knew that it's not to hard to make a fake "flat sound", so I went after him until I could see his tire was wobbling around. Our group went around him and didn't see him for the rest of the race. Skipping to the middle part of the second (the last) lap; My teammate Christian wanted me to try to get off the front, but I knew it would be to far to time trial to the finish. We nearly sprinted up the last hill and the pace quickened as the finish neared. Before we could even see the finish line we were flying. It was Ricardo and I side by side, followed by Anselm and Justin. Our sprint broke out a bit too early and I just blew right before the line. In the end, I finished fourth in 13-14 and spent the rest of the day taking photos and relaxing.
I'm happy with my finish this weekend but here is a list of what I could have done better:

• Practice more on hills. I can tell I'm doing better, but not good enough, especially for nationals this year.
• Stay in the draft a bit more to save energy.
• Gone harder and longer in the sprint.