Lake of Bays OCUP

Today we had the worst weather possible. Hovering just over 0 degrees, we experienced snow, rain and hail all with nice strong gusts of wind. Everyone was asking themselves why there were putting themselves through this, and one of the commissaries said: So you can tell your kids about this in 20 years! Everyone that came out and raced today proved that they are tough as nails!
The race was 94km around the beautiful Lake of Bays. This race would be much more enjoyable with better weather. I feel sorry for the elite 1-2 riders that were out there for 170km today, it would have been brutal (although fellow coachchris.ca team mate, Andrew House pulled away with a sweet solo win!).
I was hoping to do pretty good today with the form I have built up. I was feeling good, rode with pack and moved around a bit, making sure to stay clear of any crashes (luckily there were none). I went up and stayed at my uncles on saturday so when I checked the weather it said 6 degrees with a 40% chance of precipitation. Definitely should have brought my booties, although i dont think any of my gloves would have kept my hands warm. I definitely should have brought more. I was having problems shifting during the race, especially down shifts. The combination of numb fingers and the small trigger on the shimano shifters made it tough to shift. This ended up being my down fall. Just after the feed zone as we started to head back we were about 75km in, the peloton surged ahead to cover an attack going downhill. I wasnt able to get a shift for what felt like forever. Once it finally shifted I lost my spot in the peloton and was spit out the back. Enough of a gap had formed that I couldnt catch them. I chased hard for 5km then I saw someone else drop off. I thought this would be great for me to catch back on with help. Unfortunately this guy didn't have it in him and we both lost sight of the peloton. I ended up dropping him and riding the last 10km in solo.
What I have learned is that weather is unpredictable, and it is better to pack too much than not enough. Also after my shifting dilemma it has reinforced my preference for sram shifters as the shifting tap is bigger, it will be something I will look for whenever I get a new bike.
Heres to hoping the weather is better for Niagara Classic next weekend. Really excited for this race and im curious to see how the new finish will work out!

Garmin data (HR wasnt set up right): http://connect.garmin.com/activity/312015742
Results: http://www.ontariocycling.org/web_pages/results/20130512-202508-lobresults.htm

 Beauty photos courtesy of my brother who gave away his weekend to come with me. Cut my head off in the one above as I came into the finish. The next picture is just trying to stay warm at the beginning!