RATL #2: Some Positives!

I believe in starting off with a cliche, so: What a difference a week makes.
We got our butts kicked in the first Races at the Lake as a team. Individually, I got annihilated -- dropped maybe four-five laps in. And we had three others dropped and one crashed. Two finished in the field.
Today's race was a huge improvementfor me, and arguably for SBR. It still wasn't a good race, which underscores how bad last week's was. And the bottom line was that we missed the break and didn't bring it back. So not only did we never put Pete in a position to win, but we wore him out by making him do way too much chasing.
But we raced much better. And I felt like a different guy: Hung in throughout.
We didn't control the race -- that wasn't our objective -- but we kept a handle on it. We won both primes, and Matt O. finished fourth, winning the field sprint. Some big-engine triathlete for Summit won by 75 yards, maybe, followed by a Spin rider and Russ Fogle from Summit. Matt was maybe 20 feet behind them.
I felt much, much better and was recovering well after the hills. Coulda been the longer warmup, coulda been some fitness gains after working hard this week.
But I still have only one move in me, tops. I used it on the 2nd-to-last lap. It was a mistake.
I sat in until then, waiting for the break up front to come back. It had a Stark, a Spin and a Summit in it, and I figured it would fall apart like all but one break did last week. Stayed away for a lap, then two. By the third lap away, there were only three to go, and I knew Pete was getting used up and had to be getting frustrated.
Obviously, what should've happened is that SBR pacelines up and chases it down. But we were all scattered. As we came up on the bridge, Matt and I got in contact and we drove hard up the hill to try to pull Pete up. But Pete didn't latch on, probably 'cause we didn't let him know we were coming. When we passed him and he didn't get my wheel, I slowed for Pete and Matt kept blasting away. I launched after him again, but within 100 more yards, I totally blew up along the left edge of the road and everyone passed me by the time we hit the parking lot. Then I looked back and saw Gary, also blown. I dropped back to try to give one last effort, to pull him up. That failed within about 10 turns of the cranks -- I waved him on.
I was 20 seconds down on the field as I pushed toward the S/F line, and it was the bell lap -- no prayer. So I pulled off to watch the finish.
Lots learned today.