The weather this morning came to no surprise as it's the same weather we've been having for the past 3 days. I figured the cold and rain would keep some people away and I was right. What was nearly a field of 50 last weekend in the Cat 4 field only had a little over 20 this morning. The good news is I was nearly guaranteed a top 20 placing today just based upon mathematical probability, the bad news is that there would only be serious riders out there braving the weather so the race wouldn't be a walk in the park.
Joining me from the team was Tim House, Jim Flesher and Marshall Leininger. Today being the last of the series, I wanted to mix it up a little bit and see what kind of results I might be able to get. I was unfortunately racing without the power meter today but in all honesty, I never look at that thing during races and I only use it afterwards to help analyze my race. Last week I determined that I conserved a lot of energy by hanging in the field and came to the finish feeling fresh. Today, I would want to race a little more aggressively and see if I could get myself into a good position or help setup one of my teammates. The organizers must have had a lot of merchandise left over gear because at the start line it was announced that there would be a total of 6 primes. I decided I might try for one this week, what do I have to loose. As we started rolling, I settled into a good position in the front of the field. The pace was brisk but that was most likely to keep everyone warm in the damp conditions. Rolling through the the finish/start line for the first time, they announced the first prime, wow that came early. I had no intentions of going for one so soon but I was sitting in second position on Pete Baughman's wheel (October Lake Effect) and what better time to test yourself than on lap two as there would be plenty of time to recover from any hard efforts. As we crested the top of the climb, I hear someone yell "Go Brian!" At the time, I thought it might have been God, but I later learned that it was actually Tim. I went around Pete on the far right and hammered through the S curves. Its nice going through there solo because you can take those things as fast as you want to and not worry about the guy in front of you. Through the final curve and I was hammering on the pedals trying to get to the finish line first...All for some sweet merchandise. I'm sad to say Pete grabbed it by a half-wheel length but it was fun trying. I had a good laugh with Pete and sat up to start my recovery. I later learned after the race that Tim and Marshall blocked the field from catching us which helps explain why it was only Pete and I up there. It took what seemed like a few laps to recover and during that time I was dangling dangerously near the back of the field. History has shown me that this is the worst place to be in a race so I fought to get myself back up near my teammates. While in the process, I noticed that Jim had managed to get himself into a little breakaway. I was still working my way up to Tim in the front to help try and slow things down in the field but never made it in time as they were coming back quickly. The breakaway either never worked well enough together or our pace never slowed down enough because a lap later, we were all back together. As we were catching them, I decided to give Jim a little "well done" pat on the back for a good effort. As I did it I was thinking, man I hope I didn't scare him and cause him to crash. I'm not sure I even finished that thought when I heard a loud noise coming from behind me. Oh man, oh man please don't let it be Jim......Sure enough I look around and I see Jim with his feet on the ground doing his best Scott Hamilton impersonation. Augh, please don't let it be me, please don't let it be me that caused that! I felt bad and contemplated sitting up and waiting for him, but Marshall said he was ok and I could see the field moving up the road without me. If I was going to get caught back on, now would be the time to go. Figuring that if I had taken Jim down, I at least owed it to him to finish the race I made the bridge back up to the field. Laps ticked down and the race was animated, much more so than last week which made this race so much more fun than the previous three. I think I was either on the front of the race working or on the back recovering from my efforts. With two to go, I was sitting on Pete's wheel again rolling throughout the start/finish line when he said lets go. Pete, a guy named Jeremy (unattached) and I made our move through the tight 90's hoping that this would give us a little bit of an edge to get a gap. The field wasn't going to let us go easily so we were working hard. So hard in fact that this effort, combined with everything else I had previously done had caught up to me, I was suffering so much I couldn't get around them to take my turn to pull. I could see Tim working to try and bridge up to us so I thought that once he got here, I'd sit up, let him take over and I'll go back to the group to try and slow things down a little bit. It's hard for one person to slow things down so I was pretty ineffective in my efforts. This would mean it was coming down once again to a sprint finish. Try to recover was my main goal, but it didn't happen quick enough as I sprinted for somewhere near 10th place.
At the end of the race, my only thought was to find Jim and find out what happened. Catching up with him, he assured me that I was in no way responsible for what had happened. I figured he was just being nice so I kept asking to make sure. Finally, it took an email from him later in the day to convince me that I wasn't involved. Sorry about your race Jim.
Hats off to the Summit Freewheelers/Allied Decals for once again hosting another great event this year. I look forward to your upcoming races this summer and fall and look forward to this event again next spring.
brian
No comments:
Post a Comment