(cumulative points race). The Chicago crew took 2 cars up, the
college students getting to leave earlier in the day and us working
folk leaving the city around 7. The 6 HR drive and eastern time zone
got us there around 2am, with a 6am wake up call. I was a little bit
tired the next morning but determined to try and make the most of our
7 person team. The race started with a 35 mile solo break from the gun
by Chris, followed by a lot of really easy riding in the bunch. When
Chris was caught the racing picked up a bit and I tired my hand at
getting a break going. There were a couple of times that I thought we
had the correct combo of riders, but the amateur Bissell guys wanted
no part in actually working together, so we would get pulled back. A
break of 2 finally started putting some time into us and I made a huge
bridge attempt. I pulled one Bissell guy with me, who refused to pull
through, so I put my head down and rode flat out hoping I could reel
them in myself. He sensed when I just starting to tire and jumped
hard. I tried to accelerate but he already had 3 lengths on me and I
was dead. I sat up and got reabsorbed by the group. That would end up
being the winning break. The rest of the race was pretty uneventful
and I attacked once or twice out of shear boredom, and follwed a lot
of very unsuccesful moves. I saved as much as I could for the final
push up the long gradual climb to the finish. It was one long sprint,
if you can even call it that. I had no legs to take advantage of the
good position I had going into the base of it and Seth and I creeped
across the line for 14th and 15th.
Day 2 brought a bit better fortune as our team was determined to make
good of our long trip to the north. The temperature was in the 80s,
with a mild breeze, on a course that was half technical, half long
straightaways. I bairly missed the first threatening break of the
day, and found myself on the front pulling hard to bring them back. I
signaled for help from the team and luckily got some first from Greg
Christensen ( Pabther) who was determined to bring the duo back. When
they were finally in striking distance one guy attacked hard and I
followed suit. Quickly we had a break of 3, then 4, then 5. We worked
well together from the 20 min mark until the final few laps. With 4 to
go our group of 5 could see a bridging group of 4 in our rearview
mirror so we started to increase the pace. 2 of their 4 were catching
us with 2 laps to go and right as they were I put in a half hearted
attack to try and keep our group at 5 instead of 7. They eventually
did catch us and we went into the bell lap 7 strong. Half way around a
guy made a hard jump and no one followed right away. Then another went
and everyone was all over it. I sat third wheel going into the last
corner, with one guy out front poised to win. It was a long headwind
sprint so I waited until I sensed guys coming up on my sides and then
started my sprint. I came around the first guy and needed about 1 more
meter to catch the second one. Second in the sprint for 3rd overall on
the day. The rest of the peloton was setting up for the sprint and
Nick and Henry would take 1-2 in the field sprint for 14 and 15 (there
were more people in no mans land between the break).
In all it was a decent weekend, and our team is getting stronger every
weekend. It was also very fun staying at Nicks parents log cabin on a
lake; if only I would have brought my fishing pole!
Next weekend is 4 days of memorial day racing which should be a good
timer if we continue on our track of improvement.
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