Ooh baby this one hurt! The race organizer upped the laps to 50 due to the perfect weather in SE lower MI yesterday. I showed about 1045 am for the 1130 am start with James. We went to the 9 am worship service.
We went through the usual chaos of getting bikes out and getting rigged for the race. Plenty of time though for a decent warm up followed by an inspiring team briefing.
The race started the way they all do with a pretty easy first lap then someone tries to stir things up early. I jumped with this early break of five or six riders just in case it developed into something which it didn't. Some time after this two riders got off the front. Josh Tarrant and I am not sure who the other rider was. We never saw them again. Josh is in awesome form. They managed to get themselves as much as 40 seconds. I was told that we had brought them back to about 20 seconds inside of 10 laps to go but I think the strong men figured it was pointless to continue to chase without a chance to reel them in.
I have to say this one hurt a lot. After those early efforts I was pretty gassed with many, many laps to go. Judging by the number of folks who where watching from the roadside I think everyone was hurting. The field was 69 strong today! I don't know how many were left at the end who didn't take a few laps off but my guess is it was less than 30. It just flat out hurt. I did get a chance or two to recover along the way but sure enough someone would throw down another attack and we got all strung out again. There was this steady winnowing effect as tempo increased and riders got shelled off the back.
A little comic relief was provided by my howling freehub. When I coasted this thing just screamed! It got everyone's attention. At one point I just looked back and told the riders behind me that I didn't know what was going to happen...it could blow up an any second. The problem is a rubber seal that sits between the freehub and the wheel. I need to take it apart and re-seat it. People where coming up to me after the race asking me what in the heck that sound was.
Anyway, along the way I began to notice a lot of the folk on the side where wearing our kit! Like I said, this was a tough one. Let me pay homage to one of my own athletes, Mr. Rune Duke who not only hung on but was driving the action throughout. He is going to be good this year! Cat 3 riders had better take notice because the man we now call "RUIN" IS GOING TO RUIN A WHOLE BUNCH OF FOLK in the cat 3 field this year. He is on his way to a 300 watt ftp by season end and he doesn't weigh 150 lbs and almost 6 feet tall! I couldn't be any prouder of his efforts. After the race I told him all those four hour rides were paying off!!
John Rigdon raced like a demon today. He was going up the road late in the race attacking the field! These are the best riders in Michigan and, I think, they were all hurting and he was inflicting pain! Not bad at all! Rob Iser was still in there kicking at the end with John handing out the pain. Joey was there at the end also.
With under 10 laps to go the field slowed some as it tried to sort out the finish. With less than five laps remaining a couple of riders made a break for it and got away. No one wanted to seriously chase them. Like I said, I think the field was suffering and at the end, anyone who had a little more gas was in a good position.
I was pack fill sitting too far back on the last lap. I hit the sprint up the right while Ruin took off up the left side. I was told we were in the top 15 somewhere.
Our team didn't have the greatest day out but this was a training race. We were exposed a little but it is very early in the season. On the upside I was able to hang in there the entire race. It doesn't sound like a lofty goal but given my numbers, age and experience I call it a success. Many fell by the wayside this day.
Once Doug gets his pics up I will take another look at things and revise the post if things look a lot different.
On another note, one of my athletes, Mike Sackett, raced his first two races today taking second in the C-race and and sitting in the B's. Cat 4's and masters take note. This guy is going to be very, very good this year with an FTP of 290 watts.
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