Rain Rain Go Away

Today was the state road race championships here in good ol' Michigan. There were around 50-60 riders in the field, and our race was 102 miles. Sitting in the staging area, the group was lectured by the referee on a storm that was headed this way. We had a 10:00 start time, so the goal for the day? Beat the storm.

The race started off with an usual supsect, big Ray from Wolverines, going on a solo breakaway. The field surged and backed off several times while he was off the front, closing the gap to about 3 bike lengths. Big Ray, however, just kept on chugging with that engine of his and pulled out to 20 seconds again whenever the field let up. Eventually he was caught and another breakaway went away. That break was pulled back where then yet another breakaway went away. It went like this for pretty much the whole race. People would constantly launch attacks to the break, until the whole field was up there, then somebody else would start the next break. I managed to get into 3 or 4 of this little breakaways, including 1 or 2 promising ones, but nothing slipped away too easily.

On the 4th lap of 6 the field had come together right before the biggest climb of the course. I noticed this and got ready to get in what I thought would be the game-winning breakaway over the top of the climb. 5 riders attacked at the base of the climb, however, and held their gap over the top and increased it from there. I tried attacking away from the field 3 times to get into the break, but too many people were thinking the same thing. When the gap to the break increased to about 30 seconds I gave up my efforts and let it slip away without me. No worries though, the break came back within a half lap and the actual winning break slipped away in a counter of about 7 guys at the start of the 5th lap. The biggest mistake I made today was not being at the front when this break slipped away.

The storm hit us 3 km from the finish at the end of the 5th lap. We rolled in with downpouring rain and lightening, finishing a lap early. One rider on my team, John Ridgon, took advantage of the situation and attacked as the rain got bad. I think he held off for a top 15 finish. Nice! I was sastified with making it home alive, so I took my time, happy with my pack finish. All in all today was more of a learning experience then anything. Today I noticed that the riders who made the break were consistantly on the front the whole race, always attacking the field. I need to be more aggressive on the front and maybe do less work in early parts of the race when a breakaway is not as likely. So stay near the front, yet again, is what I need to be telling myself for upcoming races.

I would like to throw out a special thanks to Kris and Mark for helping out in the feed zone. Without out you guys I would have died of thrist over that long 87 miles!

Until next time,

JZ