Posted: Mon May. 19, 2008 7:44 am
What a great day it was for a race, weather was perfect. The plan for the race was simple, but of course it did not work. The goal was to hang out for the first lap, enjoy the day and shut down any early attacks, this part went well enough. There was attempt by two riders to get away on the rise after Blodgett?s, but I was able to bridge up to them quickly and they sat up as soon as I caught them. The lap 2 goal was to stay with any attacks , do not help the breaks much, and try to beat the remaining riders at the finish climb. This is where it went wrong in a hurry. At some point early in the second lap a solo rider went off the front without much attention from the peloton. I was hanging out mid-pack and did not even see this occur. By the time I realized he was out there he had a pretty decent gap on us and it was causing some confusion in the pack. I went to the front as we entered the flats on 103 to help organize a chase. There were only a few of us really contributing to the chase and it was not well organized. It looked like the gap was coming down after the marsh and the chase group seemed to relax at this point and the gap opened up again. At this point I decided to try to bridge the gap myself starting at Dewey Hill. At the top of the climb I had closed up 80% of the gap and managed to open a gap on the chase group. The catch was made just before the decent into Georges Mills. The guy said he was glad to see me and we worked well together across the flats to the next climb. I set the tempo up the climb out of Georges Mills and he stayed with me, but he said he was hurting when we reached the top. He stuck with me though and took some decent pulls to Cardiac Hill. Up Cardiac I once again rode tempo, no big surges, but he was shelled and fell back quickly. From that point on it was solo to the finish with no threats from behind. I decided to keep working hard to maximize the workout and finished with a decent gap for the win. Mark and Dan were riding strong, it would have been really interesting to see what could have developed if we had not let that one rider slip off the front. I feel bad for not paying attention and letting that one happen, but he went at a point in the race that was not expected and it worked. Thanks to Chris for promoting such a great local event, and to all the volunteers that make it possible. And thank you Helen for the great pictures. Time to get the mountain bike race season started.
[img:7c60f52a7e]http://www.team-pinnacle.org/albums/bc_personal/120x90.png[/img:7c60f52a7e]
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