Zoar Road Race

I was in the slacker category that only did two laps but the hills still made the race a straightforward matter of attrition. The start of the race was pretty humorous. We're following the pace car ~15 mph and pass the intersection for the official start and nobody does anything. About 1/2 mile down the road somebody says 'Well, are we supposed to start racing or what?' 'Yeah, back there,' somebody says and still nobody does anything. Eventually the guys in the lead speed up to a semi-respectable pace get tired on the first couple of rollers and pull of. The guys right behind them jump and the race is on! Up the hill there are about five off us clustered together with one guy out front, which we run down, a pattern that would repeat for the rest of the race.

It's not till the first hill on the second lap that we shake the rest of the pack, and each of us take a turn powering down the backstretch to make sure they don't catch us. And then its over the second hill. On the home stretch there are only 3 or 4 of us who manage to catch the climber who we then use mercilessly up till the last 200 meters. On the sprint the winner was cleanly ahead and the guy in second beat me by a half bike length. I gotta work on those sprints.

Boy am I sore! Thank you Lord that I am able to race today.

I really didn't want to race today at all but with Nationals coming up I needed to torcher my body some more! 50 mile road race and looking at the profile of the course it didn't look that bad.

The race started after Fish and I had a good laugh! The roll-out wasn't to bad. Hopefully that is as big as the hills get I told myself. There goes House and I was on his wheel so why not. As he was pulling me I saw this huge hill! I told myself turn around you idiot go home! What are you doing here anyway? Just go home!

I then took a pull for 1 sec house came around and started pulling me again. I got dropped 1 sec later then got dropped by the field! The pace was hard as I hung on to the last guy in the field. Then we came to this Gigantic Mountain!

4 riders got away and thankfully Rish was there to save the day. Fisher blew by us on Paul's wheel and he had almost made it up the road too. I went up that hill better but I felt some pain around my tail bone from the wreck yesterday.

After that climb the pace was hard until 2 laps were left. I got dropped several times and had to chase on the down hills. The pain was getting worse and my legs were extremely tired.

A break group formed with 2 laps to go and John Lorson who worked hard all day was still on the front pulling with maybe 2 other riders. John never quit all day, he was always at the front.

Before the last lap I pushed the pace up the 2nd hill with the chase group just in sight. Fisher took off and was in hot pursuit of them. I did good up that climb so I pulled the field back to the break and then I attacked with Fisher on my wheel! Jim Baldesare joined us and then came the climb again, one more time I told myself. I got dropped from everyone and chased back on. Savage Hill took control after that.

Since I do not get to make many if any of the group rides in Columbus. It was nice to see and race with some of our cat 3's. The race was fun and I think that it helped get some of the lead out of my legs.

What a perfect day! temps in the 70s, low humidity and light winds. I couldn't have asked for better conditions for my first 1-2-3 race. Despite the good weather I was pretty nervous walking around the parking lot seeing everyone I would be racing with. My goal was just to survive the race in the field and help out the team a little if I could.

Ryan was awesome. He got in an early break and took all the pressure off the rest of us. Ryan's break was a life saver for me because with the break gone, the field went into chase mode which was more of a steady, hard effort rather than surges and attacks. All I had to do was follow wheels and make it over the climbs. I was pushed to my limit more than a few times over the climbs, but there was plenty of chance for recovery on the descents. I can't say I ever felt good in the race. But about the halfway point I was pretty sure I could stick it out to the finish.

Late in the race as the chase started to wear down, there were a few counter moves in our field including a break with Grimm and Fisher. I did a little blocking for those guys, but nothing stuck. On the final lap JohnOD and I put in back-to-back suicide attacks before the last climb to set up Grimm and Fisher for the finish. We wanted to keep the pace high and discourage any guys from sneaking away. As a result of my late effort, I was dropped on the last climb. As I crested the top I still had the field in my sights, but more importantly I didn't want to get caught by the guy behind me. I could hear him yell something faintly but I didn't have time to look back. I dumped it in my big ring and drove hard to the finish. Only later did I discover that they guy behind me was JohnOD....oooops sorry John. I should have waited.

Congratulations to everyone on a great race. It's a testament to how far this team has come in just a short period of time. I remember two years ago when we were in awe that Fisher, Ryan, and Rob stepped up to race 1-2-3 in the state road race and survived to the finish. Now 1-2-3 races seem run of the mill with guys consistently placing top 5. Finishing in the field seems like a minor accomplishment, but I couldn't be happier. This will be a big confidence booster for the Savage Hill stage race.