State RR cat 4

Yesterday at Caesar's Creek, I lined up with about forty other hopefuls in the cat 4 OH state championship road race: there were a lot of new faces from upstate (and beyond), and we were missing some familiar ones -- recent upgrades swelling the ranks of the cat 3 field to over 80 riders.

The course was twisty and rolling, with one extended downhill and, at about 1.5 miles before the finish line, a tough hill that started out steep, eased in the middle, and then kicked again near the top before "leveling" out into a false flat for a while. Then, a right turn, and about one k to the slightly downhill long straightaway to the finish line. When I saw this during warmup, I practically salivated: if I could make it up the hill near the front, there was enough space between the top of the hill and the finish line to regroup and position myself for what looked like a sprinter's dream.

Or so I thought.

The race was, to say the least, pretty uneventful for a while: no dominant team, so not much in the way of team tactics. With a bunch of singletons, or pairs of teammates, we rode around, reeling in the occasional frisky feller. I stayed out of the wind, drifting back through the field and then taking rides back up to the front third. The field strung out on the climb, but no one really used it to launch anything, and it always seemed to come together. For the third lap, one rider attacked just past the feed zone (I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt here, since the general grumbling opinion was that he attacked in the feed zone), built up a lead of about 30 seconds, but then popped when he got to the hill. After four laps, it was gruppo compatto, and I mentioned to the rider next to me that it looked like we'd roll neutral through most of the lap, and then go balls-out from the hill.

So we get to the bottom of the hill, and I'm pretty much where I want to be. I shift down, take a deep breath, and stomp -- and the guy right in front of me does the same, but stops cold when he tries to pedal, as if he'd hit a wall. In fact, the field explodes -- I think five laps was exactly necessary to make the hill matter in this race. I had to brake and turn my front wheel to avoid him, and then build momentum all over again. I'm cramping a little, but no panic, since there's all that room after the top of the hill, right?

Wrong. I reach the top further back than I wanted to be, and form into the third group on the road. Justin from Jeni's takes a huge dig to bring us most of the way to the second group. I keep taking peeks back, thinking that other groups will be coming forward and wondering if I should save something for a group sprint. But no one appears to be joining us, and finally I lower my head in the second group and get on the front, pretty sure that we can bring back the leading six, but not sure if there's enough room left to do it. Dick from Abundance is on my wheel -- he promises to come through and pull, but later tells me he couldn't. I drop my head and dig deep, and when I look up ...

Carnage. Four of the six leaders were splayed across the road, and the remaining two -- Charlie from Turner and Mike Malmer from Dayton -- were making the run for the line. I towed Dick through a clear spot in the middle of the wreckage. Now I know that not only do I have Dick on my wheel (although at this point I think he's cheering me on), but I know that others are coming up on me. I gave what I had, which meant I caught a fading Mike just before the line for second. Dick got pipped and ended up fifth. I rolled across the line, caught Bret's eye (thanks for coming out, Bret!), and nodded "yes!" You can't really holler for a second place, but I was pretty durn happy with the result, especially given the way the finale played out.

People keep telling me that the 3s are waiting, but after seeing ninety guys line up in that field, I'm not really in a hurry. The 4s are strong, and tough, and I got a little lucky (and others got a little unlucky) yesterday. If I had made the front of the race after the hill, after all, I stood a good chance of joining four other riders on the pavement. Instead, I've got this nice official USAC silver medal.