Newmark

With an hour and half to start time, the rain came down in sheets. I was already nervous about entering a 2/3 race on wet pavement and the field size was looking pretty slim. Some real talent had already registered and I was without any team mates. I also spent most of my warm-up time in the car, contemplating going home. But half way through the Women’s race, the weather let up and it stopped raining. The temperature must have dropped about 10 to 15 degrees though, and it was downright chilly. I managed a few warm-up laps and the stout winds the 4/5 race experienced, died down considerably.

During the warm up, I heard Ryan Vingris from Team Abundance talking to his other two team mates about instigating a break. He and another rider had big plans to get away, while the other rider was to sit-up and try to slow things down. Mmmm…

We’ll my hat is off to Ryan and his boy’s for a mission accomplished. From the start, the pace was “stupid fast”, as Dave Stewart use to say (speaking of Dave, he was the lone Huntington Bank Rider in the pack and it was fun racing with Dave, who is always friendly and a good sport). Anyway, I digress…when a large break of 7 riders escaped, our average was 26 mph. I was winded, but felt good and I was annoyed when the pace slowed down, as guys realized that just about every team had a guy in the break. For several laps the break was within view but they were slowly gaining time on us. Dave and another rider (sorry, don’t know his name, but have seem him around a lot at races) asked if I wanted to help launch some attacks, in an effort to either break things up a bit or perhaps pull the break in. This sounded interesting but by the time the plan was devised and implemented two laps later, everyone was well rested and our attacks were not fruitful. Altogether, it was fun changing-up my usual race tactics and working on the front a bit.

With two laps to go, Ryan and his team mate passed the field (impressive). There was quite a bit of grumbling regarding how to proceed, but everyone agreed to let them go…everyone but an Olympus rider that is, who seemed to like the idea of a free ride, as he attached himself to the break (Readers, I realize we were only sprinting for like 8th place here, but come on…I was so annoyed). I was later told with authority to “check the rule book” but whatever….

The ninth place finisher was about a bike length behind from catching Olympus, who took 8th. I managed a 13th place finish. I had a lot of fun and I enjoyed myself thoroughly.