PUR tour 2008 -- 4s

PUR tour: one turn, one hill, long straightaway to the start/finish ... a simple course, right? Go hard, go fast, and see who's there at the end? Well, on Saturday the wind had other ideas, making this a far more tactical race than I would've thought possible. We lined up with 4 horsemen: Steve, Alex, Mike M., and me. Pre-race conversations focused on maybe getting Alex in the money (and outta the 4s) with a 1-2 punch in the finale -- one of us go on the hill, and when that person was (inevitably) brought back (since it's so far from the finish), lead Alex out hard.

The best-laid plans, right? First, three other teams had greater numbers and were in a much better position to determine the way the race went. Dayton mostly patrolled the front, but didn't seem willing to stick their noses out for very long; 7Hills did the same; and Anthem, as usual, kept sending one after another after another into the wind. Seemed like Anthem would alternate with one of the unattached guys in the race -- first one of the u/a guys would go, then an Anthem guy would go. We mostly hung tight, stayed out of the wind, when possible, and paid attention.

Mostly. With six to go, I wanted to move up in the field after the hill -- somehow I had gotten way to the back. I rolled up nice and easy on the left side, didn't see any places to jump back in, and suddenly found myself at the front -- at about 18 mph. What the heck? I thought -- I'm pretty fresh from sitting in. Let's see if we can animate this here race. So I picked it up a bit, and started drilling it, right about the time they rang the prime bell. I could almost hear the dogs start barking and drooling: someone to chase, AND beer at the end!!! Instead of sitting up like a smart guy, I decided to drill it to the turn and see what happened.

What happened was that no one came with me. On the backside, a couple Louisville guys came up, but the pack was hot on their tails, so we got nowhere. Oh well, at least Mairin didn't have to pick me out of a pack that lap.

Fast-forward about 5 more laps, 500 m to go: I'm where I want to be -- on Geoff Reynolds's wheel when he goes too early. I haven't had a chance to look behind me, but I'm hoping Alex is nearby. I follow Geoff, but it's taking more than it should to hold him, and when it comes time to go around, ppphhhhhttttt! nothin'. From the corner of my eye I see Mr. Steady Mike More roll in for a top-10 (go Mike!).

It was a fun race -- pretty sketchy, though: once people started learning where to be in the wind, they started doing whatever it took to get there. It got really narrow on the gutter in the staightaway as riders squeezed left, and then squeezed some more, and a few guys did the whole across-the-road swerve that scares the socks offa me.

Oh, and I have new pet peeve: guys who sit in the middle of the pack during a tactical race like this one, never go near the front, and complain that we're not racing. Loudly. Get on the front, boys.