Sweet Home Alabama

"Did I trade a walk-on part in a war for a lead role in cage?"

I raced the Men's Open (1-4) Mississippi Bluffs RR over in Illinois on Saturday. Quite a few members of the DICE cycling team were there as well some other Illinois guys, and plenty of random competitors like myself.

I tried to 'measure up' some of the riders, because I wasn't really sure who many of them were. I figured the ones with matching socks might be worth marking. This was a two lap Road Race of 50k total. A bit short, so it was tempting to shoot straight out from the start ,but I forced myself to the back of the pack for the first 8 miles or so I wouldn't waste energy for no apparent reason.

Actually that was sort of the 'mantra' in my head... don't waste energy until you make the attack. I played out exactly what I was going to do the night before, and I am happy to announce that it worked out very well. The plan was to make one strong decisive move on the one main uhpill section of the course that is about 1 mile from the finish. I decided to try it on the first lap, after realizing how soft the group was.

Second wheel, the hill arrives, I accelerate, never leaving the saddle. I believe my speedometer said 22mph. I quick look back revealed that the pack had reacted but wasn't actively bridging up. No turning back now, so I pedalled as my lactic acid and heart rate rose to very uncomfortable levels... uh maybe this wasn't such a good idea...

Up over the hill, now is the time to really stick it, they have to be hurting too, so I kept the hammer down.... This isn't going to work, can I really make a solo flyer stick for 16 miles?... Then company arrives... not the pack, just a guy who was able to bridge up. He said something to the effect of 'let's go'. Alright, let's give it a go mate...

Not sure who this guy was, but was happy to see that his pulls were actually a bit stronger than mine. You know the drill at this point, we traded pulls, as I set the immediate goal of getting 'out of sight, out of mind'. It took a bit, but sure enough they were gone.

Having no way to know what kind of strength the pack had, or if they were working well together, me and my breakaway partner kept hammering away, giving it an all out effort.

I realized he was stronger so as we came into the last 2 miles, I suspected that he would easily get the win. Sure enough, he attacked me on the same hill that I had made my move on, with 1 mile to go and the pack long, long gone.

I didn't have any thing left in the legs, and watched him get a sizeable gap that he held to finish first with me following about 15 seconds later. The pack arrived with a good portion of the riders still intact, but quite a bit later.

I won this race last year using a similar tactic, but instead of the attacker I was the guy who bridged up to Peter Sharis of DICE and then took him at the line. Teamate Bill Ford helped block that day, as did Bruce Grell (DICE).

No DICE guys made this two man break, which made us assume that the 6 or 7 of them that were left in the pack would organize an all out chasing effort. Talking to some of the riders after the race, however it seemed that the group wasn't able to get a smooth rotation going.

The winner ended up being up a Cat 2 rider from Alabama. Talking with him later, he seems to be pretty well accomplished as he mentioned he usually races much longer distances in pro 1/2 races.

Well, I totally buried myself to get that result... time to relax.