Leadout Racing

All week the forecast for Traverse City was cold and rainy. Come Saturday morning the weatherman was perfect, as it was in the high 50’s with lots of precipitation. The course was great, but the weather was going to be the biggest factor. There was a stretch of road that was bricks and looked to be quite slippery. As the masters race began a lot of guys were being extremely careful.  A small group of riders willing to take some chances with the slippery conditions started to form at the front.  The group didn’t really breakaway as much as they just slowly left the overly cautious people behind.  I think we had 6-8 people in the lead group and most of the race was pretty uneventful except some unknown rider made a little break in the middle of the race.  He went off all alone for a few laps and appeared to be quite strong.  We pulled him back and then with about 4 laps to go he broke away again.  He continued to extend his lead as I and the group thought we could bring him back.  The last 2 laps were pretty frantic as we put in big efforts to chase him down.  On the second to last lap I lead around the last corner about as fast as I could.  I heard the unmistakable sound of bike on pavement and looked back to see the rest of the group was taken out.  Second place was all mine, but now I had to chase all alone.  He had about 20 seconds on me and I gave it everything I had.  I ended up in second place by 2 seconds and I am sure we would have caught him had the whole group stayed upright.

At the start of the Cat. 3 race I was feeling rather miserable.  I was soaking wet still from the masters race and was freezing.  It was a very similar start to the masters race as there was a division between the cautious riders and those willing to push it.  After a few laps 2 guys, Brian Hill and Adam York, began to break away.  I was toward the back of the pack and had no chance to go with them.  I quickly moved to the front and began to pull in an effort to bring them back.  I had no intension of trying to bridge by myself, but that is what it turned into.  I had made up about half the distance when another rider went flying by, I put in a huge effort to get on his wheel and we worked our way to the 2 leaders together.  The guy that helped me bridge up was pretty cooked and he soon fell back to the pack and the 3 of us rode the rest of the way.  Brian was pulling extremely hard and Adam wasn’t much of a help, as he was sliding all over the place and worked to catch up on almost every straightaway.  On the last lap Brian motioned for me to pull through and I decided it was time to start setting up for the finish.  I sat in behind him and he realized I wasn’t going to pull.  He quickly resumed his pace and pulled Adam and I the whole last lap.  I guess he thought he was strong enough to take it the whole way.  As we rounded the last corner I started my sprint and didn’t have any trouble going around.  I was sort of suprised that I didn’t see Adam and as we crossed, it was me in first and Brian was able to hold off Adam for second. 

All in all, a good day of racing.  It is too bad the weather was so miserable because the coarse was pretty fun and fast.

Dan K.