This was actually a fairly bittersweet race. It was a great race from an organization, course, weather, and result point of view, unfortunately the cat. 3 field was a disappointing 10-15 riders. They ended up mixing us with the Masters 45+ riders to give a larger field, which at least gave riders the ability to hide from the wind that was whipping across the open fields. The race consisted of 8 laps of a 3.8 mile course. The course was constantly rolling and had some open sections that were brutal with the wind. Mark and I discussed being patient and waiting for the right move before the race, but about half way into the first lap I found myself following Adam York’s wheel off the front and up to a small group of riders, and then we were off. The effort didn’t seem that hard, but we left the field in our wake, and eventually paired the break down to 4 riders, 3 cat. 3’s and Rob Iser a Master racer. Going into lap 5 we were informed we had 4+ minutes on the field, for some reason we kept on the gas. We didn’t play any games in the break and continued to all pull through up until the last lap, Adam and I had both noticed the other cat. 3 rider struggled when we hit the power climb on the back part of the course hard and decided that with a little coordination we could get rid of him there. On the hill I hesitated when he asked me to pull around him, and as soon as his cadence plummeted and his speed began to drop we took off knowing that 1st and 2nd would be decided between Adam and I. Rob lead out the sprint knowing he had already won the masters race, and I snuck around Adam with enough time to enjoy the win. Once the break was long gone Mark attacked the field and rode 3.5 laps alone to claim 4th for a very solid showing by the team. Hopefully we will see this race on the schedule next year with a much bigger field, and maybe a few more laps.
GBK
