This year Peter, Mark, and myself(Geoff) made up the Cat. 3 contingent at Superior Bike Fest.  Mark and Peter had raced it the year before and thought the crit and road race where fun and challenging, while the circuit race was being held on the picturesque Presque Isle.  We left about 9:00 a.m. Friday and after a long drive north set up camp in Marquette.

The crit course was a decent straight away followed by a few downhill corners and then ended with a sharp climb a corner and a gradual climb.  A lot of riders tried to get away but no one was able to stay away during the race, although the constant attacking did result in the front group being trimmed to 10 or so riders.  With 2 laps to go a rider from MCG attacked and I waited until the hill at the end of the lap to jump, I managed to get clear of the pack and rode past him after the second corner of the last lap.  From that point on I put the bike in the biggest gear I could turn over and pushed all the way to the line for the win.  Peter and Mark rolled through on the heals of the lead group to take 12th and 13th.

The road race started with a long neutral rollout followed by a 2ish mile climb that had everyone a little worried.  With a strong headwind section at the top it would have been unwise to stretch things out this soon into a 55+ mile race and everyone stayed calm and the climb was pretty easy.  After 15-20 miles of really slow and nervous riding Adam York attacked on a little uphill and Taylor Birman followed him off the front.  I watched the gap grow and decided that instead of pulling them back I would be better served by bridging up.  I had worked well in a break with Adam before and knew that we would have a chance if I could get up front without dragging a bunch of riders with me.  Bridging up hurt but I managed to keep it under control and immediatly start pulling through when I caught the break.  From that point on it was a struggle to stay ahead of a motivated and sometimes organized pack that was unwilling to let us go.  Finally about 15 miles out we had a decent gap and the discussion about packing it in and returning to the safety of the field was put behind us.  Going into town things got a little scary as a car pulled out in front of the Corvette that was acting as our lead car and we were forced to pass both of them and ride through some busy streets without our escort.  Going into the last corner we opened up the sprint and I was able to hold off Adam for the win, with Taylor trailing in a few second behind.  I got turned around and to the finish line just in time to see Peter dominate the field sprint for 4th and Mark roll through just behind him in 8th.  A great day with all of us landing in the top 10!

The circuit race was the following day and worried me a little bit it was 4 laps of a 2 mile course.  The course was relatively narrow and had a steep uphill followed by a long downhill that had a sketchy corner and some wooden posts along the sides.  The race proved to be safe and the course was actually a lot of fun.  Several groups tried to get away from the gun and finally Andrew Florian and a rider from Get A Grip gotabout a 20 second gap going into the last lap.  I was worried an all out attack would only bring the field up so I played possum and acted like I was cooked.  For some reason the field hesitated as rolled slowly off the front and got a small gap on the field going into the back part of the course.  As soon as I got to the foot of the hill I went all out and almost made it to the 2 leaders, trailing them slightly on the downhill and knowing I couldn’t make up the last 2 or 3 seconds by the line I sat up confident in my gap to the field and rolled across the line in 3rd with plenty of gas in my legs and the feeling that I had waited to long to make my move.  Peter had sat at the front discouraging the chase in the last mile plus and kept decent position for the finish and came through in 6th while Mark cruised through in a respectable 17th place.

My consolation for 3rd was the knowledge that I had easily won the overall for the weekend with Peter landing in 5th and Mark in 12th.  Hopefully Dan K. posts his results from the weekend soon as he had a phenomenal weekend racing in his first races outside of the Cat. 5 field.

GBK