Whew. What a day. The 2011 Delta Subaru Tour deGaslight was a great success. A huge THANK YOU to all of the sponsors, volunteers, officials, fans, and racers who made this event so much fun.
And now for the race report!
The Masters 35+ race started in the usual way, with a healthy dose of speed. Dan K, Socie, Chris, Paul, JD, and I were all riding around in the pack. Socie (as usual) was forcing the pace and attacking early on. JD (as usual) was locked into his position near the front. Dan K, Chris, and Paul were moving forwards, then drifting back. Several small breaks would roll off the front, then crack up and come right back. I snuck into a breakaway that got a nice gap, but we couldn’t seem to work together very well. The speed would go from slow to crazy fast, then people would yell at others for not pulling through, then it would slow back down again. I kept getting gapped during the fast parts, then would catch back on during the slow parts. Eventually I figured that I wasn’t meant for this move, so I gave up on it and drifted back to the peloton. Shortly after that, the rest of were caught as well. The rest of the race I sat in and did nothing but turn laps. The legs felt OK, but they weren’t excited about trying to attack. As the race wound down to the final few laps, I started picking my way up through the field (towards JD, who hadn’t moved from his position in the top 10). On the final lap, about halfway between turns 3 and 4, I caught the wheel of Todd Hancock, who was rocketing up the left-hand side of the road. I wasn’t sure how far he could go at that speed, but I knew if I could follow him until he blew up, I’d be close enough to get a good finish. So I latched on his wheel, and by the time we reached the final turn we were right at the front. Todd opened up his sprint and created a big gap – I remember thinking “you can still get second!” – but thanks to the strong headwind I managed to catch back onto his draft, close the gap, and go around him – hitting the finish line ahead by about a half bike length. I didn’t have an elaborate victory post-up planned, but still managed to get one hand in the air - I was pumped! After the cool down lap, the best part was getting back to the team tent, where everybody was celebrating like we had just won the Super Bowl. Geoff was going nuts. There was hugging. It was such an awesome moment!
During the podium presentation, I recieved a sweet trophy followed by a really nice smooch from the podium girl. The other guys on the podium were waiting for their kisses too, but apparentlyshe only had eyes for me. Sorry boys – she’s taken.
After that we got back to work hosting the race. Once the final P/1/2 rider crossed the line, the entire Leadout team and Real Women Tri teams kicked into high gear to get everything tore down, cleaned up, and put away. We ended the day at Dan Socie’s house with a celebratory beer and some pizza.
This is such a great group of people. I’m very fortunate to be a part of this team. What a day!