Mt. Carmel ~ Cycle Sport

Where to start? Well no parts fell off my bike today, so that’s a plus. What a crazy race, a lap into it the break was gone as well as almost half the field. Grimm found a way to use a pickup as a slingshot. A lap and a half I bridged up to Rish and Grimm, two other riders were in the group that was sitting 7-12 on the road. Grimm rode some guy out of our break so hard it must have hurt when he hit the field!

In the tailwind at one point Grimm was pulling so fast that I looked up and a Jet was actually moving backwards, it was amazing.

Eventually we caught two of the original break members, one of which was P-O-D who pulled for a half a lap and almost dropped Grimm and I, at that point we knew what was going to happen so we just finished together along with Rish for 7-8-9, pretty sweet, Fish sat in the field a kept everyone in check, all in all I would say a pretty good day for the early season.

I rode the 20 miles to and from the race today, the ride there was not too bad, on the ride home I thought I wasn’t too tired but I couldn’t figure out why the volume on my MP3 player wouldn’t turn up….then I realized I would trying to adjust the volume on my powerbar, bad scene!!!!!

Today was a beautiful day, Thank you Jesus! It started with everyone working together to make this race possible, Thank You! As the wind pushed us down the rode the 1st 3 miles we were still talking to each other having a nice training ride. Then we made a right hand turn into one of the hardest crosswinds I've road in, WOW!

I was on the back of the group attacking riders that couldn't hang on. Then I asked R.R. Captain what do ya want to do? He said something like jump at the top of the hill. So as Rish took off, sorry I'm not that strong, I noticed something was wrong.

When I was on the back in the beginning, I thought we had a teammate up the rode. I quickly counted our team members in the field. Then I asked Gammer the Hammer, Rish is the only teammate up the rode? He looked at me like are you O.K.! I panicked! The next thing I did the whole field knows was wrong, but so was riding into traffic just to get someone off your wheel, sorry it will never happen again.

So anyway, Rish and I are working to chase the leaders, we notice 3 others trying to bridge, it's Gammer the Hammer! Gamm puts the Hammer down on the field, Thank you Gamm!

The best part was the finish! 3 Savage Hill Teammates together in the top ten! Sure sign of good things to come.

Our Team made some big mistakes! We will not make the same mistakes again!

This was really a tough race. We ended up doing 39 miles instead of 26, even in all the wind (average 25mph gust 45mph). I did lead the women for a while. They were going slow and none of the other teams would go up front and pick up the pace, so I did. Big mistake. I ended up getting blown away on the climb. I still managed to catch a few women during the next two laps. I really enjoyed racing with my teammates going by and offering encouragement, especially on the climb. I did miss having some of the other women teammates there. I keep getting asked where everyone else is.
All in all I think that 10th place is rather respectable for an early season race.

unofficial results. Felt strong today. Spent some time chasing a two-man break on my own, but couldn't bridge up. Windy day blew everyone around and made for a long 40miles. With the wind in our backs, we were spinning out the 12tooth on the flats!

A bunch of us drove out to a windy field in Indiana to get in a good hard training ride. I think there was a race there as well.

It was a very tough race. If only Rob would have been there?!?!

1. Pre-Race plan: Hit the climb out of the valley on lap one at very hard tempo with two un-named teams.
2. Lap 1: Dayton puts Thor on front and causes an eight man breakaway group. Great move…caught everybody with their paints down! I make it to the first climb knowing I don’t have the juice for another 3 laps.
3. In the pack and protected from the wind. It feels good. But I’ve burnt a couple of matches from the first lap adventure.
4. Lap 2: Break still up the road. Joe pops off. Hit the home stretch wind section. I’m guttered three times and hit the wall. Pop off three times.
5. With Joe, Larry, Mitch and a few other survivors. Still not recovered and pop off again, but picked up by the Citgo guys. Thanks Dan! Get fully recovered and ready to rock.
6. Lap 3: Work with the Citgo guys and we start to reel in three of my teammates up the road.
7. Lap 4: A CycleSport rider and I pull away from the Citgo group. With in 200 meters of my teammates. Please look back!!!!! NOT!
8. Lap 5: CycleSport says he’s toast and so I’m on my own now. Get over the climb and see Joe about 300 meters up the road. Trying to catch him. Making some progress but the DARN wind is killing me.
9. Finish: Well I was 200 meters short of catching Joe. Larry and Mitch rode strong. Hats off too Team Dayton! I think Rob Rhodes, now a “Cat 2”, would be humble with that move. I think I finished 24th out of 66 riders.

The 3/4s showed up to race today. Things went hard from the gun. I've never seen a break in the 3/4s just muscle it's way off the front. Hats of to the guys driving the break because the field was going all-out in pursuit, yet the break just kept slowing inching away. That's about the last I saw of the race...

I showed up to the race with tired legs from a hard training week. Train through it...right? I was expecting to hurt in the race. I was not expecting to get dropped on the first lap. I chased and made contact with the field twice. But ultimately my legs had nothing. I finished the race off the back just getting a workout with whoever wanted to ride hard. Thanks Glen and others for the company and the workout.

I started the race wondering if my rear derailleur would let go. Dayton started pushing hard from the start and since I was right in the middle of it, I helped push it along. We built the gap, but it cost me a lot and I could no longer hold on through the rollers and cross wind on the second lap.
The rest of the race, I spent trying to hide from the wind and keep the gears together by shifting as little as I could.
In the end, the bike was still going, but I was trashed.

I can sum up the race with one word...suffering.

I lost contact with group down the tailwind section...hmm, 30 mph wasn't fast enough. From my vantage point it looked as though the crosswind section shattered the pack, but then again 25mph average wind with gusts of 45mph will do that. I pitty anyone who was left without drafting help...oh wait, that was me. First time down the downhill turn with a saturn rider we were sent the wrong way by the marshalls. Fortunately I heard them and only lost about 50m. He caught me up with me on the climb. As we rode towards the start/finish line Wendy came up from behind. Her and I took off as the Saturn rider bailed.

For lap 2 we stayed together down the tailwind section then she pulled away through the rolling terrain of the crosswind section. I managed to keep her in sight about 200m up the road the rest of the race. Shortly after the climb the 1-2-3 main pack went by and provided some much needed wind relief.

Lap 3 was for the most part uneventful until another Saturn rider and I hooked up on the last road. We went back and forth up the road with him catching me on the climb. With about 2 miles to go he said he couldn't hang on my wheel any longer. He was very relieved as he pulled into my draft. We had a close call with about 1 mile to go as we recovered from one of those gusts he brushed me with his handlebars, no harm no foul. We geared up for the finish matching each other gear for gear. I had him by about 50m in the sprint.

As I write this my shoulders and neck continue to remind me of the wind. I can not remember a time with that much wind during a race. Special thanks to Wendy and Chris for providing encouragement when I needed it the most.