Tour of Richland County

So this was the third time I’ve raced at Malabar in a little over a year, I love this race and the course, after missing a win on Thursday by only a small margin I was more than a little motivated to get a win, didn’t matter how large or how small.

On the drive down to Malabar early in the AM with too little sleep and too much caffeine for that early in the morning I started thinking about everything that’s happened in the time since I last won a race: its been over a year, I went through Mono resulting from chronic fatigue, quit cycling, rediscovered college, attempted to destroy my liver, 40+ credit hours, several months without riding, 1 field course in the Bahamas during the middle of the season, one marriage, 2 kids, lost the farm, some pretty good placing in big races while cris-crossing the country, ect ect ect……bottom line was that I was motivated.

The race worked out as planned, and no matter what Rish says he’s not tired and he is riding super strong…..maybe because he’s a cat 1 now!!! Congrats! Also congrats to John Minturn one of my Miami University boys who made the break!

After a rest week my legs are normally pretty flat so I was surprised when I started the day feeling good. I jumped up to an early break with only moderate effort, quickly recovered and was ready to watch for more attacks when I dropped my chain. (Isn't that little chain keeping thingy supposed to prevent that!?) I had to get completely off my bike, so the field was long gone before I got started again. After a futile chase I decided to take a short-cut and get back in the race to get the best possible training benefit from the day. I still felt good, even got in a 4 man break (shhhh - I know I'm a lap down). But once I really pushed my legs hard, over the top of the climb, they just fell apart. I felt like I had two blocks of wood tied to my hips. No matter how hard I willed my legs, they didn't want to go around in circles any more. I ended up in a group with Chris Bean and an Allied Decals guys. After suffering for two laps, my legs finally came around again on the last climb. Hopefully the rest week will pay off long-term as I fine tune my fitness for the stage race.

Congratulations to Gamm on a solid win. He said he could have won by five minute or more if he knew about my shortcut :)

Another beautiful day to race--this year's been full of them.

We used the same Malabar Farms course as we did in the spring, but this time it was with I's and II's in the field. Luckily, two of the I's were from SHC (and congrats to Ryan Rish for the recent upgrade). I was wondering how my legs would be since this was my fourth race in seven days. "Fried" is the word that comes to mind...

Rish made the first acceleration of the race halfway through the first lap, but then it was quiet for a while. After the second time up the main hill a couple little attacks went. Not wanting our big guns to have to chase everything, I covered one of them. I instantly blew up, but recovered enough to hang on to the following little group. We were all swept up, then I repeated the process five minutes later (with Will catching the break I was covering). From there I figured my fate was sealed and, sure enough, I was unceremoniously dropped on the main climb. As consolation, I take pride that I at least finished the full distance of the race. ;-] Ha!

Unfortunately, that made it twice this year that I've finished off the back at Malabar. Funny thing is, I actually like the course.

Congrats to Ryan Gamm for the win and Ryan Rish for sealing (hopefully) second place in the series by finishing sixth.

And congrats to Mitch for winning the masters race!

That's two SHC victories today!