Wilkesville to Wilkesville

What a race---
1. woke up at 6am, made pancakes, bacon, frosted flakes
2. took route 33 west until I hit dublin and realized that i was heading the wrong way
3. I knew this would happen thats why i left myself with a 45 min window for mistakes(if you have free time ask gamm about our trip to wisconsin)
4. Register for the race, return to my car and my bike had dissappeared (those funny bike source people took my bike and hid it from me)
5. show up to the start line and realize that it was going to be a tough day because there were only a handfull of riders
6. at some point during the race i find myself out in the front with Scott from bikesoure, who is a really cool dude.
7. g0t a flat and waited for an eternity for the wheel truck.
8. Gamm and three guys pass me/rish waited and we hauled ass back to the pack
9. race chilled out till the huge hill
10. me and gamm felt good and pulled away...and that was it.
11. now must get ready for McMinnville Stage race.....110miles with a BIG BIG hill....

Beautiful weather for today and it was great to race with all the teammates --- thanks guys!

Jim disappeared up the road early which kept the pressure off of us to chase. After we caught up (40 miles later!), we had dropped a few people on the smaller climbs but everything was together heading into the third loop. The pace slowed down to like 12 mph in anticipation of the Hawk station climb. I was getting impatient so I rode a little ways off the front and, surprisingly, nobody bothered to grab my wheel. So I had a head start when we got to the big climb and when it started going up, I nailed it. Cresting the top nobody was in sight so I kept going: steady rhythm on the flats, punch it over the tops of the rollers, and hope that the chase group when they caught me would be small enough that I could place well. But, there was a huge tailwind the whole way so it was very fast cruising, and the time gained on the climb held until the finish.

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Thank you to everybody who donated so far to the AIDS ride I'm doing in June. I appreciate it and people living with AIDS appreciate your help also. See this message for more info . . . there are still prizes left . . . no donation is too small.

This race report is dedicated to Will of the 'withered arm', glad to see you back racing Will! (and back to chauffeuring me around too)

The thing that scares me about the Wilkesville RR is that during Tour of Ohio is a piece of cake (God I love cake) but during the spring its hard, hard like trying to put on sox with wet feet hard

We had a Swain, Rish, and Gamm Today, which is good cause we usually don’t suck at going up hills, there was a small field so there was nowhere to hide, which I didn’t like

After about 432 attacks we had Swain up the Road and Rish countered so hard that I barely made it up the road with him and another guy, not bad for Rish despite having SARS 2 weeks ago…

I got my revenge about 10 miles down the Road, we hit the climb before the freeway hard and I set a solid tempo up the hill, by solid I mean I was seeing double, and I looked back and Rish was Gone, not gone 50 yards back, but Gone like me when I hear there are free cookies somewhere

At this point Swain was riding off like he stole something and I was sitting on as Rish was somewhere behind, yada yada yada….Swain got a flat, yada yada yada, Rish and Swain Got back on, yada yada yada, Swain and I dropped everyone on the Hock Station Climb and put 1 min 40 into them by the finish, after a grueling 500 meter sprint led out by Swain that included several elbows thrown, a Bottle tossed, someone trying to push someone into an oncoming car!....Im not going to name names but it wasn’t me! Swain beat me by a tire width in a photo finish

OK none of that is true, were teammates for goodness sake, you all have sick minds

After the race I found out that my Right pedal has frozen bearings….I don’t even want to think about how much easier it would have been!!!!!!!!!!

All in all a really good day: it was a pleasure working with proper villains again

Congrats to Hekman at Athens, I think we going to start a fan club and start making T-Shirts, Im going to try and get his autograph at the race next weekend, I already got Swains today!!!!!!!!!!

Different kind of start . . .the Women started with the Masters and before the Cat 5’s. Two Team Torelli guys started pushing the pace immediately, which was kind of nice because usually the women start out painfully slow. At one point, they surged up some rollers and a few of us managed to hang on, while the rest got popped. Those of us that were left took short turns at the front, but the Torelli guys were doing most of the work. We’d been fairly close to the Cat 3’s for sometime, but the pace car was causing us to keep some distance. At about 12 miles in, the Torelli guys decided they’d had enough fun toying with us, so they surged off the front to bridge the gap to the Cat 3’s. The rest of us tried to go with them, but it didn’t quite work.

With 5 of us left, four women and one master, we pacelined and maintained a great pace. At about 34 miles in, I was in 3rd in line and the 5’s came along. I thought we were going to let them go by, until the girl at the front jumped in with them. The girl in position 2 and myself struggled to get on board, but managed. Directly after I got on, we hit a hill and I was so tired from playing catch, that I floated off the back.

So I rode the last 20 miles by my lonesome self with my legs just screaming. I somehow managed to maintain my position and my legs have never been happier to see a finish line.

This is a very interesting course. I had heard horror stories going into, and was a little intimidated. The course overall for women is not that bad. Just lots, and lots, and lots of climbing. If you weren't climbing you were descending. By the end there was some pain and suffering, but overall, not as bad as I had feared. Great pavement, very organized and marshalled. Enjoyed the dinner afterwards.

Was very entertained by the masters gentleman who sucked my wheel for 40+miles, without ever taking a pull. Looking forward to another go at it in June. See you all there.

UGHHHHHHHHH! I got cramps....

This day was for Mike, to take the pressure off the field I leapt away about 4mi into the race. It was quite nice being behind the pace motorcycle and sheriff car for the next 40+ miles before being swallowed up. I managed to build about a 3 minute lead at one point in the race. Shortly after being caught the cramps got to me and I just sat in spinning as much as I could. We hit the first of 2 climbs on the last loop and I got popped. I knew I had done my work so I was still happy. Made it up Hawk Station with the cramps finally disapaiting. All in all I thought I had a good day.

Tough race. I was still with the lead group coming into the third loop and that was when the constant rollers started to take a toll on the legs. I made it past the first of the climbs with the lead pack that consisted of about 15 riders. I was thinking, "that was the climb everyone is talking about?....not so bad" Then I meet my maker at Hawk Station. Stubna drops the hammer and the remaining peloton tries to chase. I remember a Stark Velo guy saying that Mike went to early and couldn't hold (note to self =laugh). This laughter did not last long because about 1/2 way up the climb I could feel the legs not being able to match the pelotons acceleration to bridge to Mike. Slowly the peloton moved farther and farther away. I ended up in a chase group of 4 and sprinted for 2nd of the chasers.

Great job to Stubna and the rest of the team.

Wilkesville and I have a love/hate relationship. I love to race there, but hate how I feel after I race there. The results for Savage Hill were remarkable, 1st and 2nd in the Elite race and 1st in the 3/4 race. Hats off to Stubna for being patient the first two thirds of the race and then putting the hammer down when it counted. Riding everyone off of his wheel on Hawk Station climb and then soloing the rest of the race is not an easy thing to do. Good job to Craig for sticking in there and doing well on such a difficult course.

As for me, today was just what I expected...did fairly well for the first 40-45 miles and then the lack of training hours takes its toll. Maybe if I keep racing, I may be able to race my way into shape. Not likely!