Race report

Date: 6/25/06

Race: Owasco Flyer

Distance: 36 miles

I made the trip to Auburn for the second time in 8 days to compete in a bicycle race. The day started out rough when I found myself waking up a half an hour later then I had planned. Fortunately I tend to be anal retentive and planned on leaving a half hour earlier then I need to. This is the only race that I have done more then once so I had a good idea of what I was getting myself into. That is, about 180 people trying to cross the finish line and most of them trying to do it first. Of course I was one of that bunch myself. Last year when I did this race it was my second bike race ever and I placed 20^th. I was disappointed and really felt I should have done better. Yesterday Jimmy called the shop to wish me luck and give me some advice; he said, “ride smart dude”. I knew where I wanted to make my move; it was the first big hill after about ten miles of dead flat and super fast riding. I just stayed five or six guys back from the front until this hill. My place of attack is a place I am going to call chain drop hill. I have so dubbed it because every one is racing through the flats and are in a huge gear. When they hit the hill they have too much torque on their chain so that when they shift down they drop their chains. My chain didn’t drop off so I guess I better buy my mechanic lunch or something. Any way when I got to the hill I knew some people would attack so I made sure I was in every break and gap. The attacks kept on for about three miles and the pack was totally blown apart at this point. A strong team got off the front and opened a gap that I couldn’t bridge. Eventually I found myself in a group of three. We got organized and chased like mad men. Those guys rocked too. We started catching guys that were popping off the back of the lead group. We made sure that we passed them fast enough so they couldn’t grab our wheel. It hurt a lot but the three of us were going together and not slowing down for anybody. Finally our group of three became a group of two. Up to this point I had stayed in the green but I pushed into the red a little too long trying to tack on to the end of the lead group and misjudged the finish. So at the line my sole compadre sprinted and finished before me. He earned it though. I got ninth overall I think, and first in my age group. I would say it was a huge improvement from last year.