Race Report

Date: 6/9/07
Race: Laurel Flyer Road Race
Distance: 24 Miles

The Laurel flyer is a course that has the effect of making everyone slow. It is hilly but not a climber’s course. It has a some good flats and downhills that don’t help the good descenders or flats riders. The race usually ends in a sprint finish but that doesn’t mean the sprinters are even going to have a chance. If you want to do well you have to be able to do a little bit of everything well. More importantly you have to do it well at the right time. On the other hand, you could be terrible at everything and still do well. It is for this reason that I love this race, that and it’s on my home turf.

This was my first bike race two years ago and I got third overall. I thought for sure that this would be my year. After all, I am stronger, lighter, a little smarter, and I have better equipment then I did before. My buddies had been egging me on for the last week and by Friday I was frothing at the mouth to get out there and dominate. Not only that Tom placed the trophies (strategically, I think) right in front of me at work. So, for two hours on Friday I tried to keep my eyes of them as I wrenched.

The turnout was good with a lot of familiar faces and in some cases “marks”. I knew there were some fast guys in the group and I wanted to be towards the front to avoid any wrecks early on. Unfortunately I had trouble clipping in and got pushed to the back. It’s at times like this when I think there just might be something to that Karma stuff. I say this because my buddy Jimmy worked like a mule to get me back up front. As I passed him and took my place with the leaders I heard a tire blow behind us. I was thanking my lucky stars that I didn’t get caught up in the crash like two years ago.

I have to digress for a moment and try to illustrate just what exactly happened when Jimmy pulled me to the front. First you have to understand that Jimmy has a good background in criterium racing, which is to say he can take insane chances in a pack and come out smelling like roses. That is exactly what happened. When he saw I had fallen back he slowed enough to let me get on his wheel then he accelerated. The next five minutes were the most poignant and exhilarating of the entire race. On the way out of the airport I saw Jimmy approaching the corner and I was thinking we are going to run out of pavement… we are going to fast… I am too young to die. Once we got out of the airport all I saw was Jimmy’s arse and people zipping by us as if the pack was frozen in time and we were zigzagging through them in extremely fast slow motion. Jimmy looking back and then gave me the thumbs up. I thought that was my cue to get out there and rip off some legs. Really, Jimmy was just telling me he had burned all his matches. In any case I said good-bye and rode my race and left him to his. Still, I think those few minutes were the best part of the race. You have to really trust someone to follow them blindly through the minefield like obstacle course of a peloton under full steam.

From that point on I just hung in until dibble hill when I moved to the second or third position. I turned the screws a little on the climb but everyone was climbing well so I didn’t push it. Then came the descent down Draper hill, I was doing fifty something dodging potholes and what not. I descend on my road bike well and am use to the poor conditions of the local roads so I was not at all surprised or worried about the sketchiness of the descent. We then made the turn in Stony Fork with a fairly large group. I believe we shelled a few on the climb to the Yellow Basket Shop. The second time around was pretty lame with little or no action. I did get sworn at a bit when I came to the front and soft-pedaled, I don’t think the dude understood that 1) this is not the Tour de France and 2) I wasn’t racing for him. Then it was just a matter of some serious suffering from the Yellow Basket Shop to the finish. Finally it came down to a sprint finish.

I ended up getting fifth overall and fourth in my age group with a time of 1:07:26, a result I was not at all satisfied with. I have to accept the fact that there were four faster guys out there but I certainly don’t like it. On the other hand, I can’t do anything about it. Some other notable results from the Oswald boys include 1. Jimmy with 1:19:54 2. Eric with 1:15:48