OVR - Hueston Woods SP

Not a good race...A cold, damp day was not what I was hoping for after a week of fighting a cold. Thought I felt decent on the first lap, got excited, jumped out front a few times, and realized I didn't feel as well as I thought I did. They attacked on one of the hills at the end of the 2nd lap and I gave it my best shot, but the body wasn't responding physically and/or mentally anymore.

Ended up working with 2 Revolution girls for lap 3. Wendy bridged up to us at the end of lap 3 - nice job Wendy! She took an incredible 4th lap pull and tried to set me up for the finish, but as I mentioned, the body would not and did not respond.

Yet another cold race. Actually, cold, damp and misty. Interesting course though. Some climbing, some descending, some interesting curves. I lost the lead pack around the end of the second lap, then spent some time on my own. I eventually caught the group that Kelly was riding with and did the last lap with them. Just didn't have enough energy to outsprint the Revolution riders at the end.

I can't wait until we get a squad back together, this is boring.

First lap I got stuck in the mid to back of the field with absolutely no room to move while the field held an 18 mph average. I coaxed, harassed and whatever to try to get the field to move the race along. I was seriously concerned about getting caught by the fours, which was a well warranted concern, considering the mess that their field ended up in. I expressed this concern to an Ipro guy and he shrugged it off. No kidding, he said, "So what, they'll neutralize the field". Whoa, I thought I had a lame attitude about racing.

Cycledots and Breakaway seemed to do the best they could to make a boring race interesting, but the teams with a gadzillion riders in the field (Ipro, Indiana Flyers and others) did nothing but swallow up solo breaks and then sit up and wait for the field sprint. Five laps, sprint, what fun. Nice move too by the flexy flyers to get to the front on the last lap. Gee, if I knew it was that easy to move up, I'd do it all the time. Can't understand why the rest of the field stays to the right of yellow.

It would be nice to see the prize list cut or enhanced to promote a breakaway, like they did a couple of years ago.

Nothing like feel really good on a day and then have nothing go right. When the 5's caught us we tried to get people to sit up and let them go so we could race our own race but people kept jumping up into the 5's and trying to attack off the front so we had to keep chasing them back down.

On one of the descents I could feel something wasn't right with the back wheel. Todd was near and said it was starting to go down. We got the signal up to Randy as well. I raced up the next climb (on a flat) ahead of everyone else, pulled over got Todd's wheel. Randy pulled as long as he could then I kept going. Had the race not been shortened because of the combined 4/5 I probably could have caught the group and next lap.

Hats off to Todd and Randy for helping out.
Well...there goes the GC.

Mrf...Jim & Todd said it all
And then Mattson pulled out his TT jujitsu on me and I was dropped.
On the other hand running down over-ambitious 5's was kinda fun for the first 3 laps.

I've been feeling better each race, but I really need a long weekend in the hills to get my endurance back. Is it ever going to warm up for more than 5 hours at a time?

This race was comical. The first lap we started at a good pace and soon enough could see the Cat 4 race. We all laughed at the front of the Cat 5 peleton and decided to pass the 4's. For the 4's to regain some dignity, they latched on to our wheels and the choas began. The field went from 35 riders to 70 and was doing nothing but complaining about the speed up / slow down pace, yet nobody was willing to pull.

The guy that has won several of the Cat 5 OVR races attacked. So I tried to bridge, partly because I knew the 4's were not going to reel him in, and I also wanted to get away from all the complaining. When I tried to bridge, all the Cat 4's would jump on my wheel even though they had nothing to do with my race. So I finally reeled him in and the race was uneventful until the finish.

A long story short, the official decides to have us all finish on the same lap and I finished about 4th or 5th out of the Cat 5's, but the official times don't represent this. In the results I have been 1st, 22nd, and now 19th. The funny part is that I finished with the lead group with numerous riders, yet there was supposedly a 3 minute gap between myself and the rider in front of me.

Now it is time to upgrade since the GC is done with. At least I will have some teammates.

Well, what can I say? I actually planned for this race, put more hours in, ate well, and was feeling strong. The first lap was basically a warm-up, which explains why the 5's caught us. After it quickly became a 4-5 race with twice the field as we started with, things got a little nerve racking. On the second lap rolling up the dam climb, a guy in front of me dropped his chain and was quickly smacked from behind causing a nasty crash right next to me (I don't know who he was or what team, but I hope he is okay). The sound of clacking metal and the subsequent sound of people hitting the pavement is not a sound you want to hear...ever! Things started to shape up in the third lap and I quickly made my way into good position for the final lap.

Just then, Jim flatted and needed my rear wheel. Time to take one for the team. Good job to Randy and Jim for the effort of trying to pace back to the group. Good job Mike for making your way out of that nasty crash and getting back with the group for a strong finish. I guess there's always next time.