Big props to our boy Zayne Braun coming up big at NORBA Nationals this weekend. Second place in the semi-pro cross country race on Friday and first in the short track today!
As for me, I headed down to the PA state road race on Saturday. Nita and I loaded up early and caravaned down with Strabuer and Chip. The sun was out and it looked to be a nice rolly course through the classic Lancaster farmland. We all loaded Nita up with bottles, a cooler and set of ambiguous instructions about who to feed and which bottles belonged to who. Chipper and Straub were racing the 1/2 race and I lined up in the 3 field. There were a number of familiar faces in the field, though as it was my first (and probably last) road race of the year there was lots of vague recollection and very little concrete recognition of who all these folks were. At the start I settled in next to Kevin and Glenn from the Human Zoom thinking I’d try to spend the day marking guys I knew. It was an inauspicious start; when they blew the whistle I managed to bump off Kevin’s handle bar and drifted across the road as I struggled to regain my balance on the bike and get clipped in as the 50 man field surged around me. I was scolded a bit by the guys around me and drifted to the back of the field for a bit to keep from getting myself in any more trouble. An attack of 3 guys got away within the first few miles and dangled 30-45 seconds ahead of us for much of the first of the 5 10-mile laps. After the two climbs in the middle of the course I was getting a bit tired of watching those three threatening to pull away and I moved forward on the false flat at the top of the second climb to try and organize a lifting of the pace. The back section of the course was rolling and we managed to catch the lead break and complete the first lap as a group. I came across the line at the end of the first lap in the first 3 positions which was an indication that I needed to drift back and mellow out for a bit. I faded back a bit as the first few unsuccessful attempts to break up the peloton started on the rollers. The bunch held together through the first climb but splintered on the second and split further into two groups in the false flat at the top. I was stuck in the second group sitting 15-20 seconds off the bunch of 8 ahead. We started to get some guys pulling through, and should have been able to catch on immediately, but too few guys were willing to put in the effort and we dangled for much of remainder of the lap. Finally, one of the bigger guys in the bunch put in a strong sprint to bridge us across just before we turned the last corner into the rolling straight to the end of the lap. Through the feed zone and onto the third lap I knew that we’d come together but I didn’t know how much of the field had caught on due to the indecision on the back side of the course. Laps 3 and 4 kept the average pace high, but bunch did a lot of yo-yoing; lifting the pace for a while until someone failed to pull through and sitting up waiting for someone else to take charge. We always broke up a little coming across the second climb and I had to struggle a bit to catch on to the leaders as guys faded and left a gap across the top. It was a perfect place for an attack to get away, and I always tried to position myself near the front for when it came, but nothing ever materialized and we headed into the 5th and final lap as a group. Through the feed zone the final time I finally managed to successfully grab a bottle and slugged it down to make up for my spartan rationing on lap 4. I played it close to the front expecting something to happen on the climbs, but nobody moved and again rounded the last corner as a full group. I rotated to the front and got stuck out in the wind at 2K to go. I knew that taking an early flier wasn’t going to work so I sat up completely and forced riders to come around me on the left. I dropped back into second position by 1K which gave me a little more confidence as the sprint set up. The road dropped into a little descent before the short uphill finish and guys started jockeying for position as we crested the penultimate rise. To my right the two juniors who’d held with us the whole time in restricted gears (one was in a national champion jersey) set up for their sprint and I settled in behind a guy that had looked strong for much of the day. I came down the descent in my 11 and shifted into my 12 for the last riser and swung to the left side of the road expecting to see the field come pushing through my peripheral vision, as has been my normal experience in bunch sprints. To my surprise I was able to hold the sprint through the finish and crossed the line in 4th position (that’s me on the right about to get beat by a 16 year old). It turns out that the kid in third position was from Virginia, so my 4th place translated into a bronze medal for the state championship and enough money to pay for my gas and registration. I came away pretty happy as it was my first good result in a bunch sprint.
After my race Nita and I stuck around to watch the finish of the 1/2 race. Joe Whitman turned in an impressive win in a 2-up sprint after spending much of the race away in a 3 man break. After Chipper and Strauber rolled in we loaded up and headed for lunch at a fabulous chrome filled Lancaster diner with an oldies sound track that hurried us through our meal.
Chip and Straub headed home while Nita and I headed into the traffic nightmare that is the Tanger Outlet Mall. We kept to a pretty targeted shopping plan so as to not leave the puppies at home too long, and managed to walk away empty handed with our credit limits in tact: a first on several levels.
