With the plan being straight forward and simple, Joe rides away for the win alone, there wasn't much i needed to do. I improved my poor staging after a few laps and then sat on wheels up front as they tried in vain to reel in Joe. It worked out perfectly, being that the group didn't want me on the nose and would physically push me off 2nd or 3rd wheel and slip into my spot. I obviously was more than happy to oblige because while Joe had virtually won the race already, i had my own plan.
I slipped backwards after being a little careless and by the time i worked my way back up to the front i noticed 4 or 5 guys a full quarter mile up the road. I couldn't believe it and i started to panic. A gamjams rider, Terry Anderson, drilled it and i jumped on making it almost the full way up and when he blew up, i jumped again, having a large gap on the field and nearly making it to this small contingent of riders of which i was expecting Joe to be present. I was coming to help and ensure victory, only to realize that Joe was not there and not only that, but we were lapping this group. I immediately sat up. I went back to the front and rode just to make sure no one got a jump and to stay out of trouble.
With one lap and a little extra to go Bryan Burns rolls by me and yells "just follow my wheel!", which i do for a couple hundred meters before the 3 others that heard him say that push me off and ride him to the front. I slip backwards about 10 people sitting around 15th-20th through the next two corners. I noticed there was no hard acceleration yet which was surprising. With a half mile to go Bryan Burns was first wheel looking back and everyone else looking around; there was a pause in the field. Without even thinking i launched myself out of the pack down the right side refusing to look back until i sat down. Just before i looked i thought to myself "what did i just do...i won't win a sprint now" and i looked back to see the pack was 4 or 5 wide, about 50 yards back, and one lonely rider making a bridge up, i was relieved. I started to turn and heard the chaser shout his position on the turn so we don't do anything foolish. He rolled right by me and i grab his wheel feeling a little better seeing it was my friend Bert from NCVC. From about 150meters out i let my sprint rip, came right around him, and sat up (a little too early) to celebrate the 1, 2 victory.
(the finish is about where the camera man is standing...yeah, i'd say premature celebration)photo's courtesy of Adam Leopold
3/4 results:
Joe D.- 1st
Me-2nd
Bert(shout out)-3rd
CAT 1/2/3:
I had felt like i just warmed up at the end of the 3/4 race so i was excited about my first run around in a 1/2/3 race. It was a blast, the corners were so smooth. It was very different than the out-of-the-saddle corners that populate every other category except the master's. The accelerations were still there but not because of all the brake grabbing.
Nothing exciting happened for me except i was told by Chris Schmidt to make a jump at a group of 3 up the road trying to bridge. I told him no way, followed by him saying..."they're just right there?". So i did make an attempt, but unfortunately i didn't make it. Its nice having experienced guys like Schmidt and Hayes and so on, seems you can follow what they say to do and trust its more than likely the right thing to do.
Towards the end Steven Grant told me to help line up Chip for the finish, to which i also responded "yeah right..." but i tried anyway. I thought maybe if Chip wins the sprint he gets 10th which is solid, but he didn't win the sprint, and even if he did it would have been 16th. not a big deal i guess since we took 4 top 10's in the 1/2/3:
Ryan-2nd
Steven Gordon-3rd
Jared Nieters-5th
Joe D.-9th (who also won the 3/4 race, as seen above)
and 4 top 10's in the Master's:
Chip-1st
Chris Schmidt-5th
Lance Lacy-6th
Chris Hayes-7th
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