Deer Creek - OSRS #1

Great race and teamwork with an awesome lead out from Ivan & Hardman (ESPN missed this one) for a sweet sprint ending finish after the kicker. Also big thanks to Real Deal & the Boss for all the road racing tips... "Getting some"

Our Elite Team had Jeff and myself today. For our regional team they had Gatch and Forbes. Great seeing old teammates and friends. Jeff rode for the most aggressive award and won hands down. He made it in a final lap break with one Panther rider and Jeff ran out of real estate caught in the last 500 meters. I managed to win the field sprint.

There's a new train in town...it's blue, red, and white and it smells like "Diesel". Way to go Danny!

1st race ever! 1st priority was to stay rubber side down. Check on that. 2nd priority was to win. In retrospect I could've but made a bad tactical move. On the upside it did result in a teammate winning... and a lesson learned!

First race after more than a year without pinning on a number. Typical Cat 3/4 race with the group staying together the entire race with a massive field sprint at the end. Nearly crashed out on lap 1 with a major pileup right in front of me on the bridge about 1K from the finish. Turned by bars 10 degrees to the left and lost a waterbottle but managed to avoid falling. Finished somewhere in the neighborhood of 20th. Not a bad result for the comeback race.

I torture myself by putting up with the yo-yo effect in the back of the peloton for the entire race...then I decide to race the last mile...better late than never!

Sketchy race with 100+ field. Confussion about the yellow line rule at the finish ruined the finish for me. Some guys were allowed to cheat and some were not. Motcycle ref almost ran head on into parked car. What a "cluster F" finish. Roads were way too narrow for the size of the field. They soul have slipt the field. Last Cat. 3 race for me.

Wind, rain and sunburn, tough day in the saddle, but a good start to the season.

I got caught in two crashes on the first lap and I was able to stay up right both times. I road as the strongest that I could have, but I lacked the pace to stay with Dr. Pete to rejoin the field after the second crash. I worked from group to group as I would catch other riders as I was able to use some of the dropped Cat.1-2 riders to continue to the finish.

I did miss count laps & went too hard a lap too soon which cost me about 2 or 3 places. The group I had helped form was made of mostly riders from the Loveland (Yellow & Red) team that based on their numbers had rider in three different fields. Thinking the race was ending a lap too soon I try to blow the group apart on the windward side, dropped over half the group and I blew going passed the 500 meter to go sign. The final lap was just survival, if you will...."A Bridge Too Far." or in my case a lap too far. I still averaged over 21 mph for the 55.5 mile race, even including the painful final lap and even more painful cool down.

Over all I'm happy with the start of my first road season in many years, especially considing how hard I went for did for that distance I hadden raced in many years. This is all in preparation for the start of the Cyclocross season in September.

Well done team Echelon on a really good showing for the opening race of the season!

Wind, rain and sunburn, tough day in the saddle, but a good start to the season.

I got caught in two crashes on the first lap and I was able to stay up right both times. I road as the strongest that I could have, but I lacked the pace to stay with Dr. Pete to rejoin the field after the second crash. I worked from group to group as I would catch other riders as I was able to use some of the dropped Cat.1-2 riders to continue to the finish.

I did miss count laps & went too hard a lap too soon which cost me about 2 or 3 places. The group I had helped form was made of mostly riders from the Loveland (Yellow & Red) team that based on their numbers had rider in three different fields. Thinking the race was ending a lap too soon I try to blow the group apart on the windward side, dropped over half the group and I blew going passed the 500 meter to go sign. The final lap was just survival, if you will...."A Bridge Too Far." or in my case a lap too far. I still averaged over 21 mph for the 55.5 mile race, even including the painful final lap and even more painful cool down.

Over all I'm happy with the start of my first road season in many years, especially considing how hard I went for did for that distance I hadden raced in many years. This is all in preparation for the start of the Cyclocross season in September.

Well done team Echelon on a really good showing for the opening race of the season!