Ohio State Championship RR

Today's women's road races was my favorite yet! The day was spectacular, the field competitive and the course -- well aside from the climb -- was fast and fun.

The entire women's field (21 cat 4's and 7 cat 123's) stayed together until the first big climb. At that point the field split and 10 of us were off the front, staying together most of the race.

Three-time state RR champ Jeanette Williams of GoMart had a mechanical problem about midway through the second lap. After not seeing Jeanette clear through the second climb, I assumed she was history. Then, as we rounded the corner on the flats after the climb, Jeanette miraculously appeared. Amazing. I think the entire group felt like we saw a ghost when she came rolling up the side. She caught us on her own, too.

During the last lap there was some surging and some slowing, waiting for someone to surge. Just before the last big descent, I moved up front, bombing the downhill as only my alter ego "Downhill Lisa" can do. I stayed up until we hit the base of the climb. Then about half way up that painful hill, I lost the leader who sprinted hard to the finish.

Jeanette's cat 123 win was much deserved on this race. She was incredible. Our usual favorite, Mary Downing, finished third in the Cat 3. All in all I was proud of my 5th place in what I think was a pretty competitive race and one that was clearly not my type of course.

Well it was a fun course and a great day to race. It was tough to put all of the hype behind and just race but everyone put out and I really appreciate being given the chance to represent the team. Alas, a 6th place finish was the best I could do.

This course is the longest circuit of any we've done this year. It kind of throws you after awhile because many of the turns look the same and you can get confused in how far it is to the descent and climb. It was a big field (60 riders?) and with so much flat section a breakaway would be extremely difficult to maintain. We ended up mostly sending solo attacks with the occasional small breakaway group. Nothing was destined to stick. The race started slow and each lap got progressively harder until the last lap where things started to finally thin a little bit, but not by much. I made sure that I was well positioned at the descent and kept close to the front on the final flat stretch. Will tried to lead me out early into the climb but a bad combination of traffic and squirrely riders stopped that momentum. We leapfrogged with a small group of Masters riders on the last lap and they were mixed in with us going into the climb. The climb was extremely brutal and I was working somewhere in the top six or so before the leaders really surged. I certainly wasn't going to give up but there was a group of four far ahead of me by the top of the initial climb and it looked like I would be far off of them at the finish at best, or worse, swallowed by the field. In the break I recognized Mark Ames and Saturn of Dayton rider but I forget the other two. Either way I worked to the point that I was nearly crying when the Saturn rider popped off and I passed him. I couldn't believe it but I was catching the other three as well. As I got within a striking distance I had visions of a top placing when a small herd came thundering by, dragging the three leads and my chance of a top finish along with them. Turn out there were two Masters in that herd and it was likely they pulled the other two Cat 4's up the field. Also what wasn't helpful was the amout of flat that had to be covered from the top of the climb to the finish. As it turns out, the finish line was moved farther down the road from the previous years race.

Thanks especially to Chris Bean, and Woody. They worked their butts off with everyone else when they otherwise would have had great prospects of winning on their own. Thanks to Will for captaining and to Aaron, Mitch, Jim, Paul and Joe. I can't wait for the next road race to pay back.

I decided to race the masters after a long week at the Tour of Ohio, thinking that I could handle 64 miles instead of the grueling 80 that the 3s were doing. Having been warned in the past that "masters" should not be taken lightly, I kinda new that it would be fast, but I must admit I was a little intimidated when I saw what had to be 7 or 8 Team Columbus riders at the start. The last time I raced with these guys it was a 1,2,3 race in Cleveland and they put the smack-down on me. After a very slow first lap, Team Columbus (I call them "Pizza" because of Donatos on the back) started to attack and without any other teams represented in numbers, there was little we could do to stop it. Tearing a page from Ryan's, Will's or Rob's book, I tried to organize a chase but only three guys were willing to do any work. Most of the damage to the field came at the “hill” on each lap where the group became significantly smaller each time around. On the last lap, it was reduced from 10 to 3 with a Cyclesport rider, UPS guy (last year’s winner) and me. After a long cat and mouse to see who would lead the sprint, I decided to sacrifice it with fear that the others in sight may catch us before the line. Given my sprinter stature, I finished a clear third. Later, I was disappointed to find out that there were actually 3 riders in the break (it became very difficult to judge who was who as fields became crossed throughout the race), so I finished 6th. It is still unclear to me, how out of state riders are scored. In my case, I may actually be 4th in Ohio not counting the two UPS riders from Louisville who finished ahead of me? Either way you look at it, I fell short of the money and the medal by one place. Looking back, if I had any b*#ls, I should have given it my all at the climb and let the chips fall.

Nothing like forgetting your shoes.. racing with 10.5 shoes when you wear a 12. Feet hurt the whole time. But, still trying to win a race. When you can gradually feel your legs revolt agaisnt your changed shoe and pedal system.

Race Report:
Followed initial attack up last climb but the diesel engine was out of gas and then managed to lead out 6 guys that all passed me in the last 50 meters. This race was a mess the minute I drove into the parking lot. Joe did a excellent job and in bringing back a break. That was huge effort on his part. Also nice job in being in couple of breaks. Guys were panicing on their radios. The heat became a factor as the race went on. This race result is hard to swallow. Got beat by burger boy for the 3rd time out of 4. He's getting quite the record against savage hill. Back to the training block.

There's something about this race that makes it imprint clearly into the memory banks whereas a lot of other races just go by in a blur and I can't remember what happened. Maybe it's the straightaway stretch by the dam with the broken white concrete and the graphic demonstrations as to how NOT to hand up water bottles performed by well-meaning family members. I always go to the far left to avoid the "dodge the scuttling water bottle" game that seems to captivate quite a few riders. Then theres the interminable stretch of turns through various fields waiting for the hill to come up again 12 miles into the loop. And for the second year in a row it was hot. Great course, great race. My legs felt unusually good and maybe I could have done more to help Larry than charging after one solo break and marking him for three or four miles. Like the Huston Woods race, the key to this one is saving your legs and getting to the base of the last climb among the first five or so riders-you don't need to be able to sprint to win here.

I knew going into this race I didn't have the endurance to last a full 60 miles, so I volunteered to do my part early. I put in several attacks and tried to move to the front every time it looked like things were slowing down. But, I don't think any of my moves actually caused much stress to the peoloton, as they pulled me back fairly quickly each time. It was probably more annoying than anything else, but hopefully it kept the speed up in the first few laps.

After two hours my internal timer went "ding" and my legs turned to mush. I knew that I was done for the day, but I still cursed my lack of stamina.

As I approached the parking lot I thought about just dropping out, but then I heard a voice in my head that said "Use the force, Luke"... no wait, wrong voice, it said "There is no reason you shouldn't finish a race!". Inspired by Rob's words, I limped along the last lap, caught up with Aaron and finished.

I do wish I could have held on the last lap and helped out more, but who knows, maybe my designated role on the team from now on will be "Mr. Futile Attack".

Everyone raced well today. It was a total team effort. The plan was to wear down the field with consistent attacks and accelerations and then deliver Larry to the finish. The race went as planned. The field was beginning to show serious signs of strain on the last lap, thanks in large part to all the attacking from Savage Hill. Although the light winds and relatively flat course made it easy for the group to stay together, it was clear that there were many tired legs. We delivered Larry to the base of the climb in good position. From there Larry took over. He made the right move, dropping the pack and bridging up to the three leaders in the run to the finish. But things just didn't go our way in the end. Larry was swarmed by a group just before he caught the leaders. Sixth place is still a very respectable result.

A special thanks goes to all the SHC guys who sacrificed their race for Larry. Paul, despite what you think, your attacks were effective. You worked harder than anyone on the team and your surges helped soften the field for later attacks. ChrisB, JimZ, Aaron, Mitch, Woody were all doing their share as well. I felt great the entire race and was saving myself to really kill it the last lap. But starting the last lap I was beginning to cramp and could not surge like I wanted to. I still managed a solo break and then worked with Woody and Larry to keep the field strung out after the feed zone. But I was cramped out and done by the base of the climb and couldn't even hold the tail end of the peloton going up the hill. This was especially frustrating because I still felt great aside from the cramps and I wanted to be up at the front helping Larry with the finish.

Ouch!

Even though I was there to work, I had a lot of fun with this race. I came to the race planning to work the last half of the race and that went out the window before the race started. The larger teams were content to keep the pace at a low Sunday ride pace making the first lap a good warm up and recon ride.
From there, Rob had me create a few breaks and get the other riders working. The course was such that you could blow yourself on a break attempt, but recover on the descent and the flat before the hill climb.
After sitting in for a lap or so, a break formed with 4 people up the road out of sight and two sets of stragglers in between. The chase began on the road crossing the dam. I was fortunate enough to be able to recruit a few other riders. We kept the pace high until two of them blew up just before the convenience store. We picked up a couple more workers and continued the chase. The chase went well and we were able to reel in the break before we came to the descent.
The peloton stayed together for the rest of the race with a few muted break attempts.
On the flat just before the climb, I was tired enough to just sit in for the finish. It seemed as though an early surge up the climb wore people out as they stood up to keep contact. The finish was definitely tricky with a second rise before the flat containing the finish line.