First podium as a cat 3

Today was another hard day of racing; 56 miles on a windy day. Seven loops around an eight mile circuit. This course is near my home and I ride it often. However, I have never done well on this course. The course is mostly flat with some rollers, some false flats and one sprinter-type hill. This course is made for my style of riding, but I have always busted on this course.

Today would be different. My team and I toed the line with 40 or so other riders. With me today, were Jamie, Mike, Stan, Nick and Scott. Strong riders and great team riders. On the first loop, several teams attacked. I was feeling so-so after two hard days of farm work and the legs were a little shaky. I went with a couple of early attack, but none stuck. I was off the front with a former teammate and still good friend, Jeff. When we hit the back side of the course of three miles of crosswind, headwind, the field reeled us back. I burned a few matches on that effort and needed to find some shelter in the field.

As we rolled through the finish, which is on a slight uphill grade, into the wind, to complete lap one of seven, the attacks from the other teams and a few from my team continued. We took a right turn and fought a fierce cross wind as we approached the hill for the second time. I was feeling better and keeping pace with the attacks and assessing the other riders. We turned right again and rolled with the wind. The pace was hot, 33+ mph. Several teams took digs.

Cory, an 18 year-old from Team Turner put in a huge attack. Corey is a man child. He is tall, thin, but sports a huge engine in his lungs and legs. He is a good guy and I enjoy racing with him. He is a very mature young man and appears to have great character. Unfortunately for him, his attack did not produce the result he hoped.

As the field caught him, I was about six to seven riders back. I was rolling with a huge head of steam. I felt I wanted to attack and get a break established, but was nervous as we were near to the three miles of crosswind/headwind torture chamber. Inertia won the day and I attacked, hard. I immediately had a 100m gap on the field and was digging for my life. My hope was that one of my mates would bridge to join me, that the field would not catch me in the three mile torture chamber, and that we'd stay away.

Upon entering the torture chamber, I looked back several times in hopes to see a blue and white jersey coming on to help me. As I looked back, I saw green, white and black of Walker Homes with the field behind him. Damn! I had about 200m on the Walker guy and he had about 200m on the field. I was determined not to let the Walker guy catch me. So, I buried my head and drilled it. I was in desperate search for the finish line marking the end of lap two looking for the cross wind section. I felt I could keep my gap in the cross wind section and one of my mates would surely bridge up on the climb and we could work the downwind leg together to develop a larger gap.

As I made the right hander after the finish line on lap two, I looked back. I was happy to see the field had reeled the Walker guy back and that I still had a pretty good gap. Up the hill and onto the downwind section, I resumed the hardest pace I could push. As I neared the place where I had initially attacked, three colleagues joined me, one was my friend/mentor/coach/teammate Jamie (Capt InsaneO). To my delight he brought two other strong fellas with him Doug and Dan. Doug, who rides for Walker, is a former teammate and great friend. He and I are riding together in France this coming summer. Dan is super strong, also a friend and rides for Team Dayton. So, in this break of four, my team has two (great odds for us) and we have two great, strong riders with whom we all get along. Even better.

As the four of us turned into the torture chamber, we had only a modest gap. I asked to take a spell from pulling a few rotations as the solo lap really took a lot out of the legs. The crew obliged. From the back I was encouraging my break to drill it as we were all race age 40 and over and putting the rest of the field in great difficulty. Jamie loved it and put in several monster pulls. For the next four laps, the four of us worked together and wound up putting several minutes on the field. We four over 40 had smiles in our heart and grimaces on our faces. Meanwhile, in the field, my mates were disrupting the chase and killing any attempt by competing teams to reel back my break.

Nearing the end of lap six and heading into the bell lap, Jamie rolled back to set up an attack for us to separate from Doug and Dan. I said, I'd love to, but I have nothing. Dropping Doug and Dan was the right thing to do, because Doug has a huge sprint and is a big risk to both Jamie and me. As we approached the base of the final time up the hill, Jamie attacked. Doug was right on his wheel. We are all smart racers and I believe Doug and Dan knew what was coming as well as I did. Doug was the only one with legs to respond. At the top of the hill, I took position behind Dan. There was no way I was taking a pull to help bring Dan back up to Jamie. Dan knew this and the gentleman that he is, never even thought to ask.

Dan has a tremendous engine. He pulled me for nearly five miles and nearly pulled Doug and Jamie back single handedly. Jamie then dropped the hammer on Doug and separated himself from Doug. Dan and I, well, let's face it, Dan, caught Doug and the three of us rolled along with two miles remaining with Jamie about 300m up the road. I was still in the comfy position of drafting Dan. I wanted to be in a better position and draft Doug and Dan, but Doug is too smart for that. He knows and he knows that I know that he can beat me in a sprint. So, Doug would allow the gaps to open between Dan and me, knowing that he could not only beat me in a sprint, but likely bridge any gap I allowed to open and catch Dan as well. Doug is a strong man.

As we neared the finish, Doug leaped with about 500m to go. I thought this was too soon and tried to jump to his wheel as he zoomed past. Dan shouted "Good move!" to Doug and I tried like hell to catch Doug. I thought I would pull him back with 200m to go and had visions of second. I jumped out of the saddle and almost as quickly sat back down as my legs would have none of it. Jamie finished first, Doug took second, I was third and Dan finished fourth. After the race, I stopped by to thank Dan for his efforts on the last lap and explain/justify my behavior. Before I could get a word out, he congratulated me on a good race and complemented Jamie and me on our tactics on the last lap. What more can I say, a true gentleman. I can’t wait to mix it up with these guys again.

It was a crazy hard day. A thrilling victory for me, albeit third, to do so well on a course on which I had bombed so miserably in the past. The day was made all the better for three other really great outcomes. One, some good friends finished first and second. Two, four forty year-olds beat the ever living pants off the field. Three, my other teammates finished fifth and tenth. We had four guys in the top ten! What a day for our team.