Iowa City Road Race/Old Capital Crit

Temperature was chilly in the low40's with a 25 mph NW wind gusting to 35. Had a nice field size of over 20 riders. The first two laps were rather uneventful with the pack staying together. Some guy took off hard from the go and was later reeled in when he hit the wind. The race was 52 miles long, four, 13 mile laps. About a quarter lap into the third lap going up the big hill before a long false flat and 90 degree right turn the pace quickened. As we crested the hill onto the false flat I looked back and spotted a gap. I looked around at the 6 other riders and recognized two strong riders from Bikes To You and hollered we've got a gap, let's go. A short while later someone reafirmed our commitment "this is it". We all hunkered down, I came to the front and pulled thinking if I could just get to the stop sign at the top of the hill round the corner fast with seven strong we could put time into the peleton. Once we hit the tailwind, everyone immediately began working hard rotating through, we were flying, running smooth, real smoth. We turned right and was immediately hit by a really strong crosswind almost taking the wheels right out from under us. I thought, man I should have switched my Mavic Ksyrium wheelset with bladed spokes for my Dura-ace set, which aren't effected so much by the wind. I swear everyone was leaning over almost 30 degrees into that cross wind. But this section was short, capped by a real short steep uphill, then it would be back with the wind for a while. I came to the front thinking one more hard push here would seal the deal. As we were coming up to the inevitable 6 mile headwind section I tried to encourage the riders to keep our rotation going and not to get discouraged with our slow speed. By the time we got around to the start going into the last lap we had a gap of 2 - 3 minutes. We all continued to work hard together until we got within a half mile of the finish. At this point I had rotated to the back and I don't know how, but Wil from Bikes To You was up the road into the wind with two hills yet to go. I couldn't believe he thought he could sprint from there to the finish. Pogoing my way forward on wheels making headway I came up on his team-mate Bryan who when saw me coming near hollered go Wil, and I realized a hill and a half away the train had stopped here and it was time to go for everything I had. At this point Wil was 300 feet ahead 1/3 way up the last hill with 200 feet at the crest to the finish line. Wil was dying big time and I was gaining fast. But I lacked 10 ft of real estate to earn the top prize. I've got to hand it to him, he dug really deep and found a way to win. Congratulations to you Wil, and your mate Bryan, nice racing with you. Unfortunately team-mate Matt Pav missed the break, he said he got to within 5 seconds of bridging it. I've got to do better at working with team-mates, we were so hell bent for leather, that I didn't even look back, maybe there would have been something I could have done to bring him along.

The Crit was the race for my team-mate to shine. Matt Pav rode like a warrior the whole race. He even won the most aggressive rider award in the 3's category. The race started off with a bad omen. as we were driving to the venue in my van one of my comrades said hey look you can see the field from here, which was a block and a half off. As we all looked this rider simultaneously goes down smash half way down the steep part of the hill. It was like wow did you see that. Well checking out the course a short time later, we over hear two riders. One saying "yeah the dumb $@#* freaked out when came down the hill, locked both breaks and crashed. The course was a bit intimidating with the fast downhill and no escape route, only a 90 degree right turn and steep uphill rising and falling 75' in less than a half a block. The course was in bad shape with orange paint everywhere marking the rough spots. Coming down the hill, my bike was bouncing and shaking so hard at 38 mph I thought my headset or wheels were going to blow apart. I didn't feel too bad going up the hill, was holding my own if not gaining a little. I got a bad start, although I was at the front, I missed my pedal as 20 riders went screaming by. Once I got it together, I started moving up, and by the 10th lap out of 25 I was 3 from the front. Pav was on a solo break and had a 20 second lead during the first few laps. If I only could have gotten up there earlier I could have tried to slow down the field. With two laps to go the speed was insane and a gap opened with a rider in front of me. I came around to try and close it down finally accomplishing this at the bottom of the climb on the last lap. Getting banged into by a rider at the bottom of the climb I was a little unnerved after burning several matches to catch back on. The gap opened again at the top of the climb with nothing to blame but my ticker. No more matches on this last lap, 10 feet and then I turned into the wind, now 15'. I was bumbed, we were strung out for a block and I knew my chances were over for a good finish. I just dug deep to hang on and ride it out the best I could, not getting passed and taking 14th, in the money with one place to spare. Pav however pulled in 8th and earned some unneeded respect with great aggressive riding.