Normally I wake up on race morning with a few butterflies but this day was different. The day before, Friday, I was nervous and could distinctly feel the pit in my stomach. Nothing too outrageous for the first race of the season... but regardless, the feelings were there and I never really like that feeling. Oddly enough, come race morning, I woke up without even a single nervous tinge but did have a burning desire to race. This was a great start to the day and made my morning cup of Rossland Mountain coffee go down that much easier. Drove over to Hunters where we loaded up the Rockstar motorhome and cruised to the Truck Center of Arkansas parking lot for the race staging and signup. After getting the bus parked and set-up, we had enough time to give friends a tour of Hunter's new toy and get ourselves leisurely organized for the days event.
Two of our teammates, Tony LaSorsa and Bob Brown drove in from Oklahoma and we got busy talking trash and strategy for the days racing. Hunter had decided to race the Pro, 1,2 event and the rest of us were going to slog away in the Masters field which ended up with 40+ riders from around the region.
Most cyclists are a little apprehensive about the first race of the season as no one has really had a chance to test their legs and you never know who will show up having secretly trained hard all winter and ready to dole out the punishment. Me, I'm more worried about choosing a good pair of sunglasses to shield my eyes from the intense glare of all the white legs in the peloton. You may be the strongest guy in the bunch, but when your legs have the pigment content of sheet of copy paper, you just don't look fast. The only good news is, everyone is looking about the same with the exception of the guys who either refuse to shave their legs or just haven't gotten around to it yet. At least they have a slight buffer of hair to absorb the intense rays of reflected sunlight.
Pigment or no pigment, it was time for racing. I lined up under the impression that nothing was going to get away from the peloton given the flat and not too windy conditions. After our short neutral roll out, I positioned myself at the back of the pack only to see the Tyson Food and Snapple teams out of NW Arkansas positioning themselves at the front. I decided to ride up to the front and no sooner had I done this than the first attack went up the road with less than a mile into the race. I noticed one Snapple, one Tyson and one of my Teammates up the road. Given the number of riders Snapple and Tyson had in our field, they could easily block and discourage an effective chase and I desparately wanted in the break. I wasn't warmed up, but what the hell. I let it rip and attacked with everything I had in hopes of bridging the gap alone and helping to drive this break 52 miles to the finish. Unfortunately, I ended up dragging 7 other men up with me but there was good news here... we now had a large enough break that if we worked well together, we could keep this group clear of the main field for the entire race without spending a tremendous amount of energy. I would much rather sprint against 10 other guys than 40 or more so it was time to help make this effort stick.
Photo: Lea Ann Bumpers
Rolling through the Finish/Feed zone - Yours truly hanging out at the back while the guys grab their food and water.
Photo: Lea Ann Bumpers
Water!? I don't need no stinking water!
We set off making excellent tempo riding around 29 mph and quickly putting time on the main field. After our first of 4 laps, we could no longer see the group behind us and so everyone continued to cooperate and gain distance on our rivals. Our breakaway group consisted of 4 Tyson, 4 Snapple, 2 OKC Velo and one other guy I did not know. The important thing at this point was to mark any attacks that had at least one Snapple and one Tyson rider. There were a few attacks on the third lap and Tony and I were able to chase these breaks down and keep the group together. As we rolled along on our last lap, I was confident there would be some attacks in the last 5 miles and so decided I was going to play my cards by being in each and every one of them until one stuck. After the final turn leading up to the finish about 4 miles out, Bruce Dunn (Tyson) attacked and took Pat Zimmerman (Snapple) with him. I quickly rode up to them and we got a small gap from the group. I was positive we would stay away and sprint for the win between the three of us. What I wasn't considering was the lone guy in our group, that I did not know, who ultimately chased us down and brought the entire breakaway back together.... I was not a happy camper when we were caught, but bitching and moaning was not going to win this race so I made it into another break which was also short lived. We were getting very close to the finish and Snapple was beginning to set tempo in hopes of setting up Eugene Kirsch for the sprint. With about 1 kilometer to go, I sat third wheel just behind Zimmerman and had my teammate, Tony, on my wheel. Tony is a better sprinter than I so it made sense to put him in a position to win after I had burned a few matches trying to make the all of the late race breakaways.
Zimmerman was now leading us into the final 300 meters and I was immediately on his wheel. I was positioned slightly to his right side trying to take advantage of the crosswind draft when he sat up and moved hard to his right. No sooner had he done this than the Tyson guys launched their sprint. I had to hit my brakes and come around Zimmerman (sorry for yelling at you Pat) and by the time I had done that, the sprint was heading up the road. Tony's legs weren't cooperating and he had a not so typical sprint which netted him 5 place. I rolled in 6th and none too happy about it. However, after a little reflection, I was happy with the day and how my form is coming along. Flat races are not my thing so helping to establish the race long break and getting 6th overall, not too bad for the first race of the season.
Photo: Lea Ann Bumpers
Rolling across the line in 6th, not too happy at the time. I'm much better now.
Photo: Lea Ann Bumpers
Tony LaSorsa rolling across in 5th with me in tow.
I'd like to send a special shout out to the Tyson guys for finish 1,2,3 in our race and mopping up the lion's share of the prize money. The OKC Velo Pirates will be out for revenge at Hell's Kitchen! I'd also like to send a big "thank you" to my other team mate, Bob Brown, for keeping the pack at bay and allowing our break to succeed. A special "kudos" to Lea Ann Bumpers for taking some great shots of the race as she always does.
.
Up next, Rouge Roubaix. 106 miles of Southern Louisiana epic road/dirt racing this weekend. I'm going to need all of the cycling gods on my side for what will surely be a major suffer fest.
Booyah! Laughed out loud at the pasty legs comment.
ReplyDelete