I was not going to get suckered into trying to get in a break away today, so I sat at the back for the first part of the race. There were lots of attacks, but nothing looked like it was going to stick since many guys were interested in chasing. Tige and Mark seemed like they were on top of everything. Of course a break of six did end up getting away, and before they got too big of a gap, there were a few other guys looking to get across. Chris Black was at the back and started to wind it up, I thought I might go with him, but I just didn’t want to work that hard, so I was happy to see Tige get on his wheel as he went by, but Tige also decided against staying with him. We made bad decisions. Chris eventually made it up to the break. So we started chasing, but there were 3 California Pools guys blocking for their 1 teammate of the 10 in the break. I don’t understand that, they had better numbers when the field was together, why would they block for one teammate in a break of 10 when they had nearly 20 percent of the remaining field?
We got pretty close, tantalizingly close, close enough where you would try and jump across if you were fresh and hadn’t been working to bring them back. I might even have tried despite having been chasing, but I got optimistic it would soon come back to us because the break looked to be sitting up. Just then I saw 2 guys in the break attack hard, the rest of the break chased. We never saw them again. How frustrating, and how short the window of opportunity.
Eventually we would be lapped by 2 people from the break, but the rest of the break would not make it to us. So with a little over a lap to go Tige and Mark wacked it good, stretching it out, then some of the California Pools Guys took over keeping the pace high for their guy.
Coming into the final corner I had already started my sprint and was moving up, with Mark just in front of me going a touch slower I yelled, “Inside”, and fortunately he didn’t chop me and nicely gave me the line. I sprinted and took 5th in the sprint, but 2 guys were a lap up, so I ended up 13thoverall, and Mark ended up 14th, with Tige kissing his sister in the first non money spot 19th. A good race, but a little frustrating. Maybe next time.
There were a few other notable events in the race. Some guy in the middle of the field sits up and gets dropped. He comes completely off the back and I think “there goes someone else I don’t have to beat in a sprint”, I’m moving closer to finishing in the money. About a lap later he tacks back on to the field, granted we had slowed a bit, it was still surprising to see someone recover like that, it almost never happens. Then suddenly he strolled through to the front and attacked. Although it was the slowest attack ever he could keep it rolling and he didn’t mind the work. Turns out it is Dave Hasse, the recent third place finisher in the solo division of RAAM. I am not racing with slouches.
The other highlight was seeing Mike Buechel rig up a leash for his dog, by opening the hood of his car and tying the dog to the engine block. Nothing says bike bum like the setup. That dude cracks me up.
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