Wisport Worlds

First of all, a huge thanks to Mark Brone and his Brones Bike Shop Team or putting on a great event. We did a 13.5 mile Time Trial at 9AM, followed by a 41 mile Road Race at 1PM. The course is definitely one of my favorites. Quiet and scenic, with a 50+mph downhill, and a long grinding uphill to the finish.

Jordan won the juniors < 13 in both events, taking home these really cool medals Mark had made up specially for the event. I had a sub-par performance in the TT, placing 14th overall, and 3rd in my age group. Bergman won, followed by Ian Stanford, Lance Niles, Timmer, and Mike Johnson. Congrats to teammate Paul Rennert for winning my age group. I had a better road race, finishing 3rd overall. Jim Moore and Mike Johnson got away on the final climb, resulting in a photo finish, with the nod going to Jim Moore. Congrats. Christan Griego was 4th, and Lance Niles was 5th.

You would think the highlight of our day Jordan taking home 2 really cool gold medals. Nope. He ended up winning the grand prize of the day, a pair of Bontrager Race Lite Wheels, compliments of Spring Street Sports (he actually also had the choice of the HED tri-spoke front clincher donated by HED, but he already has one of those). He promptly stated they will be employed as his cyclocross wheels, and I can have the HED Kermeses back. Gee thanks Jordo.

Click here for results.


TT recap:
I hadn't ridden my TT bike since District Track on Aug 26th. I rode it all week, hoping to get some muscle memory back. I started 1:30 ahead of Lance Niles, and I was hoping to hold him off. Not only did he catch me, but he made up almost all the time in the rolling and downhill sections, then took over another minute out of me on the final climb. Ouch. In fact, Jordan started 7 minutes in front of me, and I didn't catch him until the last 1/2 mile. He rocked, I didn't. Jordan's buddy Jake Mittelstaedt was 2nd, and Tyler Myszkewicz was 3rd.

Road race recap:
Immediately after the TT, I wasn't confident about doing another 3 laps at all, especially given my sub-par performance. However, after a short cool down, my legs felt just fine, and I was ready to go for it. Brones Bike Shop and Spring Street Sports were the 2 strongest teams again, and I was on my own as usual. I knew I had good road racing legs, and had the advantage of knowing who to watch, after racing against most of these guys at Cameron and Cleghorn. I knew one guy to watch would be Jim Moore, since I knew he was hungry for a win. So hungry, in fact, he skipped the TT to save himself for the road race. Jordan was the only junior in the race, in fact the next youngest person in the race was 23 year old Tristan Bentzler.

We had a short neutral rollout, and I did one of my well known early attacks to soften up the group a little. I stayed at the front the first time down the hill to stay out of trouble. The first time up the long climb was tough, but steady. No accelerations, just a hard tempo with Brones guys on the front. About half way up, Peter Nelson from Brones took off, and got a gap solo. No one seemed interested in immediately chasing, including myself, with 2 laps to go.

With Brones team sitting in, it was up to Spring Street and me to try and bring Peter back. Peter is an Ironman triathelete, and couldn't be taken for granted. I rotated with Paulson, Pautch, Bentzler, and Johnson until he was close, then we decided to let him dangle.

This turned out to be a bit of a mistake, as he built his lead back up to :50 by the time we got to the base of the big climb. At this point, there were probably about 20 of us, with a lot of guys getting a free ride. About half way up the climb, Mike Johnson attacked, and put the hurt on everyone. I was able to make the junction, but unfortunately, so did most of the Brones team, and none of the Spring Street guys made it. There were 8 of use chasing Peter. 5 guys from Brones, Johnson, Griego, and myself.

Johnson and I worked together to bring back Peter just after the start of the final lap. Then, as expected, Brones started attacking us. Johnson and I took turns covering, but no help from Griego. This went on all the way to the bottom of the hill. Into the headwind, Niles attacked, and Johnson covered. They were just in front of us, and I asked Griego to pull through, and he declined. I sat up, and yelled for Johnson to go, which he did. I figured Brones would be forced to chase, since Johnson had probably the best chance at winning of those 2.

After that, I simply marked Jim Moore. Moore attacked hard several times, to try and bridge, but I was right on his wheel every time. Johnson and Niles still had a gap, but Lance wouldn't help Mike at all. Then, as I was hoping, Mark Brone called for his guys to reel the front 2 back in. We were almost on top of them as we hit the base of the climb.

I was still marking Jim Moore, who attacked immediately. He'd gap me a little, I'd make it back to his wheel, he'd rest a little, then go again. He did this to me about 3 times, and we made the junction with Johnson and Niles. Moore attacked again, and we all followed. After a couple more attacks, I finally cracked. Shortly after that, Niles cracked, and I was able to make it back to his wheel. Griego and Suntgen were a little behind us, and Lance asked me to help him. I told him I couldn't and that if he pulled me up the hill, he could have 3rd place.

Unfortunately, Griego was able to bridge up to us, so allowing Lance to finish 3rd wasn't really on the plate anymore. Once the steeper part of the climb was over, Moore left Johnson on the front to do all the work. Their lead yo-yo'ed a bit because of this, and I started to think we might actually have a change to get back to them.

So, contrary to what I told Lance, I attacked to try and make the bridge. Lance was ready, but his chain locked up, and he almost went over the bars. I was able to gain separation from them because of this, but I just didn't have enough to make the bridge solo. Griego rejoined me, with Lance just a few seconds behind us. Griego took the lead, but we were approaching the finish fast. He was dead, and told me if I had anything left, I better just go, so I did.

It was too little, too late. I got to within about 100 meters when Moore opened up the sprint, and they were gone. I rolled across about 15 seconds adrift, just in front of Griego and Niles.

Moore was able to beat Johnson in a photo finish. With 6 of the 9 in the lead group riding for Brones, all of them strong, you would expect them to win right? Well they did, but Johnson almost won, and Griego and I were able to take the 4th and 3rd spots. Congrats to Jim Moore and the Brones team for a great win, and an animated, fun race.