Sprinters Classic Road Race

The muggy heat from Friday disappeared, but in came the gale force winds. The course was advertised as flat, and I mostly agreed. There was just one section on the backside by the feed zone that stretched the legs a bit.

The short version:
3-man break on 3rd of 4 laps including Maxwell, Coyle, and myself. I won the sprint for 1st, followed by Maxwell, then Coyle. Bell won the field sprint.

Results Posted

The long version:
Only 12 showed up for the masters 35+. That happens this time of year, but we came to race, and that we did. 3 GSCA, 4 Silver, 2 GrandStay, 1 MCT, 1 Flanders, and myself.

The first lap was happy groupetto until Todd Heiser (Silver) jumped away. A bit later, Jim Bell bridged across, and still no one chased. There gap grew to over 2 minutes before GSCA decided to quickly close to within a minute (with help from Johnston and Evanson). On the 2nd lap, Heiser came back, leaving Bell all alone. This brought Muyers (Silver) to the front, and he and Maxwell brought Bell the rest of the way back just before the feed zone hill.

I had been sitting on Maxwell and Muyers, and as soon as Bell came back, Maxwell pressed the pace. I followed him up the feed zone hill, and looked back to see Coyle, and then a gap. I started working, and the three of us were off. Each of us gave it 100%, but the chasers kept us close. At first our lead stretched to over 30 secs, but then they closed to within 15 just before turning into the headwind.

The headwind turned out to be the chasers undoing, and we pulled away. The 3 of us stayed committed to the common cause all the way to the final turn into the tailwind with about 1.5K to the finish.

We went though the 1K to go sign 3 abreast. I did a false jump, and then Maxwell opened up his sprint. I jumped, but then my bike started making this terrible noise. It distracted me a little, and Maxwell got a couple bike lengths on Coyle, and a couple more on me.

I quickly figured out that my fork mounted sensor had gotten into my spokes, and was banging away. I simply ignored it and pursued Maxwell and Coyle. Within a few seconds, the sensor broke free and went sailing into the field. I was able to make it to Coyle's wheel, but he wasn't closing on Maxwell. At the 200m to go sign, I jumped around Coyle, and made it passed Maxwell for the win. I was exhausted and elated at the same time.

Jordan did 2 races. He raced the older juniors in the morning, and finished 2nd out of 4. Then he raced the younger juniors in the afternoon, and help set up his teammate Jake Mittelsteadt for the win, with Jordan taking 2nd. I got some bonus mileage following the younger juniors as coach.