Monday, April 30, 2007
Vance Creek road race
Tyler Farrar Cofidis, Ian Mikkisik BMC, Doug Ollershaw Health Net, Evan Elkhan Jittery Joes. All fast pros that can turn a nice 80 mile road race in the sun. In to a very long day.
The course was pretty fun it had a good section of climbing that was 3 miles, then it went downhill for a while then into one laned farm roads. There were alot of splits mostly on the hill. I was sitting about 40 riders back going through about a mile cross wind section. I wasn't hurting at all I looked up and see a split of 20 riders which all the big pros were in. I immiedatly got out of the saddle and powered around struggling riders. I tried to clear the 15-20 second gap, I got close, but when they turned the corner and went into the tail wind and they were gone. I settled in with the second group 4 of our riders made the split so team wise we were in a good position. I could do nothing, but sit in and wait. First it was 30 seconds then 50 seconds the a 1:20 then 1:50 then we brang it back to 1:30 then it went up to 3 minutes. Basicly it was a long day of watching the race go up the road. I easily took the sprint of our 2nd group the legs felt really good my back was super sore I guess thats to be expected with the first few of these 80 mile road races. Cross winds can really ruin your day, even if your feeling good it only takes one rider to open up a split, and rip the field in half.
The course was pretty fun it had a good section of climbing that was 3 miles, then it went downhill for a while then into one laned farm roads. There were alot of splits mostly on the hill. I was sitting about 40 riders back going through about a mile cross wind section. I wasn't hurting at all I looked up and see a split of 20 riders which all the big pros were in. I immiedatly got out of the saddle and powered around struggling riders. I tried to clear the 15-20 second gap, I got close, but when they turned the corner and went into the tail wind and they were gone. I settled in with the second group 4 of our riders made the split so team wise we were in a good position. I could do nothing, but sit in and wait. First it was 30 seconds then 50 seconds the a 1:20 then 1:50 then we brang it back to 1:30 then it went up to 3 minutes. Basicly it was a long day of watching the race go up the road. I easily took the sprint of our 2nd group the legs felt really good my back was super sore I guess thats to be expected with the first few of these 80 mile road races. Cross winds can really ruin your day, even if your feeling good it only takes one rider to open up a split, and rip the field in half.
# posted by Matt Brandt @ 10:21 AM 
