So, after Walla Walla I guess that helped my fitness a bit. Because I
Anywho, I had a lot of fun. Marek was being all aggressive which is great to see because so many OBRAnians just sit in all the time and don't do anything. Bedford and Liberles both did some attacks, but about 5 of us all from different teams organized into a paceline that chased down Bedford. It was beautiful. In the end I got on Marek's wheel for the sprint but couldn't hold on, so I got 4th while he was 3rd.
Tour de Bloom
I think skipping the mass start hill-climb was an excellent idea in hindsight. Cause I got to watch the Grand Floral Parade instead:
And I therefore was fresh for the crit. The course seemed to be a dramatic improvement over the super sketch backside of the previous course and the final corner was super fun. We went down Orondo on the bricks and passed within a foot of a beer garden crowd at McGlinn's and then raced into the corner going downhill praying each time that my wheel wouldn't slip out and that I wouldn't run out of pavement on Wenatchee ave. A breakaway got away early and ultimately lapped the field. I hung out at the front and managed to maintain a good enough position in the final lap to get 10th in the race.
I think I might be starting to get a hang of the crits. Great Success!
The road race was definitely the most epic race I've done so far this year and may turn out to hold that place.
The race started innocently enough with no rain and it looked like it might stay that way. We rolled out onto the 102 mile three lap course and there was plenty of jockeying for position.
Once we began heading east we got slammed with a massive crosswind. Echelons began to form and one started rolling away quite convincingly. I fought hard to work my way into the next echelon and after a few rotations, the peleton was long gone. Sucking a wheel was impossible that day.
Our chase echelon was working great with neither the peleton or the first echelon in sight. It was clear that there were some stronger riders than others since we were dropping people from our own echelon as the lap went on. As we rounded the corner to go west we saw two things: the first echelon ahead of us and a nasty wall of rain headed straight towards us. The rain hit us before we caught the first echelon. When we caught the echelon, everyone was suffering from both working so damn hard and from the rain which at times felt like hail. So what was the logical thing to do?
Attack! Yes sirree I shot straight by everyone like a maniac and managed to drag Brian Hitchcock with me. I thought there would be a reaction and a new echelon would form, but instead we found ourselves with a 2 minute gap between both the echelon we caught and 2 additional wackos further up the road!! And this was with 40 miles to go just after I missed my feed since I could barely see anything let alone my mom handing me a water bottle.
Brian and I were holding our gap both ways, but were eventually joined by two strong riders as we echeloned east. We didn't make any dent into the two ahead of us, so it became clear that we were racing for 3rd. As we turned west, the vulture in me spotted weakness in Brian and one other guy, but that the 4th guy was very strong. So what did I do?
Attack! I just started riding hard off the front and after a bit of bucking around, the strong guy dropped the other two and bridged up to me. I wanted third so I did my best to seem like I could keep up on the remaining hills. With 1k to go we got into cat and mouse mode. He made me go first and teased me with a small gap that I bought into too early just before 200m. We were among the few finishers that day that came in as a group. Love it!
I ended up at 8th in omnium points and was the first non-Canadian.
Banana Belt 2
Well, after the 100 mile crosswind race, this whole 77 mile Banana Belt seemed like a walk in the park for me. Leading up to the race though, there was some tension within the team. In Banana Belt 1 my team didn't do the best despite having a 7 person team in a 24 person race. We all met for beers and general team discussion the Thursday beforehand and there was a lot of finger pointing and grandiloquence of what should be done. I kinda just sat there and ate chicken wings. Sherm asked me what I thought and I said that "bike racing leadership shouldn't be appointed, but is demonstrated in the race."
Anyways, I got a ride out there with one of our "I'm just getting back into racing after 4 years of living another life" teammates. The race was fairly typical Banana Belt stuff I guess with all the rollers providing lots of opportunity to attack and stuff. Dwayne Farr looked quite strong that day, but it was Kyle Medlin that went for a solo effort on lap 3 or 4 that lasted a good 1.5 laps. After this, Mike Kath and Erik Hofland always seemed to be getting themselves in these teaser breaks that were just a little bit up ahead. I started getting a little aggressive on lap 5 or 6 where one of my attacks involved going right before the dam hill. Our team was doing great at making sure they followed the strong wheels with Jeremy especially being an absolute nuisance to Bedford.
Just before the final lap, Bedford and Bourcier were trying attacks and I covered some of those. Then, I sensed the field was a little tired, so I put in a good attack. Nobody followed. The peleton didn't react immediately. And just like that I had a 40 second gap. It was a ways to go, but I was feeling great. I tempoed well up the dam hill and still had a good gap after that, so this was serious. My moto-official was encouraging me and leading up to the finish it seemed like the peleton was closing in, so I put in some good digs up the final hills. I looked back before the sprint hill and the gap was still big. I powered up the last hill in a big gear and poster finished. Our team led out Sherm who ended up in 4th. That was a pretty great day for the team. Oh and guess this race made Jeremy my favorite newest addition to the OBRA 1/2 peleton.
Anniversary Weekend
After BB2, I met my girlfriend and headed out to the coast for a romantic 1-year anniversary where I proposed to her on Sunday. And she was quite surprised but said yes and we're both quite excited.
Anyways, I got a ride out there with one of our "I'm just getting back into racing after 4 years of living another life" teammates. The race was fairly typical Banana Belt stuff I guess with all the rollers providing lots of opportunity to attack and stuff. Dwayne Farr looked quite strong that day, but it was Kyle Medlin that went for a solo effort on lap 3 or 4 that lasted a good 1.5 laps. After this, Mike Kath and Erik Hofland always seemed to be getting themselves in these teaser breaks that were just a little bit up ahead. I started getting a little aggressive on lap 5 or 6 where one of my attacks involved going right before the dam hill. Our team was doing great at making sure they followed the strong wheels with Jeremy especially being an absolute nuisance to Bedford.
Just before the final lap, Bedford and Bourcier were trying attacks and I covered some of those. Then, I sensed the field was a little tired, so I put in a good attack. Nobody followed. The peleton didn't react immediately. And just like that I had a 40 second gap. It was a ways to go, but I was feeling great. I tempoed well up the dam hill and still had a good gap after that, so this was serious. My moto-official was encouraging me and leading up to the finish it seemed like the peleton was closing in, so I put in some good digs up the final hills. I looked back before the sprint hill and the gap was still big. I powered up the last hill in a big gear and poster finished. Our team led out Sherm who ended up in 4th. That was a pretty great day for the team. Oh and guess this race made Jeremy my favorite newest addition to the OBRA 1/2 peleton.
Anniversary Weekend
After BB2, I met my girlfriend and headed out to the coast for a romantic 1-year anniversary where I proposed to her on Sunday. And she was quite surprised but said yes and we're both quite excited.
