Gordo's Race Report:
Saturday March 21, 2009 Lexington Crit/Circuit Race/Tour of the Industrial Park.
Fetzer Cycling Team Representatives: GMD, Larry, Lee, Keith Lucas, Dr. Rokosh, Lerner. Team Goal: Ride as a team and put someone in the top 3 Weather: Sunny, 55, light wind. Course: we all know how this goes. Wide roads, gentle climb, fast downhill, NO Trees. Basically, I've realized that I can only do well at races where there aren't any trees. As in zero. Frozen Toes had none and I got 4th, this race doesn't have any, so clearly I was going to go well. And I've also decided I'm just not going to bother training anymore. Seriously, I rode 3 days this week and managed a whopping 4.5 hours on the bike. So, one day a week on the bike ought to do it... Team strategy was to make Roadhouse (v. 3.0: "Now with ugly blue jerseys") do all of the work. Some of us would cover Kevin, others Curtis, others John Grant, and we might cover Sean and Andrew if the opportunity presented itself. There were to be no, and I repeat NO offensive moves. Only following of wheels. Brad and Vic would be proud of me. I followed instructions for a whole 3 laps! Yes. I followed wheels (as did everyone) for 3 laps. And then all went to hell as I took advantage of a Roadhouse cover (I think it was Sean) and hit the jets half way up the climb and got a gap. I rode as best I could until a group came up to me with John Grant and - as directed- Boz, a couple of Barbasol guys and a few others. I did my best not to do too much work and instructed Boz as such as well. We rolled ok, but were caught by a couple of guys including Curtis. I thought this was the field, but it turned out to be only a minor regrouping of the break. Curtis jumped and Mitch Kersting from Barbasol went with him. With no teammates following, I gave chase, thinking I was pulling the field up to them. A few other guys went by me but when I looked back, I saw I had a gap and had to ride pretty hard for a little bit to get across. Thankfully it was on the top of the course and I made it across as we descended. Break joined, we had Curtis and Andrew from Roadhouse, Kennedy and Mitch from Barbasol, Fagerberg, Me and a dude from Ohio University. We generally rotated pretty well throughout the race, and didn't do much in the name of trying to thin the herd. I felt like crap in the break. But, in true Phil Liggett fashion, I tried to keep my fluid levels topped up and take as short a time at the front as I could. I started to come around as the race went on and by the closing laps, felt reasonable. Luckily, there was not much of the really hot cat on mouse action, though with 2 guys each, Roadhouse and Barbasol might have had a good opportunity. With 2 to go, the OU guy attacked and I countered, getting a pretty decent gap for half a lap. I got caught on the flats before the "climb" and did my best to focus on covering the counter that never came. With one to go, I tried my best to take Curtis's wheel. Fagerberg and I were kind of vying for it, and hoping that Kennedy and Mitch would really ramp it up in the final. In the final 500m, Andrew jumped with Curtis on his wheel and Erik following closely behind. I was expecting a ramp and not a jump and had to dig deep to get on terms with the move. I nearly made it back when Andrew pulled off and Curtis started sprinting. I started soon after and kept getting agonizingly closer to Erik, but never quite made it. I started to die in the final but kept the gas on and managed to hold off Mitch's bike throw at the line. So, despite not being able to follow directions (I color outside the lines and run on the pool deck as well) we managed the team goal of 3d. So, that's that...No racing for me this w/e as I'm judging first year oral arguments, but I'm planning to be back on the 5th at Shelbyville.