Stage 1 took place on Friday evening and I decided ahead of time that I would not race on Friday. It was probably a good choice because the weather was pretty crappy with storm fronts moving through the area. Jeff Aufdencamp was able to get 6th place in the field sprint, so the team plan on Stage 2 was to work to set-up Jeff.
The scheduled race for Saturday was to complete 5 laps on a 13-mile course, for a total of 65 miles. OVR advertised the race as “rolling” but that term is relative – someone from North Carolina would have called it pancake flat. But I knew this coming into the event so I was not disappointed. Upon arrival at the race venue, the word spread quickly through the parking lot that there was a section of about 3 miles on McKay Rd. that had been chip-sealed and was quite dangerous in spots with deep sections of gravel. After the sacrificial fields of Masters, Cat 5’s and Women were allowed to “enjoy” the full course, the race officials decided to circumvent the nasty stretch for the remaining racers and quickly lined out a new course, avoiding the chip-seal roads. This left us with an 8-mile course, so the lap count was upped to 8 to leave us with a total of 64 miles.
Immediately upon roll-out, Chris Grisvard and Walker’s own Jason McCoy struck out on a “see-if-sticks” attack. This was short lived and the peloton was not about to let anyone get away in the first 5 minutes. The Walker team was very aggressive in the first three laps – Doug McConaha, Doug Green, Todd Lee, John Markstein, and I all joined or initiated several attacks. Unfortunately nothing was sticking and our protected man, Jeff, had suffered a flat tire early and his day ended prematurely. It is worth noting that Doug McConaha took the unofficial KOM on the 2nd lap… to bad the official KOM did not occur until the 4th lap. =) As the race wore on, I decided to just stay toward the front and try to mark any attacks that I could. As is often the case in racing, I was in a bad position when the attack that stuck took off and there was no chance for me bridge up to it. That was pretty much the end of the story. By the end of the day, our squad was somewhat decimated, paying for early aggressions and I think only myself, Doug Green, and Doug McConaha finished with the first chase group. I managed to sneak into decent position for the field sprint and ended up 11th on the line. It’s funny how certain details of a race can escape me. Looking at the power data after the race, I see that I hit my peak 30-second power for the year (575 W) just 4 minutes into the race. I don’t recall the effort, but I’ll assume I was trying to cover a counter-attack after Jason had been caught. The power data also showed that this was the most intense race that I had done all year, with normalized power at 245 W, which translates into an intensity factor (IF) of 0.893 for me.
Sunday’s Stage 4 race WAS pancake flat. And, I am not complaining, but it was probably one of the most boring courses I have ever done. The schedule for Sunday was 6 laps of a 12-mile course, 72 miles in all. We lost John Markstein and Jason McCoy for the day, but we picked up Scott Spees.
On the first lap, Todd Lee worked his way into a break of 6 or 7 riders that managed to stay away until midway through the 2nd lap. After that, the race primarily stayed together until Jeff Aufdencamp took off on a solo flyer just as we headed south on Larrick Rd. on the 5th lap. I positioned myself at the front of the group to try to discourage the chase effort. Jeff held the field at bay for the majority of the lap, but on the flat road heading north back to the start-finish line, the Overall GC leader and one of his Canadian countrymen conspired to chase him down. When he was caught, Mitch Tallan unleashed a furious counter-attack heading into the start-finish and the pace picked up for a few miles. For the remainder of the last lap, Mitch proceeded to attack every time the pace lulled. As we headed back into the finish, I checked with Scott Spees to see how he was feeling. Scott told me to keep the pace high, so I made my way to the front and tried to do just that. After doing one good turn, I pulled off the front and was swarmed by the field, never to see the front again. To add insult to injury, the race official pulled up on his motor bike and admonished me for pulling off to far to the left and crossing the yellow line. I pleaded that I was not taking advantage, but rather was dropping back and trying to stay out of the way of the main field, so he only administered a warning. At any rate, the peloton took this as a warning to remain inside the lane, making moving up in the field nearly impossible. I found myself in the last third of a 40-man peloton and I knew my chances were remote, so I sat up for the sprint, opting not to risk the carnage.
So that was my weekend. Well, all except for going home to find some wonderful homemade father’s day presents from my daughter. We finished the day with a nice little fishing trip to a local pond where Allie caught 8 or 10 bluegill, which we always return so we can catch them again later.
Not a bad way to end the day.
(Images copyright Jeffrey Jakucyk )
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