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Cleghorn RR (WiSport) Cleghorn, WI Sunday, September 10th. This was a new event on the WiSport calendar and since it was only about 45minutes down the road I felt compelled to show some support. The morning of the race was kind of cool and overcast and I really didn’t feel like going anymore but I’d told my teammates I was going to show so Shelli, Haili and I got the car loaded and headed over. After registration and warm ups the weather started to turn for the worse. The temperature had dropped and the rain came. The pack departed the start line with the wind whipping up and in typical race fashion the speed was up to 30 mph from the gun. Luckily Trent and another person slipped off the front with Lance Niles and I thought that might be a good combination so I helped Garrett sit in on any breaks which might try to go across. There were still a few quality riders in the main group. Gordy Paulson was one of them and on a slight rise he took off but Garrett was on his wheel. I looked around and there was Trent. He said he and the other guy got dropped by Lance who must have really been flying. We now had Lance in the lead followed by Gordy and Garrett. On the major climb in the event we could see those two crest the hill as we approached the base. The field was relaxing some and another Spring Street rider (Tristan) was going across so I jumped on his wheel and by the top of the second part of the climb we came up on Gordy and Garrett. I thought the four of us would be able to work together to get Lance and then I liked out odds. It didn’t work out that way as Garrett lost contact once we hit the flatter section on the top. I looked back and he wasn’t there any more so now it was me and two Spring Street riders…and good ones at that. We settled in to a good rotation and were now coming up on the completion of the first lap. We could see Lance in the distance so our motivation was strong. On the constant rollers I got the feeling that Gordy wasn’t as strong on the ups and Tristan wasn’t near as good on the flats. I was feeling pretty strong so I thought I’d give it a go and try to bridge the gap myself. I positioned myself after Tristan and once he took and uphill pull I jumped hard. I got a good gap before they really reacted and I just put my head down and tried to block out the pain and concentrate on staying smooth. I started getting much closer to Lance than Gordy and Tristan were getting to me so either they were taking their time and conserving some energy or they were starting to fade. That gave me more incentive to get the gap closed and soon I was able to do that but not without a good fight by Lance all the way to the capture. He was really strong and when I did make contact we started rotations that kept the pace between the 25 and 30 mph mark. I kept looking for a crack in his output but he took every turn and kept the pressure high. After a while we started talking as we both felt the main field wasn’t coming back and we couldn’t see the two Spring Street teammates either so the gap must have been pretty good. We kept the pace steady and strong but were able to ride side by side and talk about some things. I knew he was seeing Maggie Fournier who is a team BBS rider and long time friend. She was competing in the Wisconsin Ironman today too. I asked him if he’d be interested in riding for our team next year as I had a few other times in the past. He didn’t make any commitment but he didn’t say no either so that was a good sign. We were coming to the end of the race and I suggested we do a two-up drag to the line rather than try to cat and mouse it. He agreed and as we crested the last hill we both clicked down to grab a bigger gear as it was now all downhill to the finish. I took the right side and he the left. We started to open it up and pretty soon we’re over 30 mph and not even in full flight. With about 50 meters to go I jumped hard to full gas and opened a bike length gap. That was just enough to edge Lance by about a wheel at the finish as he started his sprint a split second too late. Had it been a little longer he might have taken it as he was moving pretty well but just ran out of room. We had enough time to go back to the finish area and see the other competitors come in. Tristan was third followed closely by Gordy and then the main field came charging in shortly after. It was a fun course and considering the circumstances a great day on the bike! I’ll be back next year to try and defend… |
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This site was last updated on: August 23, 2008 03:19:18 PM -0500 |