The Ken Woods Memorial Road Race was 42 miles of cold, wet, and windy, otherwise known as miserable conditions. I raced in the Cat 4/5 race which consisted of 2, 21 mile laps. At seven miles in, I tried to break away with two guys, but we got caught almost right away, and then about 3 miles later those same two guys tried to break away again, this time I decided to save my energy and let them go. However, this time they went away and stayed away. I then had to make sure I was in the next break which came at the beginning of the second lap, I broke away with five others, and we tried to work a nice pace line, but I think only 2 of us new what a pace line was, making it about the ugliest and least efficient pace line ever. At mile 25, one of the guys fell of the back making it a group of 4, but at mile 30, 3 others bridged up to us. At mile 35, we caught one of the guys from the original break, so there was still one guy out there by himself ahead of us. With 6 miles to go, the group started laying cat and mouse, with half the group refusing to pull through. In the last 5 miles there was a half climb, followed by a longer climb, and then an uphill finish. Up the half climb I tried to set a pace that would drop the people that weren't willing to work (I didn't want to carry any flat-Landers from Milwaukee to the line), but when I crested the top and looked back I created a large gap, and then decided to go full speed ahead towards the finish. I held my gap into the longer climb, which was a nasty climb on the second lap with a fierce headwind. I stayed away on the climb and with about 500 meters to the finish someone came around me, I caught his wheel, but waited too long to start my sprint and he got to the line first. I finished 3rd, was upgraded to cat 4, and won a $35 gift certificate to a bike shop in Roseville, MN, not sure when I will spend that. I better get back to cleaning my bike.

Thanks for reading,

Trent