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Minnesota State RR Championships – Plainview, MN. Saturday, June 24th, 2006. As told by Mark…I found myself back at one of my favorite venues today and to say the least I wasn’t really too excited to be there. I’ve had a history of getting dropped somewhere or another on this course throughout the years but usually it’s on the mile long climb we do 5 or 6 times, depending on the year and the category I’m entered in. Take last year for example. I’m in the break of 6 and we’re halfway up and passing through the feed zone when all of a sudden I can’t hold the wheel of the group in front of me. Try as I might they just fade away into the distance and I and another lone fool were left to dangle in no mans land together for another 2 and ½ laps. Misery loves company they say. Back to the future! I arrived late as somehow I had it in my head that the event was in Zumbrota? It was actually Zumbro Falls or a cornfield close to there at least. I made it to Zumbrota before it dawned on me that this was definitely the wrong venue. I do go back a ways and I’ve been to a bunch of races in and around that area so it all looked familiar while driving and listening to my Sirius Satellite Radio! Luckily I turned around in time, asked for directions and sped 90mph until I knew I was going to make the gun at which time I slowed down to the speed limit and descended upon the familiar venue. I was greeted by teammates Chris Ripp (who was defending Cat 3 champion and today’s team leader), Trent Ping and Max Rhyner. It was good to see familiar faces and I knew we were going to have a strong team. No other team posted more than 3 riders so the odds were in our favor a little bit. The goal was to keep things together until Chris decided to tell us to blow things up. That’s how it went for the first 2 laps but on the 3rd he decided to test the waters some and set a torrid pace up the climb. By the top the field was spread out pretty well and as you crest the climb you got an added bonus of a strong headwind to further punish the legs. I made it comfortably (relative term) up the climb with the leaders and since I was working solely for Chris and saw he was in the group, I kept it full on GAS over the top and into the headwind. The selection was made and Team BBS was the only team to have 2 riders in the 10 strong lead group. The bunch initially lacked cohesion and there was much bitching going on about who was doing what work but I knew that on a course like this that if you were hurting here you wouldn’t be with us the next time up that climb and wouldn’t matter if you didn’t take a pull or not. Eventually we got a good rhythm going and increased our lead to the out-of-sight point. As we climbed the hill the next time one of the groups stronger riders really dropped his chain bad and I shouted for the group to slow and let him get back on. The majority of the group thought that was fair enough but they wanted to keep tempo so we road fairly even up the climb that lap. To my chagrin our fallen comrade didn’t make it back on as it took too long for him to get the chain on and remount and chase…such is racing and you never know when a mechanical is around the corner. Unlike the pros you see on TV we have no team car following or a group of riders willing to drop back and help us get back on should we flat or crash. The next lap was pretty steady but there was one crazy guy in the group who kept yelling about everything and everyone and eventually he jumped off the front and decided to ride by himself. We all agreed to ride at a pace to keep him in site and let him tire a little so maybe he’d shut up once he rejoined the group. On a side note, Chris from Team Borah had made the break but was struggling with the effort. I tried to encourage him as both he and Tom (another Team Borah rider) were also riding in a positive way to benefit us or Ripper if they couldn’t win. I’ll speed this up some and tell you that Chris from Borah eventually went off the back with cramps and the group of 10 was 6 once we crested the climb for the last time. We brought back crazy shouter boy in the headwind and I countered his breakaway as soon as he was caught. Being the strong boy he was he caught back on and lugged the rest of the group with him so we were 6 strong once more. I was feeling good and thought I’d give it another go around the turn from the headwind into the tailwind. I waited until yeller boy did a pull at the front and then jumped away once again but not wholeheartedly. I kept checking the rearview to see who was in tow and it was a good guy from Flanders named Mike. I was hoping they’d make old yeller be the one who pulled back any attacks as he was self proclaimed strong man of the group. I signaled for Mike to pull through but he didn’t and the group came back, minus two. Now it was just Mike, Ripper, myself and yeller, who by the way, started yelling at me. I usually don’t mind the yelling but decided to give him a taste of his own medicine and told him to counter if he was so bad. I believe I said, “come on big boy, let’s see what you got if your so bad! I’m sick of your talking! Show me what you can do!” I think he was a little surprised at my verbal spat as he didn’t say anything the rest of the race and he didn’t attack either. Unfortunately, Rippers legs weren’t feeling as good as mine and he told me he was cramping pretty bad. Now I’m bummed as I’m sure he was too as we had superior numbers but couldn’t do anything with it. The 4 of us kept the pace high and all continued to pull through taking turns sharing the work load. I knew if I jumped that Ripper was the one going out the back as neither yeller nor Mike were showing signs of cracking. In hindsight I would have tested the waters two or three more times before the line but thought I’d see what we could do going to the line as a group and on the descent I decided that I wouldn’t go until as late as possible. We got to the bottom of the hill and there was about a 3-4 mile run through the valley before you hit the climb once again and crossed the finish line half way up. Cruel isn’t it, finishing on a hill like that. I’ll fast forward you through the end as it was messed up anyway. Yeller jumped first, Mike second and I reacted too late only overtaking Jim for second while closing on Yeller. To add salt to the wound he wins. (Note: actual name is Murray Carter from Canada and is an accomplished racer and probably a nice guy…off the bike.) Nine times out of ten I jump first and win going away. What can you do? Second and fourth aren’t bad consolation prizes but the jersey was what we wanted to bring home and we fell short. Kudos to Max and Trent for riding tempo and hunting down anything that moved early in the race! Also, we finished all four and much of the field dropped out or was well behind. All in all it was a good day of racing…Thanks for reading! |
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This site was last updated on: August 23, 2008 03:19:20 PM -0500 |