So an 8:30am start time, in Twin Lake (north of Muskegon).....hotel. Scott and David dropped by J-town at 4:15 and picked me up. We drove to Muskegon, got our room, then went to dinner. Ahh, its been a while since ive had Sbarro. After a carbo-load, we went to Twin Lake and drove the course. We agreed that the safest place to be is on the yellow line. We also noticed a very nice, decently long hill. Scott told us, "if you can tell a good joke, your doing fine". So i joked around in the car and was like "So i said...". Once we finished scoping the course ,we went back to the hotel, pulled out the bikes, and went for a 20 minuet spin around a parking lot. When we finished that, we took the bikes and wheels inside, then Scott and I changed and sat in the hottub for about 10 minuets. Then it was lights out. Time for the race.
Man talk about a small room, we have two beds and a roll away, allong with 3 bikes and 6 spare wheels...essentialy, only one person could walk around at a time.
The following morning, we were up at 6am (which beats 3:30am had we stayed home). We went down to breakfast....waffles, cereal, water, toast, and bagels. Then we changed into our kits, loaded the bikes and wheels, and were off to the race. We found a spot right in front of the school, so we went to check in really quickly, then pull out the bikes, find the chase vehicle, and warm up. I didnt know that Roger, Ben and Jeff were comming, so we had a nice strong 6 person team. Our goal was to ride at the front, hold the yellow line so no one could pass, and animate the race.
Well the race started in its usual fasion, fast and dangerous. But it settled down. I rode on the yellow line for about 80% of the race. There was this one annoying guy, #104 who kept going around me and attacking the peloton. He crashed and didnt finish....good. We avereaged about 24 mph for the race, so we were moving. The group got over the hills pretty well. In the first lap, there was a crash. It was at the back in a corner. No one really knows what happened. In the second lap, an ambulance passed us, i guess someone in another feild broke their leg. We had a second crash in our group somewhere, i dont really recall it but i know i heard it. Finaly we got to the third lap, i was feeling pretty good. I had some GU and stayed hydrated. With about 10 miles to go, the peloton was getting antsy. Lots of tension, and blind moves. This is where #104 went down. He was on the far right side, and the road suddenly ended. According to the West Coast Michigan rider that got taken down, 104 moced into him, taking about about 1/6 of the feild. It happened about 3 feet to my right. The West Coast guy was right of Ben, who was directly next to me. When the West Coast guy went down he hit Ben, who hit me. We both stayed upright, and the feild split behind us. Jeff was unlucky enough to be caught up in the crash, he went down into the grass, and never got back onto the feild. Scott was caught, but somehow made it around it. David was nowhere to be found, he was stuck at the back from the start, and its nearly impossible to move up from the back. The other half of the feild caught us as we were at the bottom of that big hill i mentioned. I was feeling great at this point, so i turned to Scott on the climb and said "So i said..." and he laughed. But it didnt last long, seeing as he was cramping up. Now we have about 7 miles left, and this dude wearing a SRAM jersey takes off. We gave him the gap, it got up to about 30 seconds I'd say. We chased and caught him just before the last right hander. Then it is dead flat and straight for 2 miles.
Now the group is really moving, as everyone is jockying for position. The SRAM guy was right in front of me and making my life difficult. Then, at the 2K mark, Roger went for the flyer. This man is strong! So Scott and Ben jump on his wheel, i worked my way around the SRAM dude and made the jump too. The four of us got an immediate gap on the peloton. We tried to get a paceline going. When it was my turn at the front, we were just within 1K to go. We could see the banner over the finish line. We were close, and thought that we had this in the bag! Well i buckled down, and started the lead out...i had to be pushing 35mph, we were haulin'! What i didnt realize was that i was feeling better, and was stronger than the others (of course i hadn't really done any work at the front) an i got a gap on them. WELL to make a long story short, at about the 150m mark, all four of us cracked. In those last 9.2 seconds, the peleton caught us, and we all ended up at the back.
We decided that had we waited about 20 seconds, We would have had 1st-4th. And i could have potentialy won the state road championship. We live and we learn, life goes on, and there is always next time. Well im calling this one a mental victory.
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