Cedar Creek State Championships

Epic. Biblical. Legendary. Majestic. These are some of the words used to describe the race yesterday.

5 laps, 85 miles. The Cat 3 feild started with 33 riders. Heavy hitters including Jimi Minnema, Lupe Martinez and Peter Beels. The race started under sunny skies. The first few laps were pretty relaxed. No one was in a rush to hammer for 85 miles. But eventually someone started the game and we had to chase.

On lap three the race really started. One Spout rider attacked at the start of the lap through the feed zone. Once the peloton caught up to him, a few people told him that was not a wise move and a bit unethical. The pace then got driven for a while by Greg Battista to the bottom of the hill where Minnema and Antonuk gapped the peloton and just kept going.

With Jimi up the road in a move similar to that of Frankemuth, the SLC team knew we had to close that gap down. We all went to the front to pull. We even got close a few times. The problem was that no one else wanted to work. I think we had 4 SLC guys and 2 other people helping chase. Riders who were not seen at the front untill the end of lap 4 or lap 5 were the PH boys, the Spout riders and the Wolverine guys. Me thinks they will help chase next time.

Because no one would help, I was getting frustrated. That is why I got in 4 different breakaways to try and bridge up the Minnema. I did this with two goals in mind. 1) Make it to the breakaway and get 3rd. or 2) Get the feild to chase me and catch the breakaway. Both failed.

Once I got back to the pack I told everyone that we were going to be sprinting for 3rd place, but everyone told me to be quiet and worry about my own race. Well with 10 miles to go, a lot of riders realized we were not going to catch them and started apologizing to me and told me they should have listened.

With about 7 miles left, the sky started leaking and little drops of water started comming down. About a mile later as we crested the hill the sky opened up completely. Rain POURED down on us. You couldn't see more than 15 feet in front of you. To make it more epic, there was a lightning storm too. I had to take my glasses off because they were fogging up, but this didnt help much because I couldn't see with the rain in my eyes. Someone I made it to the finish. I couldn't break either becuase I was on carbon wheels.

As the feild approached the line and made the final acceleration, I couldn't go with them. My legs were dead from the breakaway attempts. I ended up 20th overall. I probably could have gotten 3rd if I had conserved through the race.

Overall it was a successful race. I was very disapointed with the other teams that would not chase when we had the chance to catch Jimi. Hopefully they learned.

A HUGE THANK YOU to my mom, Nick, Mr. Wieczorek, Mrs. Iser and Mark for handing off bottles for the team.

[Photos by Joe Lekovish]