After the crit race on Saturday was out of the way, I was much more at ease for the road race on Sunday. North Iowa Spin set up the course the same as last year for a 42 mile point-to-point that includes a few nice rollers, lots of sunshine, and lots of wind. Some of the same faces were at the line that had also raced the crit but, there were also a few new ones there as well. I had a couple of Rasmussen's teammates there, Loran Starts and Pete Jensen, so we had a brief talk and I put myself in the mindset for the day. Pete said that he felt pretty good and Loran had raced the crit on Saturday to finish 12th so I figured I would do what I could to get some higher results on the road race.
Heading West from Clear Lake through Ventura, the pace stayed very mellow at around 18mph or so. Almost like a casual Sunday ride. As soon as we made the left turn to head South, the pace quickened just a little bit and the draft all but disappeared as the lead riders all hugged the center line. It strung the group out for a while but eventually the guys from North Iowa Spin took control of the front and slowed things back down. Together with a few riders from Iowa Ortho the pace stayed right around 20ish mph for a few miles. A couple more uneventful turns and we made our way to the East with a massive tailwind which put us into the 28-33mph range through some nice rollers and the group stayed together outside of J. Fry (ICCC) taking off on a flyer which lasted about five miles or so. The group decided to reel him in right after we made the turn to the North with a crosswind. Uneventful for a couple of miles before the left turn to the West into the wind and a few riders tried to pull off the front and string the group out. I gave it a go and took one of the riders from Iowa Ortho with me. We actually pulled a pretty decent gap but the wind was not going to allow me to hang on and the group swallowed us back up after only a couple minutes. The group settled back in then and we made our turn to the North as Jerome Rewerts of All 9 Yards and Evan Peterson of North Iowa Spin launched off the front. I grabbed Evan's wheel to tag along but the group was right back on us.
We had abround five miles left to the finish line and I was trying to get an idea of what to do. Attack? Wait? Lead out my Rassy's teammates? One final turn to the East and we now had a ncie tailwind to get the pace back into the 30s. Loran was right behind me as I took the point and told me to attempt the flyer so away I went trying to chase down the motorcycle which was our lead vehicle. I was actually almost able to catch it when the rider realized that I was getting close and motored ahead. Unable to maintain the 35mph pace, I sat up just as the group being lead by Iowa Ortho came by on my left. I jumped back in towards the front to catch my breath and got on Jerome's wheel with Pete and Loran in tow. As we passed the 300 meter mark Jerome went to the left and I stayed on his wheel for just a second before pulling through and launching Loran Starts forward with my buddy
Mike Johnson of Bike Tech as I saw Pete Jensen, Richard Wince of DMOS and Evan Peterson going up the right side of the road for first and second places. Mike Johnson finished in 3rd and Jerome held on for 6th place. It felt like a pretty good sprint and I was able to keep myself in 7th overall with Pete taking 4th and Loran taking 5th for the
Rassy's squad.
Full Results here.I was definitely happy with the results of the road race and honestly the weekend as a whole. Two top 10 finishes to start off my season are definitely good for the confidence.
Read the complete post at http://carlosdajackal.blogspot.com/2008/07/race-report-clear-lake-road-race.html