The Good Stuff!

The legs seem to be coming to form just in time for Nats!  I wound up in 2nd Place in the Montana State Road Race and 5th in the University of Montana Circuit Race.

Saturday was the Road Race.  It is the same weekend as the Tour of Walla Walla and it takes approximately 100 hours to get from anywhere to Bozeman, so the numbers were significantly diminished.  There were two really strong guys in the field and everybody knew who they were.  Every time Chris Daifuku (UW) or Jake MacArthur (WSU) would start to accelerate, there was a general panic through the rest of the pack.  The first time up the long, gradual climb those two started going at it and a few other riders snuck up the road.  That break didn't make it over the hill, but it made me realize that I could probably get away while everybody is focused on the two big dogs.  So Nate Keck took off over the top of the climb and got away solo.  As we were descending, Sam Forsyth (MSU) rolled of the front a little.  Jake caught him and countered.  Everybody grabbed his wheel.  Just as he was caught, right before the bottom of the hill, I took off.  I suffered as much as I could for about 7 minutes until I had established a gap, then settled into a rhythm.  Shortly after that, a group of 3 caught up to me.  I got in with them and worked our way around the course.  We dropped Tony Azevedo, the one UW rider, going up the hill the second time.  We were contemplating waiting up for him so that he wouldn't get caught by the pack and the Huskies would start drilling it since they no longer had a man in the break.  We then caught Nate and the lead car.  We asked for a time gap and the driver flashed 5 fingers followed by 3 fingers.  We all looked at each other and thought 5:30 was a pretty good split, then the driver rolled up along side of us and said that we had EIGHT MINUTES.  I guess everybody was waiting for Chris and Jake to do something and nobody would work in the pack, so they just chilled out.  After that we decided to leave Tony behind and cruise to the base of the final climb.  We were greeted at the bottom of the hill with teammates cheering and several looks perplexed looks at the lack of UW riders in the break.  Jared Nelson (MSU) started setting the pace up the climb.  I didn't feel like we were going super-hard, but the 60-some miles before were definitely taking their toll on my legs.  I started to gap off.  I knew I had to catch back on.  So I did, then Nate started to gap after 35 miles of soloing.   So I got around him and worked my way up to Bryce Daviess (UM).  He started to gap, so I took a pull.  I stood up and we touched wheels.  He went down.  I looked back to make sure he wasn't seriously injured, then kept going.  I caught up with Chris, who was sitting in 9th place in the D's even after stopping to aid a rider who had dehydrated himself to the point that he fell over and started seizing.  He started cheering me on as I rode by.  So I went harder.  I turned a corner and saw a blue and gold kit up the road.  I thought to myself "Jared must really be hurting now, he's going really slow.  I could win this!"  So I pushed harder.  I caught up to the rider and saw a 300-series number.  He was a D rider.  That was a letdown.  So I rounded another corner and saw signs for a "Scenic View Turnaround" point.  I then thought "they must be talking about the parking lot at the top.  I'm almost there!"  So I pushed harder around the corner and saw a pull-out and the rest of the climb ahead of me.  Another letdown.  The final stretch up to the finish is really steep and the wind was blowing straight down the hill.  So I pushed harder.  I finally made it up to Bill and Joan's car (I don't think I'll be able to recognize a finish line after the collegiate season without Bill and Joan's car).  I crossed the finish line and immediately shook hands with Jared.  He was ridiculously strong up that climb.  There was no attack on his part, he just rode us all off his wheel.  Bryce and Nate made it up the climb shortly after, followed by Tony.  He rode really tough to keep his position considering how much he was struggling to keep in the break and got popped off with 30 windy miles to go all alone.  At the end of the day, BSU had all three riders in the top ten of each of their categories.

We then headed over to Whitehall for the TTT.  The first thing we did was hit up the A&W.  Since our Men's A team consisted of Beth (Women's B), Chris (Men's D), and me, I didn't really worry too much about the time trial.  I knew ahead of time that we would be last in the A's and we would take our points and enjoy them.  So I ordered a Polar Swirl (a.k.a Polar Squirrel).  Beth got a root beer float.  Then we went across the street and talked the front desk attendant at the Super 8 to let us use her conference room to do homework in.  We left the Super 8 about a half an hour before our start time and began getting ready.  At about T minus 5 minutes Ty from UO looked over at us and said "you have a girl on your team too?!"  It turns out that UO's MA team had an identical composition as ours.  We actually had to compete for not last now.  The Polar Squirrel may have been a mistake.  So was the root beer float.  So was the zero warmup.  We took off 1 minute ahead of the Ducks.  The first half of the out and back was uphill and into the wind.  Chris had timed us against them at the turnaround, and we were ahead.  Then I rediscovered that both Chris and Beth had compact gearing on their bikes.  They were just maxed out on the downhill, tailwind run to the finish.  UO gained 40 seconds back over the last 8 miles and beat us.

We then headed to my great aunt and uncle's in Hamilton.  We met their ultra-energetic puppy, Ruby and learned that Vonnie wouldn't be able to cook us each a pound of bacon in the morning as they had church obligations.  She did, however, tell me that I had "very pretty teeth."  We then went to the circuit course in Missoula.  Chris had gone home after the TTT, so Beth was the first one up.  She raced a couple of laps on a slow leak and finally stopped to change wheels.  The official could be best described as "dippy," had passed her even though she wasn't off the back to go with the lead driver.  So a corner marshal radioed her.  The official radioed back that she had no wheels, even though I had put them in her car and specifically told her that the wheels were for the BSU racer.  After the race, she gave Beth a different and possibly dumber reason for not giving her a wheel.  The official had determined that Beth was out of the race and there was no way that she would want to continue on if she waited a full lap for the car to come around again.  Beth would get her spare and ride laps backward around the course for the entire Men's B race and some of the A's.  Clearly, she didn't want to continue riding...

My race started out fast with Tony attacking from the parking lot.  I decided to let him go as I felt that he would get caught quickly, which he did.  Unfortunately, I was shuffled to the back of the race when he did and the counter-attack rolled away.  UW, OSU, and UM all had a rider up the road.  That left Ty, Sam, and myself in the  pack without a rider up the road.  Both of them were struggling to hang on to the pack through the first lap, so it was obvious that the break would not be reeled in.  I knew that I would have to bridge up solo to get to the front of the race.  So I attacked out of the one really fast corner on the second lap.  It was significantly tougher to get away after taking 2nd the day before.  I was not liking being a marked man.  But I had to keep trying to get away as the longer I waited, the farther the break would get.  So I attacked the finish line climb on the third lap.  Nothing.  So I attacked the long climb on the forth lap.  Nothing.  So I attacke the finish line climb on the forth lap.  Nothing.  So I rested the fifth lap.  I attacked the flat before the long climb on the 6th lap.  Nothing.  So I attacked the finish line climb on the 6th lap.  Nothing.  So I attacked the long climb on the 7th lap.  Something!  I had created a separation with Nate and Danny Koski-Karell (UW).  So I attacked the finish line climb on the same lap and shed Danny.  We had to survive 3 laps now.  We started working together and did it.  Nate blew me away in the final sprint, so I wound up in 5th.  Overall a great weekend for BSU Cycling.  We now have a rider in the top ten in the MA, MB, and WB season omniums!

Next weekend is the Conference Championships in Moscow and Pullman.  These are always great races and a lot of fun, so we'll see what we can throw out for that.