Baby Tour of Ohio Stage 3

Back in Sugar Grove, but going backwards. The good thing was the hill was easier. The bad thing was the hill was too easy. This race had a strange mix of riders. You had the riders who were only doing this event, and then the riders who were riding for the series. This made for a race where everyone was sitting and staring at each other. I made a few vein attemps at KOM points, but there was no line and no one was sure exactly which laps the KOM points were on.

The first time up the climb I sat in and let my legs work into the race. The second time I blasted up the climb hoping to crack the field some, but they did not even try to stay with me. Some of the other laps I tried to set a pace just hard enough for some riders to stay on, but break some others. This all seemed to to be a exercise in futility because the field would only go so fast and then they would sit, look, and wait.

Overall Savage Hill (will, beaner, larry, steve p.) did a very good job setting tempo and saving me some work. Especially with a lap to go. You could tell that they all were hurting. Pain is good!

Second in road race. Ended up second in GC overall.
Good weekend of hard racing.

Meat before self.

Fun, in a sick sort of way.

Chris was in command. He tore up the field several times on the climb and nearly popped us on lap two. Even though the race was relatively tame if was fun to race above cat and help out what little we could. Chris seemed to appreciate it.

The race was run on the Sugar Grove short course, but the loop was run backwards. The roads were clean and fast with all the winter cinders having finally washed off. The first part of the descent was especially fun. It was pretty steep and dove into a sweeping right hander at 40+ mph. The first few times I nearly ran over people hitting their brakes in the curve. But once I learned who to avoid, I could nail the descent all out. It was a blast.

Tom Hanley got things going in an early solo break on the first climb. Nobody wanted to chase and Tom's gap quickly grew large. Even though it was early in the race, Tom had pounded out an impressive TT time the day before and I was concerned that he might be able to pull off a long solo effort today. To keep the gap in check, Savage Hill formed at the front and set tempo with Chris sitting on the back of the train. We led into the next climb where Chris attacked going after prime points. His surge popped a few people (including several of his teammates!) Larry and I chased back on after the descent. Chris Bean got a flat and never made it back on. Hanley may have been just going after prime points because it looked like he sat up and was quickly caught on the next lap.

The remainder of the race seemed to be dominated by the hill. With few exceptions everyone tried to make their moves on the climb and just rolled through the valley not wanting to do anything. In particular no one wanted to be on front going into the hill. At one point Steve and a Lake Effect rider got a break going simply by setting a tempo pace heading out of town towards the climb.

The winning move came after the descent with 2.5 laps to go. A Lake Effect rider made a nice attack after the descent. No one took the move seriously and his gap started to grow pretty large. I went to the front and drove up the pace to keep him in check, hoping to get a little chase started. When I looked back for help, everyone just sat on my wheel. I slowed and pulled to the side and the entire field swerved with me. Finally Larry came up to help. We worked it a bit and the field continued to sit on us. Seeing no one else wanted to work, Chris tried a little sneak attack going through town. He drifted away while Larry and I continued to set tempo on the front. He got a small gap but the field reacted pretty quickly and jumped across - I guess they were paying attention after all. As we left town and headed for the climb, the pace slowed down again. I went up to the front to keep the pace going and keep working the chase. It was by no means an attack, but when I looked back I was away with a Lake Effect rider covering. He said "we've got a gap". I slowed the pace a little trying to coax the field into covering the gap. Eventually they did, towing Chris back up to us.

Finally with 1.5 laps to go, the field came alive and started to work the chase. Jack Law sent his (only) Torelli teammate up to help. Larry, Steve, and I worked along with a few other singleton riders. It made a big difference having some fresh, cat 2, legs in the chase. The pace stayed pretty high through town. But once we left town, approaching the hill, the chase whittled down to just me and Larry again. We gave the chase everything we had left. On the last climb Steve, Larry, and I popped. Our legs were fried.

By the finish the field got within about 20 seconds of the Lake Effect rider, but never closed the deal. Chris won the field sprint for 2nd overall.

Great team effort and great individual effort Chris! A couple of other team riders congratualed me on our efforts today- that was nice.