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There were two races today, the North Shore CR up near Bellingham (which ended up getting canceled due to to SNOW) and this one. I'm glad I chose correctly even though I hear that course is nicer.
Today it was Dave H, Jim K, Charlie D, Brian C and myself in the masters race. I could have sworn the flyer said we were going to do 60 miles (and I wanted it for the training) but as we lined up at the start the official said it was just going to be 48. I was bummed at first but in retrospect, with the weather change we experienced I guess it was a good thing.
For a change Paul W was the sole representative from Excel so today we had to contend with Second Ascent who had five or six riders in the field instead. There was a neutral rollout for the first half mile or so and then Brian went to the front to speed things up. There were a couple of attacks by Second Ascent guys. By the way Second Ascent, nice job! It's fantastic when other teams take the initiative. Dave H went with the first one, I went with the second and so did Paul W. Dave went with the third and when I saw the fourth roll up the road with one other rider and there was no orange and blue I had to go again.
Since my reaction was not so quick this time it took me at least 800 m to bridge and when I got there I sat on for one turn trying to catch my breath. Well this other guy started to tail me off the back! WTF? I was like, "What are you doing?" and he responded, "You need to work." Nice. I told him to give me a break and that I had just chased him down. Finally (seeing he was going to be stubborn) I just came around him and pulled him up to the Second Ascent rider and we got back to rotating. Two rotations later he was gone; ha! What a dork. The Second Ascent rider turned to me and said, "I had a feeling he was not going to last..." I just nodded and we got back to the job at hand.
I had caught on just at the bridge before the hill and so when we climbed up the first time the pack was not very far behind us at all but the gap did continue to grow ever so slowly. I knew I had great support in the bunch and figured Second Ascent would support this move as well so was not too worried but sometimes it takes a while before you know what will happen. Let's just say we both looked back quite a bit for those first few miles. :)
As we neared the end of the first lap the lead car told us we had about 20 seconds. We could still see the bunch behind us on the road. We were working really well together and this guy was not short (meaning he was a reasonable draft) so I was loving it. Especially after last week's solo effort - this was fantastic. This guy seemed really strong and was going just a tad faster than I would have alone on all the inclines but after two laps he turns to me and asks, "Do you have two more laps of this in you?" Right... You better I thought. And that's when I started to entertain the possibility of winning; in my experience, guys how ask this early are not usually used to this kind of effort or confident they can complete it.
With two to go the lead car told us we had 1:20. I'm thinking that's not quite enough but our pace had not slowed at all. In fact, after the race I saw that we rode each lap in almost exactly 30 minutes and finished the race in two hours almost dead on. That's consistency for you.
With one to go the lead car told us we had just under 3 minutes so I started to feel much better. I was getting tired for sure but the gap was nice and I was betting this guy was getting beat down just a little as well. That's when he turned to me and said, "I'm fading hard here..."
Martin on the outside: "Nice job, just keep it steady."
Martin on the inside: "YES...!"
The last time up the hill I shifted up near the top and stood up; not to attack but just to confirm my suspicions. It was hard to tell. So I tried it again on the next roller and this time he was 15 feet off the back at the top. Now I felt good. I waited for him and after one more pull each I rode up next to him and told him that If he promised not to sprint I'd tow him in for 2nd. He said okay.
Don't get me wrong, I was not fresh or anything but I was doing better than him. And I figured this was the gentlemanly thing to do instead of just attacking. But, this 'gentlemanly' behavior can have its drawbacks...
With about 1.5 km to go (after I had pulled for maybe 2 miles) he comes up along side me and says, "I can't do this, I'd never forgive myself, I'm going to sprint." and takes a turn. Now I was stuck. He had just rested and so I had to do the same. After one more turn each we round the right hander with 1 km to go and I 'let' him take the lead.
I guess he just wanted to feel like he didn't quit as he never looked back and just tried to ramp it up and then sprint. With 100 m to go I easily came around him on the left - that was a super feeling.
I was truly appreciative of the help and after the finish we shook hands and congratulated each other. I guess talk in the pack was that this guy was going to handle me pretty easily in the sprint and that might have been the case if there hadn't been that 40 mile softening up period. :) Dave got 3rd ahead of Paul and Jim got 10th in what was left of the bunch. |