Marc Pro - Strava

I finally won a Premier Series Race!  It helped that Max Jenkins and  Kurt Carlsen  flatted.  I guess since Jesse More wasn't there either, that may have helped.

My goal at this race was to try and finish top 12 (in the Premier Points).  I had ordered new tires, but they did not arrive yet, so I had to roll with what I had.  I figured the best way to get through the jacked up roads and through the gravel would be on my own.  It would also be nice to do the climb at my own pace.  With all of this in mind, I announced at the beginning of the race that I planned on attacking and it would be cool if nobody chased.  The field agreed and off I went.

A ten second gap turned into a thirty second gap.  Soon it was well over a few minutes.  I still can't believe they let me roll.

After crossing the highway I hit the first bit of white-trash redneck cobbles. Since the motorcycle had dropped back, I began to get concerned I had went the wrong way, especially when I saw some homeless looking, possibly toothless hillbilly doing jumping jacks in front of me next to his "I was very drunk when I parked this" car. He was yelling "Give me a high five!" but all I could hear was "squeal like a pig!" so I gave him as much room as possible. I noticed when I got past there was a bloody, freshly killed, guts everywhere, deer right behind his car.

I gingerly picked my way through the ruts and across the gravel sections.  When I got to the climb I put it into my easiest gear and enjoyed the beautiful canyon scenery.  After cresting the climb, I took my time going down so as not to flat on that jacked up decent.  A group of three caught me on the flats about halfway through the race.

In the group were Adam Switters (XO Communications) Ariel Herman (Blue polka dot team that looks like a vintage table cloth) and a really strong junior, who flatted soon after.  Eric Riggs (Team Mikes Bikes) and Kris Lunning (Marc Pro) bridged up.  This is the group that basically made it to the line.  I was pretty fried from being off the front and hardly ever pulled through.  I did not feel bad because Kris was killing it enough for both of us and I was getting revenge on Switters for not pulling through at Cyclebration ( revenge x 20).

After the junior flatted, Riggs got dropped on a climb. Then there was four of us.

The highlight of the race was when Ariel, desperate not to lose his "Counter Attacking Reality" water bottle, unscrewed the lid on it and poured water from the feed into it and discarded the new bottle.  It was the most unacrobatic thing I have seen in a while and it reminded me of Gollum from the Lord of the Rings protecting his "precious" water bottle. With about ten miles to go Kris and I started to attack Ariel and Adam, but all we were doing was decreasing our gap to the chase, so we waited for another five miles to go.  At about five miles, Kris went, and then when they caught him I went.  Ariel got across to me, and then eventually Adam did, but without Kris.  I sat on those two hoping Kris would get back across.

I sat for almost too long and suddenly there was a group of about ten right behind us.  Those two were pretty fried from pulling all day so I ended up taking the biggest digs. When we got to one K to go, Adam sat up and let Ariel go expecting me to chase while he sat on me to try and come around.  I let Ariel get a bunch of bike lengths and then punched it, easily dropping Adam passing Ariel and taking the win.

Below is the Race Shape.Com gps profiles of myself, Kris Lunning and Kevin Metcalfe who was in the group chasing that got to within 12 seconds of us in the last few miles.  Very cool technology!:

http://raceshape.com/strava-segments/616208?rides=208080568-208108766-208241717&sd=2012-06-30

You can see my gap up and over the hill, when I got caught and when the chase almost caught us.

NorCal Cycling News link: http://norcalcyclingnews.com/2012/07/02/tour-de-force-at-leesville/

NCNCA Blog Link: http://ncncaroad.wordpress.com/2012/07/02/justice-for-all-at-leesville/

Ariel Herman's Race Report: http://metromintcycling.com/?rr_1341290330

Team Mike's Bikes Race Report: http://www.teammikesbikes.com/2012/07/leesville-gap-road-race-a-war-of-attrition/