Press Release 03.15.2006

Weekend Race Report

by Bruce Miller
WV squad - Mazza Vineyards /Inferno Racing Team

This weekend’s race was in Morrow, OH.  We were actually a little hesitant to go after seeing the weather forecast.  It was calling for severe storms including flooding and hail.  We decided to take our chances.  I left the house around 6:30 and met Billy at his house around 7:00 am.  We loaded up his car and got on the road. 

At first the weather didn’t seem that bad.  Then the closer we got to Morrow the worse it was.  We went through some pretty strong storms on the way .  When we finally got there it was still raining pretty hard.  Creeks were flooded, the rivers were way up as well.  Never the less we went ahead and registered.  About thirty minutes before the start the rain just stopped.  The sun never came out or anything but it did quit raining.  This made for a mad scramble to change clothes before the race started.  No more plans of wearing a base layer, I was actually able to ride in just bibs, jersey and some arm warmers.

Ok, time for the race to start.  We line up and then we had a 2.5 mile neutral rollout to the start.  Then they staged it cat 1 and 2’s starting first, then cat 3’s, cat 4’s, 5’s, juniors, women.  There was three minutes between groups.  In our race (cat 5) there were 23 racers.  The race was a 7.9 mile lap that we did five times.

The race started out pretty quick.  In the first lap there was one breakaway which after a minute or so three of us chased down.  That was pretty fun.  Shortly after we caught them the rest of the group caught up.  The pace stayed pretty fast.  I believe the average for the first lap was a little over 23.5 mph.  I must admit, at this point I was a little concerned.  All I could think about was that maybe I shouldn’t have ridden hills on Saturday.

The second lap wasn’t quite as bad.  I just sat in a little up front and took a few pulls, nothing major.  The third lap had a breakaway attempt which a couple of us chased down and managed to catch.  It was pretty unorganized up there so the group caught us pretty quick.  I just sat at the back of that one since I was pretty tired from bridging the gap.

The remainder of the third lap and the entire forth lap I just sat on the back trying to conserve as much energy as I could.  About a mile into the final lap I found myself up front.  I have no idea how I got there.  Anyway, after setting there a minute I decided to just kick it up a notch for about 15 seconds just to see what kind of reaction I would get.  Shortly after I took off Billy joined me.  We looked back and no one came after us.  Billy wanted to attack but I thought it was a little too early.  We stayed out front by about 100 yards for about another mile.  Then we started trading pulls a little.  I was going about 80% at this time.  That is when two others bridged the gap and joined us.  We all decided to work together.  We did pretty well working together for two or three miles then the group just seemed to blow up.  It seemed like nobody wanted to work.  We had about two miles left at this point.  I decided to just take off on my own.

I stayed out front until about ½ mile to go.  That is when a racer from 7 hills racing caught me.  I was able to grab his wheel and just hold on.  That is when the final climb came up.  I was exhausted at this point.  Starting out the hill there were six of us together.  I figured that I would just fall off the back, I was right.  However as we started climbing I started moving back up a little.  Once we made it to the top of the climb I was in third with the finish line 200 meters ahead.  I gave it all I had and managed to stay in third by a couple of inches.  At the time of the race the promoter told me I had third but he would have to check the tape.  Once the results were posted I found out that I did manage to barely edge out forth place, I finished third.