This is my kind of race.. Maybe a bit too easy of a course, a few more times up the steep 20% climb would have benefited me… especially if it was hot.
Ian Mensher started out fast, and never really slowed down. As the race had barely started he took of with Hone, Campbell bridged up as he realized the danger seconds later. With HB, and Garage in the break the gap went up fast. Garage had just about the entire 1-2 team out for this race, only Neil (out with a broken arm), Jay (racing masters in his first race of the year), Robert and Derrick where missing.. that still left nine. Before we got to the climb. The break already had 45sec. HB was clearly a bit worried that Hone wouldn’t last and tried to bridge continuously, we covered every move, but in the end this resulted in a pretty fast pace and by mile 20 or so, we caught the break.
As we approached the smaller climb, after the sharp left turn, I sat on the front. As the climb started, Flavio and two other riders attacked, soon a few more went by with two garage riders, with three riders of the front, I slowed down ever so slightly and made sure a gap opened over the top. Over the next mile or so there was some reorganizing of the front…but now the winning move of the day was made, eight riders of the front. We where definitely happy with those odds since we had a really good climber/TT with Nathan and a just plain strong rider with Ian in the break.
Unfortunately the last few miles were a bit too easy it came down to a sprint, with WOW taking the win, and Ian coming in second. Nathan in his last road race before moving to Charleston walked away with 6th. The main pack was eventually sprinting for 8th.. with 1k to go I was right were I wanted to be.. then we got neutralized , there had been a crash in the masters field at about 800m. For some reason I thought the race was over and sat up, drifted back…but before I know it we started up again…ops… I made an effort to make my way back up to the front, but by 400m to go I was still too far out of it, and at mid pack it was a bit too sketchy…the front was about to make the final left turn into the sprint.. it was over.. I decided to sit this one out.. no point risking a crash.. for a mid pack finish…
Strangelove took the sprint, and has just about now sealed the deal on the Washington Cup I would guess, Pete came in 10th and Chris 11th.
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