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May 28, 2008
Duluth Classic Stage Race
This past Memorial Day weekend, I headed up to Duluth, MN with the family in tow to race several stages of the Duluth Classic Stage Race. I did not get chance to complete the full race (maybe next year), but had a blast with those stages that I did do.
Friday started with a 17 mile individual time trial through the town of Wrenshall. I was able to get my HED s-curve clip on bars attached to the Cervelo, which was great. I did not get a lot of time to play with the position and realized that with my smaller frame, the bars are a bit too long. I had a hard time controlling the front end of the bike.
I knew I would not put out a great TT performance so my goal was to start out easy and slowly increase my pace. The winds were strong, but manageable on the first part of the course. Within the first couple of miles I did get passed by my 30 second man, but he was the only rider to pass me (he also went on to win the whole race, which makes me feel better some how). The last several miles of the course was up hill and into a strong head wind. I finished the race in 41:11 and that was good enough for 19th place.
After the race, I was able to hitch a ride with Bryan back to Duluth, which was fantastic because I had no idea how I was going to get up there.
Saturday we raced in South Range, WI which is just south east of Superior. The race was 54 miles and consisted of 3 laps with one gradual hill and some rollers along the way. There was some strong wind on the back side of the course and coming into the finish line. The pack rolled out pretty slow, which was good as I did not get a chance to do much of a warm up. The guys from Brazen Dropouts who were all high on GC did not want to let anything get away, so they were covering most of the moves. The guy who was in the leaders jersey for the day seemed to have no team support, but road the front of the race doing a lot of pulling most of the day. Not sure of his strategy, but I was happy to let someone else do the work. In the first lap, I stayed near the front, covered some moves and did as little work as possible. My goal was that if a break went, I wanted to be in it for our team. Or if Rolle got in it, I would control the pace at the front. Well, nothing got away.
On the second lap, there was a KOM sprint as you crossed the start/finish line. My goal was simply to stay near the front and again, if a break went find a way to get into it. As we came onto the finishing stretch of the course, I was on the front covering moves. Before I knew it, I was off the front with three guys, sitting in the 3rd position. The first guy was eye balling us pretty closely, but was jumped by the number 2 guy. I followed his wheel closely as he weaved all over the road, trying to draw me out. About 200M from the finish he started to fade and I jumped hard and just went for it. As I got out in front, i was not sure if anyone was behind me, so I clicked down and dug a bit deeper. I cross the line with plenty of room to secure the KOM jersey for the day.
As we came off the only major hill on the course, the roads were total shit. I was still recovering from the sprint effort and trying to peel off a couple of arm warmers and gloves as I was over heating. I ended up going through a nasty pot hole and cracked my Zipp 303 rim. I was mostly worried about not being able to finish the race, as every time I put weight on the front wheel, you could see the wheel flexing and rubbing against the front brake. I put the wheel out of my mind and focused on recovering to support Andy in the finish. There were two guys off the front on the last lap and the group held them at about a 5 second gap coming into the finishing stretch. The pace was high, but we had most of the LSC guys in the front part of the group, covering moves and making sure we were pulling the two off the front back. I put in a big pull towards the end to reel in a few Ace Hardware guys who made an early jump. From there, Andy found a wheel and started to go for the line about 900M out. As he went by, Cobra was on Andy's wheel. I immediately sat up (which pissed everyone behind me off) and blocked anyone who might try to latch onto Andy or Cobra's wheel. As I watched the finish from the pack, it looked like Andy took the win. LSC ended up with a 1st, a 4th and the KOM jersey for the day. We proved the local club had some great power today and rode very well as a team. There was a lot of on the bike communication which really helped us throughout the race. I was totally psyched at the outcome and hope we can pull more races off like we did. I have to say thanks to Andy, Cobra, Cleary, Jens, Rolle for such a great race.
Posted by kermisch at May 28, 2008 8:43 AM