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I was dragged to the Indiana State Road Race Championship by Jason M (my cousin) with the plan of working for him to win the jersey. We set out on our journey on Saturday night, leaving his place in Hoosier-land and staying overnight in Fort Wayne. From there it was IHOP in the morning and a short 25 min drive to the race course. As we pull up to the parking lot, we see our friends Brian Smith and Brian Boyle from South Chicago Wheelman getting ready in the parking lot.
The course was a 14.6 mile course that started in Woodburn, IN, and passed through western Ohio before returning back to Indiana for the finish. Prior to the race, we were told that the organizers combined the 1/2s and the 3s fields and we would do four laps through the corn fields. As we were lining up, the skies opened up and it began to rain (definitely not my favorite racing conditions).
The race started off hot from the gun. A Recycling rider took to the front and drilled it immediately. A quick 200m and we were making a right turn and the pace increased more due to the tailwind. I watched Jason at the head of the race and knew I needed to be up there. As soon as I thought this, we hit a loose gravel section of about 1.5 miles. I was not thrilled about this, but it is bike racing so I dealt with it. We turned off and I moved up about 20 places in the crosswind section just in time to see Jason attacking off the front. I settled in and watched what unfolded.
After the next turn, we caught the group with Jason in it. The field slowed and I attacked and was off solo. A few hundred meters later one rider bridged up and then 2 more. We eventually had a good rotation going, but the field wasn’t letting us get too far ahead this early in the race. We make it through lap one pretty uneventful.
As we go through turn 1, the field decides to take a breather and two riders are gone. The front of the field was chatting away as the two riders opened up a large gap very quickly. A few riders attempted to bridge, but failed. I became bored with the slow pace and decided to liven up the group a bit. I moved to the front and drilled it and the field followed. A couple of more riders attacked, but didn’t get very far. The two riders were away for nearly 1.5 laps. After we caught them, a flurry of attacks came in a short distance. I hear Jason behind me say “Go with the next one.”
When the next group went, I followed, but didn’t make it very far and neither did the group. One rider did sneak away, James from Carbon Neutral. He had about 10 seconds on the field that was slowly increasing. I decided that I would give it a shot and bridge up to him even though we still had nearly 20 miles to go. That 10 seconds seemed like an eternity out in no man’s land. After about 2k in this lonely position, I thought about falling back to the pack, but I knew if I did, I would be riding the bike back to Chicago. I settled in again and the gap slowly decreased until it was the two of us.
I looked at James as I came around him and asked how he felt. “Not great,” was his reply. “Crap!” I thought to myself. I had committed myself to this effort and was prepared to go at it solo from here on out if I needed to. As we rolled through the finish line to get the bell lap, James started feeling better and we hit first of two long tailwind sections. We picked up our pace a little more through these sections and increased our gap to the main field. We looked back and saw a lone rider trying to bridge up but was eventually caught by two others. They looked to be gaining on us, but our gap held steady.
We hit the first section of headwind and kept a steady pace and rotation and the thought of 3 more turns to go to the finish crept into our thoughts. Our gap was still steady. We received a little respite in the form of a crosswind, but that didn’t last long and we were on the final headwind section. Off in the distance we could see the water tower marking the finish. Looking back at this point the 3 chasers had been absorbed by the field and it looked like our gap was increasing. We figured (or hoped) that the group would know that we were both 3s and the 1/2s would make the other 3s chase us down. It turns out that this is exactly what happened.
We came through the final turn with about 2k to go and a large gap that seemed to be holding steady. At 1k to go the field was just coming through the final turn and the line quickly approaching. James and I were still evenly taking pulls and at 200m I sprinted with all I had. I rolled through the line, threw both hands up with excitement and joy that I just won my first road race. Being from Indiana, James won the state jersey.
As the field was setting up for the sprint, Jason kept good position on the wheel of Brian Smith. They were on the inside sheltered from the crosswind, but then a rider cut Brian off and another rubbed Jason's handle bars and their line was gone.
After the race I talked with Jason and he mentioned to James’ teammate that if we stayed away they would get the jersey. This was incentive for them to block the rest of the race to perfection. Thanks Jay for all your hard work to help keep us away.
Thanks to Men of Steel Racing and the town of Woodburn for hosting a great race.
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