Sunday, August 24, 2008

Valley City, OH

Valley City, OH, is the Frog Jumping Capital of Ohio. Unfortunately, the race is held a couple weeks after the Frog Jumping festival, but they have their street fair there for the race. The race course reminded me alot of the Western PA Wheelman's ride called the 'one significant hill ride'. This was an absolutely flat ride with the hill being between a couple blocks in Connellsville, PA. The sidewalk there was a staircase and it went for about 100 yards and then back down to the flats. That's pretty much what this race was. I was there by myself for this one again as most of my team is winding their seasons down. There were several teams there as it was the Ohio State championships races. That was going to pick things up or so I thought. Tris Hopkins and another rider from Stark Velo rolled off the front in the first 3 miles and were never heard from again. I couldn't believe it. They just rode off. I was in the back and thinking 'well this isn't my fight, it's their championships.' OOOO, wrong answer, Bob. Common sense was telling me to go with it. Unfortunately, I've made a habit of not listening to the many voices in my head this year. I just wish I had a bag of ass-scratchers to sell to everyone there because that's what we did for the next few laps. It did get a bit fast and towards the end of the 2nd lap, I jumped across to a move and started flogging the riders to work and get the break going. All it took was 2 riders to pull across behind another rider who had just pulled off so they could miss a turn. JEEESSSSUUSSSS, we were not going that fast and between myself and another rider, we were doing the lionshare of the work into the wind. That pretty much killed everything and we got caught since everyone else sat up right after that. After making some comments about certain riders really needing to learn to leave the skirts at home, I'd settled in and waited for the sprint for 3rd these guys wanted to have. A mile out, I'd launched a good attack and figuring no one would be chasing since it would've taken work to catch me, I was flying up the line and then dammit, one of them swung wide over for a turn and blocked me. He didn't do it intentionally. He was just a goof. I just love riders who feel compelled to stay tight in on a turn and only swing wide at the last second so they can make the corner. So, I now was 2nd in line heading into the small high with a long 400 yard stretch to the finish. Well, I was following the one everyone was afraid of in the pack so I didn't worry about it much. We climbed the hill and he put it in the big ring and tried to wind it up. At this point, my mind switched to the scene in 'Better Off Dead' where John Cusack was trying to race a couple oriental guys who spoke like Howard Cosell and right as he tried jumping on the gas, stalled completely. I was right behind that kind of a leadout with 350 yards to go. Well, I was in that great catch22 situation. If I wait, I invite more people to the party. If I go for it now, riders get a great leadout. Damn, I hate having too many people in a sprint party so I went for the long one. 25 meters, 2 riders came by and then 2 more right at the line after I blew to pieces. The one good thing I brought away from this, was I'm going well. The bad part was, I should've gone alot earlier, right about mile 3.

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