Road Race Championship today. 55 miles through the hills of Marquette. Nate started out strong and was at or near the front for most of the time. I was content to hang at the back of the lead group. Somewhere around the 30 mile point he fell off and said he was cooked. I tried to get him to catch my wheel and hang on but he fell off quickly. At one point a solo breakaway got me nervious. it looked like a green and black Priority rider, and there were two Priority riders sitting on the front slowing the pack. The breakaway started gaining and I began loosing sight of the pace car, so I went around the front and started a rally to pull him back. It turned out he was not a priority rider, but it sure looked like good team tactics at work.

 

I hung onto the lead group, and about 7 miles out the pace picked up significantly. Rain had started about half-way through the course and the wheel spray caused a nasty taste in the mouth. It also made the few turns near the end tricky, but no one crashed that I know of. I hadn't scoutted the end of the route, and that came back to haunt me now. I was unsure how far the finish was or where the turns were. I just tried to keep close to the front, after the final (unexpected) turn I saw the finish line and dropped the hammer, but two guys were just far enough ahead that catching them was unlikely. I was digging hard for third place, when another guy pipped me at the line. It was so close, I wasn't sure if I got or not, but I felt like he got it. The results placed me forth, but with the same finish time. he got me by a hair! They only awarded medals out to the top three, so Mike and I left early to get some food as hunger hit me hard about now.

 

Nate had recovered and hooked up with some masters that finished not to far behind the other cat 5 racers.

 

I was quite disappointed at missing third place by so little, but it was a good race and I finished well. Nate and I both finished and learned a few things.

I first discovered this wonderful little park by accident many years ago when I made a wrong turn in Marquette, and it has since been a favorite spot that we usually visit when going through the UP. It is a small bulbous peninsula about a mile long and half mile wide that sticks out into Lake Superior. The rocky outcroppings and dive-able cliffs on the north end are great fun to explore. It is also a deer sanctuary where people can usually see deer feeding and wandering about, a fact we noticed as Nate and I were riding the course before the race and saw a deer standing right on the shoulder of the road watching us go by without much concern at all. (Fortunately there were no bike-deer accidents during the race, but they warned us about the possibility). What I didn't remember was the STEEP hill on the north end, my Garmin consistently reported the steepest part at 15%. It was not real long but certainly long enough to really make it challenging after the previous two days efforts! The decent following the climb had a sharp turn at the bottom just where the pavement narrowed a bit and the new tarmac ended and the uneven old pavement started. With the 2 foot high stumps marking the edge of the drive, it made for a very precarious situation. I was quite nervous about it before the race, but it proved to not cause any problems during the race.

With only 3 laps of about 2 miles each, we shot off the line as expected. The group stayed together through the first lap, but as we started the second lap, a group off the front accelerated and I was caught too far back as the group split. AURRGGGH!  I fought hard to bridge, and eventually found a strong 16y/o junior to work with, but after the second lap, with the lead group about 15 seconds ahead, I had burned all my matches and started to fall back. I still finished 9th, so I was content with a top ten finish, and that was enough to land me the 10th spot in the overall omnium classifacation.