Dam, they’ve positioned me in the front of the line right in the middle of the big sweeping right turn before the final left-hander into the final 300 hundred meters. Is this going to be a repeat of last year’s race when Cadillac George came around for the win?
So that is how the end of the race set up, why not start at the beginning. Race number 3 in the Torelli Ohio Spring series and the turn out is healthy. Must be 40 guys in the 4/5, a dozen in my Masters race including the aforementioned GM product, Luca Brasi (with pneumonia), Mikey Rea, and our pal Scott “I own ever cycling toy in the catalog” Young (also with pneumonia). We had the proverbial ‘ah-oh’ moment at the start with Tym Tyler lining up with us again and fit racer from OU wearing his ‘masters’ number over his number for the 3 PM race. He planned to use us as his warm up. You know where that’s going.
We start a minute or so after the 4/5s (which included Dan-of-God) and in lap 3 of 16 Tym strolls off the front. I lineup behind Mr. Warmup - thinking he’s going to take me to his leader. Nothing doing, he sits. NOBODY CHASES. Okay, we never see Tym again. Round and round we go, half the guys blown out the back.
About lap 9 Rea-Rea wanders off the front, again - no chase. Hmm, 6 laps later Mr. Warmup decides he’s going to chase Mike down. accelerate, accelerate, and more acceleration. We are again gruppo compacto (Tym doesn’t count) and all know the our pal is just being kind, he could blow our doors off anytime he wants.
Last lap, and there’s no need to charge up the hill because the LONG downhill on the backside, which is into the wind and impossible to escape on. It’s going to be a sprint. And there I am in the front. What the hell, I accelerate at 300 meters - too far out, I get a nice jump = the monster comes around me but no one else...
grazie, grazie - third place.
No comments:
Post a Comment