One great think about heading to Rick's races is that you never know what exactly you're going to get. Last year at Holland the spiral of death made its first appearance - and a smaller, less muddy version surfaced again today. The super prestige-like courses are a fun turn from the norm.
Today only nineteen starters took the line in the A's. Tom Burke, fresh off his great rides at the USGP's in Madison started in the back so he could practice moving through traffic! I took it out pretty hard since the course was so technical and I wanted to stay out of trouble. It only took Tom one lap to pass us in the lead group - and when he went by it was like a freight train steaming past. Tom rode alone off the front and won with a big gap.
So I was left in the second group, which only consisted of Earl H and myself to ride the remaining six laps of the race. Earl was on a mountain bike, and there were a few spots that favored the wider tires on the course. We traded spots back and forth, pushing pretty hard through the rest of the race. On the last lap we were coming into lapped traffic going into the spiral, so I took advantage of the crowd and jumped in front. Earl was right on my wheel though, and after a dizzying ride through the circles I lifted the pace again as to not go into the technical singletrack section in second place. My plan was working just fine until he attacked on the final hill, off in an area my skinny tires couldn't hope to handle. He hit the pavement into the finishing straight first, and I had honestly figured my chances were gone. However apparently the attack on the climb burned his las match, so he was unable to follow when I sprinted to the line, taking 2nd behind Burke.
Mike moved up from the masters class to finish 11th in the A's, which turned out to be a perfect placing for a sixer of Founders.
Next up is the Big Bad Wolf 'Cross in Midland - DON'T MISS IT!
1 comment:
Hell yeah! Great job JB!
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