Michigan Race Report - Jesse

Post date: Jul 18, 2010 3:15:9 AM

The beginning of the road race was looking pretty good for IIT. Bryce,Ian, Mark, and I were all towards the front in control of the race, but in the later half of the race the pace picked up, and the pack got strung out. I wasn't far up enough to avoid the gaps that opened up. While I did bridge two or so gaps, I wasn't in contention for the

top 10. I eventually caught up to Dan, and we worked together for 2 miles until I couldn't keep up anymore, I helped bridge him up to a group ahead of us. I fell back and took the wheel of two other riders until the finish where I placed 20th.

The crit went better than the road race, despite a bad start. My tire wasn't keeping air because it had a glass puncture, this had Bo and I rushing to inflate the tire after replacing the first tube with a bad one. When I pulled up to the back of the staging area, one of the officials asked me to help a rider reorient his race number. I quickly

pinned it on his jersey, and the race started. I didn't have my glove on, and I sat there for a few seconds after the race started. Luckily I was able to catch up quickly.

After a couple relatively slow laps I was getting warmed up, and I got restless. I decided to attack for the fun of it. Bo yelled at me for doing that, and I was taken back by the pack a half lap later. Hopefully I picked the pace up in order to drop some of the weaker riders. I recovered, and the pace picked up. It seemed like I was closing off many gaps. At the final sprint I again found I couldn't kick up the pace, so I finished near the back of the lead pack to take 11th. I'm going to have to work on sprint intervals if I want to win.