Ohio State Race Report - Ian

Post date: Mar 06, 2011 9:34:41 PM

We checked into the hotel late and with full stomachs. It was relaxing to know that the race was staging at noon the next day making our morning only so early. Before the race I managed to warm up a little on the trainer and spoke to a friend from UChicago about our favorite little shop on the south side. The course started with an easy roll out followed by what, at the time, seemed like a pretty tough climb to start the race with. I had been trying to plan my race around the elevation map the organizers had supplied, which now seemed to have nothing to do with the course whatsoever. After the first climb out of the valley the race started in the bulk of the course was small rolling hills. After a right turn about halfway through the lap we were met with a huge headwind. On the first half of the first lap the field was fairly broken up making this portion difficult without the right group. I found myself moving around dropping some and getting dropped by a few others. By the end of the first lap I had managed to make my way up to the second group on the road, which made for some great rest after a rough start. My second lap was spent with this group composed of a couple of the same guys from last weekend. I really cannot remember what school this guy is from but this is the second weekend in a row I have traded pulls with a red, aluminum Specialized. I’m happy to get the season underway and start to learn the good wheels to find and the bad. The group thinned a little after our second go at that big climb, but I managed to say on with the front of the group. Throughout the second lap my group got comfortable and organized, finally taking turns like a group should. We picked up and dropped a lot of riders, C’s and D’s, on the windy section moving our way up to being pretty close to the front twenty riders or so. On the last hilly section I made my way off the front of our group with two other riders motivated by the sight of a strong solo rider we never ended up catching. On the last long decent I went as hard as I could reaching about 45mph and managed to keep the other two riders off. I took 22^nd place just behind the solo rider I couldn’t quite catch. All in all, not a bad weekend but much room for improvement.