Race Report: TOAD - Day 5 - Sheboygan - Men's Cat 4
Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010
TOUR OF AMERICA'S DAIRYLAND - STAGE 5 - SHEBOYGAN - 6/22/10 - Mens Cat 4
Other BD’s racing: None
Flat, four corner hot dog course. I don’t remember there being much wind.
I was speaking with Chris Moore (University of Iowa) before the race. He asked if I wanted to attack with him. I said no. Then I said maybe. I’d see how it was going. He was riding well and I knew he would be a good break companion.
I was taking it nice and easy at the start, riding a lot at the middle and back of the pack. There were no cras hes. everyone was riding nicely and this was a race where it wasn’t too bad being at the back. There were quite a lot of attacks. One guy attacked and got a 25 second gap and for some reason I was getting impatient. I didn’t want to be racing for 2nd place. So I went to the front to pull and the pack just let me roll off the front. The Iowa guy (Chris Moore) came with me. We caught the break man and let him latch on. We got caught pretty soon though.
There were a couple other times where for no good reason I chased down breaks. Later I was impatient again and gunned it going into corner three and opened up a gap. Some people jumped on and we had a little break. There were about 5 people, including Chris again. He and I were pushing the break hard but the others were not organized and weren’t really doing anything. We were still going pretty fast, but I suppose the field didn’t like having 5 off the front and they caught us. When we were caught, the field was almost all single file. In hindsight, maybe I should have attacked at that point. After the race, someone told me it would’ve been a good time to go because most of the field was pretty drained. I was tired at that point also though. I had been wasting a lot of energy chasing other people earlier.
With 2 laps to go, a guy attacked about halfway through the lap. He only had a small gap. On the finishing stretch, as we were seeing one to go, I bridged up to the attacker. It didn’t take a huge effort, but I did get away from the pack. As I was catching up to the guy, I could hear his bike making bad noises. Not a good sign. When he crossed the finish line, he raised one hand, looking completely spent. Oh boy, not again.... (someone had tried to enter the pit lane one lap early at Road America, so this was the third race in a row that someone though we were finishing when we were getting 1 to go)
I waited for the pack. I realized after the race that I should have checked the gap and considered attacking. I hadn’t blown myself bridging up, and I would’ve had a head start for an attack on the field. Also, this guy would have no chance of keeping up since he was spent, so I would’ve been by myself. But.. I didn’t really plan on trying to or die flyers since my goal was the overall.
So the field was together for most of the last lap. I was on the outside (right). Some people came up on the left. I was paying too much attention to taking a wheel from someone on the left and didn’t notice the people coming up on the right. I got boxed in. 50 meters to corner 3 and I’m in the 2nd or 3rd row, boxed in, with the guy on my left leaning/falling into me. It sped up a little just before the corner, and I slipped towards the outside. Dave Racine was me moving out and was to the right and sort of behind me. He yelled “You’re clear on the outside Travis, go ahead”. Maybe he just wanted to follow my wheel for the sprint, but either way he let me do what I wanted. I went hard through the corner and passed 5 or 6 people. By this time the guys at the front (likely Lionel) were really ramping it up, so I wasn’t going to catch them. I believe I passed a couple people early in the sprint. Dave came around me. I finished 5th, disappointed in myself.
I had lost focus and gotten way too impatient during the race. By the end, I was tired and focusing too much on getting in the draft to conserve energy. If I would’ve been fresher, I could’ve just been riding on the front and holding good position, and I would’ve finished higher. Oh well - 5th is still a good result. I resolved to let it go, rest as well as I can today, and be much more focused tomorrow.
This was one of the few times I was sheltered (behind the Magnus guy)
