First Race of 2011 - Lynchburg, Ohio Road Race - May 1, 2011

la la la la

Lynchburg, Ohio - Road Race
Yesterday my team mates and I, Doug, Teresa, Kristian, Brian and I all went out to battle the wind and damp country roads in Lynchburg, Ohio, just south of Wilmington Ohio.

Doug on the front

It was a good day, the rain held off, the wind was windy (but somewhat manageable) and there was about 200 racers total registered on the day I heard. Props to Big Dave Sports on building this series and putting together quality races.

Teresa

Z-Courza - There was very little elevation change each lap, which was fine with me for my first race. We had a long roll-out from the registration area until we were on course.  I hadn't done this race for a few years and it was familiar territory after we passed the finish line area. Each lap consisted of long false-flat section into the finish line and into a massive headwind, a right turn into another flat with a massive side wind onto the non-drive side of the bikes. Everyone was singled up, in the gutter and gravel on the right side of the road. We then turned right again into an awesome tailwind, where speeds reached around 30 mph for quite some time into a downhill sweeping left. Passed the dead cat each lap, then a hard right turn onto a concrete bridge up the short hill into a series of really fun rollers, up and down. One more right turn into a longish 5% grade hill, then the last right into the long 1500/2000 meters to the finish line.
    Doug, Kristian and I held off and chased down a few little breaks. I kept an eye on Doug since he is signed up for the entire series and I wanted to try to help him out as much as possible and try to help Kristian get to the front of the field before the sprint finish.

Brian

 

      The group of about 35 CAT 4's kept things groupo compacto for most of the first three laps, until one of the big teams (UDF) sent one guy up the road and left us all standing while he TT'd to the finish line in the last two laps. In the middle of some confusion in an attempted break, another guy shot off the front and no one reacted. UDF and Cyclesport had huge numbers and were very aggressive at the front of our CAT 4 field. There were other small 2 and 3 member teams, doing their fare share of the work.

     Doug had his best finish of the season with a 8th Place, Kristian got 21st (maybe his best finish?). Teresa pulled out another 2nd place and Brian toughed out a finish in the CAT 5's. I battled for elbow space and some wobbly bike handlers to sprint for 12th.
There was only one moment with three laps to go where I was cross-eyed and thought I was going to pass-out. My heart-rate was through the roof, I unzipped a bit, tried to calm down, relax and cool-off. Thankfully the headwind section was close and I knew there was an opportunity to get some drink and recover.

Doug, Me, Kristian sprint for it

     It was great from my perspective to see our newly designed Team SixOneFour kits out racing. Tim, James and I worked really hard getting them done. James deserves most of the credit.
Heck I was happy to be out there, racing, seeing some old friends, enjoying dry time on the bike, having fun and giving it the berries with a group that all appeared half my age.