Fallen Leaf

OK so long story short. There were many attacks set up by the whispering crazy's AKA Dayton. Krystal and I got up the road at one point and we would have been gone but that didn't work, some special people chased us down. So I ended up hanging out till the end and it came down to a sprint and Krystal was chillin on my wheel. Sheri was sitting in a good place so I hoped on her, told her to go she did, and we got a gap but Krystal was sitting on my wheel and sheri started loosing gas so I waited for crazy Krystal to come around and hoped on her with about 300 m to go, and she turned into a second lead out and with about 100 m to go and i pulled around her...Krystal must have been really excited or something because she couldn't wait. So the race went really well for me and the Savage Hill women looked strong. Thanks so much Alan for giving me a ride there and back it was a fun ride! Oh and one more thing i just have to state, I will be a Toys-R-Us kid forever but I am not stupid I know when to drink! I know you are just trying to help and be good team mates and all but it really gets under my skin. I love ya guys and you did great on sunday :)

The pace started out quick for the first lap causing several people to drop of the back. Then the pace slowed back down for the next three laps, and then on the last lap we started to pick it back up. Down the final straight everyone was attacking, but they were all way too early and got caught. Then, with about 200m left a Dayton guy went, I went with him and was able to come around him at the finish.

Savage Hill was the Team to watch all day! We had great results in all the races. Good to see everyone there.

Rode with my brother the day before and we were moving fast for 32 miles at an avg. speed of 22.5 mph. I rode easy and felt great but had to push it on the climbs to keep up with my brother Chris. I wish the race would have been that day instead of the next day.

Thanks to my Wife, Mom, Dad, Chris, Amanda, Brad, Jesse, and Toby. Caylin Loves Toby! Toby looks like Benji that dog we all grew to love so much, well Toby is much cuter and so lovable. Thanks for opening up your home to all of us Chris and Amanda, Love you guys!

The race started as soon as we could get clipped in. One of the Montgomery riders took off with Scott Moon on his wheel. The field was happy with it but are pace was 19 mph so I took off and Abe followed then Abe pulled then I pulled then Abe got us to the front two and we kept going. The other 2 got on our wheels and then Al brought up Brian and another Montgomery rider. 7 of us in the break and 2 of them were Montgomery riders (M boys). The M boys took turns pulling and I didn't enjoy them sitting at the back of the group waiting for there teammate to switch so I told one of them " Hey we don't know when your going to pull" he looked at me like so who cares. That look was enough to make me mad so I dropped his Teammate.

After that there were 6 of us left and the other M boy wasn't working cause I dropped his teammate. That made me mad again and I told everyone I will try to drop him too. Al told me not too and I waited for a half of a lap then I asked the M boy if he was going to work with the other 5 of us? He didn't say anything. So I created a gap and instead of him closing the gap he stayed on my wheel, so I left a big gap cause I knew he was rested, after all he was sucking our wheels for over a lap. I had enough of the M boy's today and we were only 21 miles into the race with 35 to go. So I dropped him too. As soon as I caught the front 4 I said to them " no more baggage left Let's Roll". All were very happy and all 5 of us stayed together like Brothers till the end! Most fun I have ever had in a race in a long time!

Thank you Jesus for giving me the strength to keep the workers in the break and trust worthy riders as well.

At around 80 degrees, it was a gorgeous day; our field was small at 11. The good news was that SHC had 4, and Dayton had 3, so all it would take was SHC and Dayton getting away together, and blocking could begin. Wendy and Amy have been stronger than me of late, so my role today was domestique--work blocks and chases, and if everyone stayed together, give Amy a leadout.

Dayton did a great move early, when all 3 were in a row; I knew it was bad they were set like that, and Amy recognized it, but both of us too late. April and Krystal took off, while Kristen blocked. Amy started the chase, I took over, but I was going as hard as I could but not closing the gap fast enough. Amy came around me, and she gave the huge effort to finish chasing them down. After that, there were a lot of attacks between SHC and Dayton. We all had the same idea, get someone off. Unfortunately, though we SHCs had talked about doing attacks and counters, Dayton seemed to be doing the better job of it, with SHC doing the majority of the efforts to chase them down.

The move we wanted to stick would come on the 4th of our 6 laps, on the series of 3 turns at the end of the start/finish road, getting Amy & Wendy away. I saw a chance, though, and I took it; if I couldn't get away, I hoped my 'mates would counter and get free. I was at the back with Krystal, and I told her I was going to go. Right after the first turn, I punched it, Krystal grabbed on, and I hammered through the second turn. Brooke grabbed on. Krystal told me we had a good gap. I kept up with the hard effort, came off, and knew Krystal would be working just has hard. She was.

As I drifted back and prepared to grab Brooke's wheel, the first of the asthma wheezes was on me. What? My pulse was nowhere close to the range of my attacks now that they're being controlled by my allergy meds; my legs were fine. Argh! I dithered only a few seconds, and knew I had to let them go. I think Krystal eased up pretty fast once she realized it was Brooke on her wheel rather than me, and the field came back together.

I spent a lot of the last lap out front, tying to save Wendy and Amy for the final sprint. When Dayton attacked around me, with a third of a lap to go, someone shouted at me to chase. I mashed on the pedals and felt not just the right calf, which had had a charley horse four nights prior, cramp up, but also the left. I eased up, and Amy flew past me, got Kristen’s wheel, and shut it down. I meanwhile flexed my heels down as far as they could go, stretching out the calves, and they stopped cramping.

I threw in a late block, trying to get Amy and Kristen off the front, but of course the field realized what I was doing, and the independents came around. But, it got me to the back of the field, where I was perfectly happy. Going into the last straight, I was setting myself up on the inside, planning to ride through the berm like I did last year when we were about 300M out. The only problem was that one of the independents was riding inside the berm already. Crud!

At the point she drifted to the other side of the white line, I think setting up because she saw the two guys upstream riding side-by-side, pretty slowly, I made my move. I was simply trying to get my sprint position set, but I had a decent amount of speed to make sure I'd get past Melissa in case she started to slide right again. I looked back to make sure Amy was behind me. That's when Brooke shouted for me to go. I went hard, knowing I had to get a gap on the field, and get Brooke as close to the line as possible before I died.

All of this was going to be interesting based on the two obstacles we had to get around--those two slow men finishing their race, and a car that was trying to make a pass around them, and then decided it was better to stop making the pass, while on the wrong side of the double yellow. At least it stopped where it was, so we had a fixed target on that side, and the moving target of the men on the right. As we approached the men, I screamed at the top of my lungs to move over. Nope. I screamed again. Nope. My sport potty-mouth came out, and the final command had a choice profanity included, but the morons proved they were deaf and dumb by not moving over. Like I wanted to be wasting my finishing breath shouting? I got past them and the car, but other women had problems on both counts.

I think that's why my move worked, and we got the gap we needed. Maybe 150M before the line Krystal came around me on the left, and Brooke flawlessly made the transfer to her wheel. Brooke timed her move right to bring home the win. I fought hard to hold on to third, but it wasn't graceful. I was throwing so much force into the bike, balanced wrong, that I was making my front wheel skip.

Props to the Savage Hill ladies for riding hard and finishing even harder. Props especially to Brooke for that awesome sprint of hers. Our guys did well all around, especially Jeremy Grimm and Chris Mondiek. Way to finish off the season, everyone. I’m looking forward to a 2006 that sees the SHC folk all healthy and rarin' to go.

I wish to amend my original terse report after seeing some of the subsequent reports by other members of this team. I think the diversity in styles reflects the diverse nature of this team. And I'm talking REALLY DIVERSE.
So, feeling somewhat limited from a literary standpoint after seeing one really lengthy report from a female racer, let me modify my own report. I sat at the very back of the pack for 50 miles, behind my pal Rich Lewis. I was the caboose on the Choo-choo train, the last fly behind the smelly garbage truck, the last fallen leaf being sucked into the vortex. Ok, that might be a bit much. I did suck wind for 50 miles. I don't know what happened after that exactly, but I know the speed slowed down considerably so I idled up to the front to take a look-see. The guy pulling at the front was making faces like my 85 year old uncle Syd would make when he complained about his hernia opening up. "Oy my hoin-ia, my hoin-eee-a" he would whine. But I digress. The next five riders behind him looked perfectly content to sit behind him as he suffered. Not having worked all day, I sat up and rode no hands at a good 4-5 mph faster than the line. Did that like the fool that I am for 100 yards and looked back. Nobody was taking me seriously. I wasn't taking myself seriously either. But what the heck, so I put my head down, grabbed my bars, and tried my best to ride hard for a couple hundred more yards. Looked back again. Only one guy was near me and another was beginning to chase. The Biowheel behind me was definitely the stronger of the two and once he connected we took turns for maybe half a mile. He tired just as we made the final turn onto the headwind infested finishing lap. I caught a rider who appeared to have been dropped by the break-he was still working hard, and he and I worked together to the finish. I was doing most of the work. He yelled "you keep going and I will give you the finish". He was true to his word. So, I got first from the big bunch, 6th overall after the early break. Not bad for me.
Thanks to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And Moses. I couldn't have done it without you.

The END.......

I had two goals for this race: the first was not to be dropped, the second was to finish well in the sprint. I managed to stay with the peloton for the first two laps, and then I was dropped at the beginning of the third. I was expecting that it would be a fast race, I was not expecting the wind. I was almost dropped in the first lap, but I managed to close the gap to the peloton. I stayed with it through the second lap, but a small gap opened after the first turn of the third lap. This gap formed at a bad time, first the peloton increased the pace, and by pure bad luck the wind picked up at the same time. I tried to chase, but my knee said otherwise. (I strained my knee in the Tour of Hocking Hills). I tried to find other riders that i could work with and by some miracle of God catch the Juniors. I found other riders, I tried to work with them, but I never managed to catch the peloton. I tried to join the Cat 4/5 group ion the off hand shot that they might catch the juniors. Once again my knee said otherwise as I tried to sit in weith the cat 5's.
I was very fortunate that 5 other riders were dropped before I was.
It was a good end of the season, but it could have been better.
I now have my training goals for the winter.
I am looking forward to my first season as a cat 5.

Jeremy went up the road early so my day started quickly blocking. 4 guys made it up the road to join Jeremy, Abe and 1 other before I made it the front to shut things down. Typical winds for the course beating on you until the first turn. We swalled up 2 guys who fell out of the break. I took a breather until the last 2 laps when we got a report that the gap had come down to 1:20 and was back at it again.

Coming into the final stretch Dan from Dayton was out front and I was on his wheel. He slowly ramped it up. At about 400m I tried to get him to drop the hammer hoping for a good leadout. At about 250m 2 guys jumped to my left and I on them right away. Unfortunately I missed a shift (not the bikes fault) and couldn't make up the time to get the 2 who jumped.

Well another season has come to a close. Time to put away the big chainring until January and just have some fun. Jeremy, we need to chat about "sitting in". Congrats to the women on their race and new rider Vince on a good finish in the 3/4 event.

Thats a start Mitch, but your only a third of the way there ! More adlib, more filler.

Long, hard day in the saddle with too little water. Started cramping on lap 4 or 8, but thanks to the pancake flat course, I was able to stay in the bunch till the end. Got in an early break that had good potential, but couldn't establish a smooth rotation and we were caught sooner than we should have been. The deciding break came soon after and Blair, Todd, and I sat on the front to chase down all the counter attacks, which never really stopped. We averaged almost 25mph for the 56 miles. I was totally tapped by the finish. SH took 5th and 6th. I finished at the back of the pack. The story of my entire SH career wrapped up in one race. A fitting way to say adieu.