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Altoona Road Race
By Bryan Moritz
 Did my usual warm up and stuff like that, and then started lining up. The Cat 1/2 went off at 11, the cat 3 went off 4 minutes later, and then us 4 minutes after that. Off the bat, nothing happened which I was disappointed in. All-9-Yards was the biggest team in our race so I figured they would have thrown a guy off right at the start. The first stretch of road was not that hilly but like usual in a Cat 4/5 field, guys were slamming on breaks, not holding lines, throwing their bikes from side to side up the slightest rollers. So I decided to get to the front, not to attack, but to just pick up the pace to try to thin the group out. They ended up letting me go, so I got about a 30 second gap and was soon bridged up by John from ISU. We were quickly bridged up by the main group but I didn't care. A little later an A9Y guy took off and got around 30 seconds up but wasn't increasing his gap at all so I wasn't too worried even though they were the biggest team. A little later 2 random guys tried to bridge up to A9Y but for some stupid reason, A9Y jumped on their wheels...why would they not let a break happen that had their team represented????? Oh well, immediately after they were caught I attacked again (mile 8 or so of a 54 mile race), and like before, not really trying to make anything stick, just to thin the pack out which was still big. I quickly got a 30 second gap and saw one solo guy trying to bridge up to me. He caught me in about a mile or so and we talked and he was feeling good so we decided to try to increase out gap. The kid turned out to be a 14/15 year old kid named Zach VanderHorst who's really strong so I felt the two of us had a good chance of making that thing stick. The next lap (laps were 13 miles or so) we increased our gap to around a minute or so. I kept encouraging Zach because I could tell he was a little tired but looking strong. About 2 miles into our 3rd lap, Zach was having some troubles on the uphills and dropped off my draft so I decided to give it a go solo because the pack was about 30 seconds back now and I was feeling pretty good. After the 3rd lap, I was told I had around a 2 minute gap on the chasing pack. However, the next stretch of road had a head wind that had gained speed during the day. I was fried. I could see the pack slowing catching up, but I just didn't have it anymore. With 5 miles to go from the finish line I was finally caught by a pack of about 20 or so guys. I was sooooooooooo mad that I couldn't last those final 5 miles. I only had like 2 miles of a stretch with a couple hills and then it was flat from there to the finish but my legs were just fried from that effort. When they caught me I just sat up and made my way to the back of the pack but was congradulated by almost everyone in the group on my effort however I don't think it was worth congradulations...congradulations is due after MAINTAINING that effort...not after being CAUGHT. Oh well, one guy even told me he owed me a beer...which he stills has yet to give me :) Oh well, after they caught me, I had nothing left, not even enough to draft them to the finish line so I just rode the final 4 miles easy to the finish. One good thing though from today was that I realize that I can get into a break and hold my own out there. Now the rest of the night is just trying to recooperate for tomorrow because I have a 45 minute + 2 lap crit down at the State Fair Grounds in Des Moines. |
