4/26/09: Haystack TTT

The postponement of this race caused it to fall the day after Deer Trail. Which ended up in my favor as a dress rehearsal for Dead Dog at the end of June. We fielded a team of 5, all of whom raced the day before at Deer Trail. I, for one, was curious to see how my legs would feel as well as those of my teammates.

We agreed to start out very conservatively - holding in the reins and pulling thru-and-out without spending any time on the front. We wanted to check our legs and get a rhythm going before we started ratcheting up the effort. Which was important. While the race was only 16.3 miles, the wind was blowing fairly strongly, and the rollers late in the race would sting the legs of anyone who started out too quickly.

After about 5 minutes, we were all getting a little antsy to start pushing harder and taking longer pulls at the front. So we did. Everyone was pulling strongly. I had the dubious task of fighting to regain Matt Duncan's wheel at the back as first Matt Drinker and then Peter Dunlap pulled through after I pulled off. Drinker and Duncan are two of the bigger and most powerful riders, so at times I wondered if I was going to fall off the back. Simply put, once we put our heads down, we were hauling ass!

About halfway through, Dunlap had had enough and fell off the pace, but continued strong to the end in his own right. Ben Buxton, our 5th member, continued to power the 4-man train and force the effort. With about 10 minutes left, Drinker and Duncan were hurtin' units. Buxton and I sat on the front and traded pulls, easing off just enough to allow the two Matt's to stay on our wheels. We stayed calm and didnn't panic. We were flyin'.

With about 3 minutes to go, the two Matt's rallied and drove themselves into the ground to finish strong. We stomped on the pedals and crossed the line, the 4 of us in tact. We ended up winning by 30sec over Spine & Sport and 56sec over Studio 1 Dental. They ended up 3rd by a mere 0.3sec over Blue Sky Velo in 4th. Man, that's close!

Intra-team as well as inter-team support are both great. While we race to win, as we're getting older we're keeping in mind that this is just for fun.

Next up: Lookout Mountain Hill Climb on May 2nd. Stay tuned . . . It's gonna be a leg ripper.

Till next time . . .
Nate