Cyclonauts RR — Cat 3/4

by Jonah Tower

For the most part the 56 mile race was just easy rolling hills, and then had a step-climb that hurt and provided a place for us to finish on the second go around. The hope was to find myself in a break, after the first time over the climbs (at about 30 miles) and then finish the race from there. The guys (Brian V., Chris A., Eric S., and Chris R.) were all going to keep an eye out at the front and do what they could.

About half way through the first lap, Chris A. got away in a little break of 3 guys, and i couldn't help but get excited and went to work blocking for him (probably shouldn't be out burning those matches). Then, just as we caught him, after a good 10-15 away, Chris went down on a oil slick not 6 inches in front of my wheel… somehow I didn't join him. But, after that close call I needed to regroup before the first pass on the climb. And, it was hard climbing… attack after attack all the way to the top, but then we didn't do anything with it. The field came back together and rode fast through the second lap.

Just before the turn onto the final climb I found Vickers, who then kept me out of trouble and got me around the corner in the top three… a good thing, because the first pile-up happened right there. Not much later someone rode into my rear wheel, and then a fight broke out behind me, which caused the second crash of the finishing CLIMB. With the last 500 m of climbing to go I was in a good spot, but then with about 200m to go someone fell on to my rear wheel (yet a 3rd crash), and slowed me down enough to bring me back to 9th place over all.