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Fox Creek OutdoorExperience |
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Team Bikeman -
Race Reports
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Written by Yale Iverson
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Saturday, 14 October 2006 |
Fox Creek Outdoor Experience
OMBC Race Series #10
Canal Fulton, OH
Going into Sunday morning I wasn’t sure how the race was going to go. I was warming up and feeling as if my legs were not really there, not a good way to feel, obviously, before the start of a race. Anyways, all of the usual suspects were there, in particular the guy I have ended up chasing at every race I have attended this year here in Ohio. Because my legs didn’t feel too good while warming up I decided I would sit in for a little while to see how things played out.
Well things didn’t go exactly as planned. At the start no one really wanted to lead into the woods so I ended up going in first. The single track was pretty tight so I thought it was not such a bad thing to be in the front, figuring that someone would make a mistake and cause a pile up at the back. Anyways, I tried to keep a good steady pace through the woods and up all of the short steep climbs, never really looking back to see what was happening.
About half way through the first of five laps the course opens up and you can see any gaps that have been created. To my surprise, when I looked back, I had ridden everyone off my wheel with the exception of the guy who I have been chasing all of the time. I kept up a reasonable pace the rest of the way on the first lap.
On the start of the second lap I decided to force him to the front for a while to see what he was going to do. He kept up about the same pace with the exception of when we were going up hill. I don’t know if anyone follows or cares what is happening here in Ohio but in previous reports I had commented on how the people here in Ohio don’t climb to well relative to New Englanders. Noting that he was going slower up the hills I just stayed glued to his wheel and tried to recover some.
He pulled the whole second lap and was looking like he was going to lead into the woods on the start of the third lap but just before he went into the single track he hit his breaks and forced me to the front. I thought his attempt at forcing me to the front seemed a little abrupt, like he was suffering and couldn’t lead any more and needed a break. Noting this as well I decided to just keep a good pace up since he had beat me in every other race so far I figured he was playing me.
Once we got into the hills again I didn’t really attack but I put in some good hard efforts on the climbs. On the second steep climb I looked back to see if he was hanging on and I noticed a gap starting, not much of one but I thought I might have finally cracked him so I kept the pressure on. When we came around on the end of the third lap I had about 30 seconds on him. I was so excited that I had cracked this guy! I was hammering every hill I came to put time between him and I and that strategy paid off. By the end of the 4th lap the gap was up to a minute and at the finish I was 1:30 up on him. Team Bikeman was on the top step in Ohio finally! Hopefully the next race will go as well because it is the championship race, and it’s at a ski resort!
Later,
Yale
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