Sedalia Crit/Otterville Road Race

The Crit:

Last year there was a biker rally one block over from our bike race. Apparently bikers love cooking competitions. Not food cooking, but tire cooking. I guess the way you do it is you lock the front brake and give ‘er the gas ‘till she blows. Rear tire, engine, whichever goes first. The only problem was that their cooking competition was up-wind of our pain competition. The nauseating smell of burnt rubber is about the worst thing you can imagine when you’re at red-line and holding on for dear life. I was hoping this year the rally would be a different weekend. No such luck, but I guess it's possible they do this every weekend. It is central Missouri after all....

Anyway, 55 minutes + 5 laps. 20 minutes in, a break of three went up the road. Ethan, Josh and Tracy. Plenty of horsepower and the right mix. Jensen jumped to it and I followed. We hovered about 100m out front for several laps, not making much headway. Jensen attacked and the four of us held his wheel. I think that surge is what sealed the deal as the pack stopped chasing about that time. A few more laps and we had almost a full straight on them. Good thing too, my tongue was hanging on my stem and drool was running down my chin. We eased off a bit and kept it rolling. We started seeing the back of the pack with about 20 minutes to go. Jensen launched another series of attacks that eventually popped Tracy and Josh. Another lap and he shelled Ethan and me as well. Brian quickly rode to the field and then rode right through it. Ethan and I worked together and caught on to the back a few laps later. Brian was up the road solo and a coordinated effort brought him back with about five minutes to go. Not for long. He attacked with 5 laps to go and got away for good with one other guy from the field. I positioned myself in the top ten and Ethan held my wheel like I had fried chicken in my back pocket. Two to go and I was right about where I wanted to be. Things got reshuffled with one to go and I had to push some wind on the back stretch to put myself back in position for the field sprint. Out of the saddle through the final turn for a 300m sprint to the finish. Nolan and one other guy beat me to the line. 3rd in the filed sprint, 2nd overall. Totally stoked! Lots of pain, but lots of fun. A big thank you to my band of hecklers. They razed me every lap. I seriously laughed out-loud as some of the shit they were yelling at me. Phil won Masters after falling off the back with a side stitch. Nice come-back and sweet sprint. Good times.

The Road Race:

After four hours of driving and about the same in sleep, Jeff and I lined-up with 16 other brave souls to race 74 miles for second place (three laps). Josh brought his posse of hammerhead and they graciously assumed the pace-setting duties for the first half of the race. Props to them for making the race bearable. Jeff attacked half way through the second lap and Jensen went with him. There was a less than organized effort to get them back, and most of Big Shark was cooked from setting pace for 40 miles. By the end of lap two they were out of sight for good. There was a butt-load of short-lived attacks spread out over the last lap with a whole lot of soft pedaling in between. I would have paid cash for a fast-forward button. I couldn’t do it then, but I can now. So fast-forward to the finish. We were all together for the turn up the hill. I jumped 100m into the final climb. One came around me right before the turn to the line and I barely held off Justin and Zach to finish 4th overall. Jeff was 2nd to Jensen and Luke won 4’s. Go Luke!

Thank you Sandy and Jeff for handing us bottles.