Ohio valley race

I drove down Friday night with Jason Landreti and Matt Holecko of team GDVC for some road races in Ohio. We're staying at a Holiday Inn Express, which to me, is sooooo very nice! Collegiate weekends we dive between the Deluxe Motel and the Dollar Inn. This is upscale, even sleeping on the floor!

So Saturday's race was only 28 miles north of our hotel, so I figured it'd be nice to ride there, no? It was a balmy 34 degrees outside, but sunny, and the roads were great! So fast forward two hours and I'm lost, fighting a deathly 20 mph headwind, over constantly rolling hills of 100 feet. I actually busted out the cell phone and called the guys to pick me up on the way to the race. Yes, a bit of a cramp in the style points, but I did make it to the race on time.

Josh Carter and I were the only ABD riders at the 55 mile race. Other teams present in full force were Texas Roadhouse, Priority Health Club, and Abercrombie. The race started off with a hill, and what a better place than to throw in the first attack! It worked pretty well, and I got off the front with Holeko and a Texas Roadhouse rider. We worked together pretty well, but Holeko ended up hurting a bit and dropping back after one lap. The TR rider and myself got a real good gap on the field of well over 1 minute, so I worked a bit to keep us well off the front but not tire myself out.

Unfortunately, we were reeled back with 2 laps to go after Priority was threatened and decided to chase. I was hoping that a small chase group would catch us, but no, it was the rest of the remaining field. I sat in for a lap and stayed near the front. Then, squish squish, my rear tire went flat....and in a local road race, that means end of the line.

Josh ended up duking it out with Puffer for 4th place, and just lacked the top end speed to take him at the line! All in all it was a great training race, and hopefully next time the tires keep some air in them longer.

Great fact--Josh and I won $11 for 5th place. $11. Paid for dinner, not gonna lie, I appreciated even that small amount of change.