Lost River 50+ (Combined with 35+)Thanks to Steve Owens!

By now you all know that Art Brown not only won the 50+ race, but crossed the finish line second overall, beating all the 35+ riders except Chuck Hutcheson. Well done, Art! Art was racing 50+; if he registered for 35+ in all the combined 35+/50+ races he has done, he would probably be winning the 35+ BAR easily.

I think the pack started shredding soon after the rollout. It was not a large field, with 18 pre-registered for 35+ and 11 for 50+, Chuck Hutcheson and a Coppi rider jumped off the front early, but the Coppi rider came back not long afterwards. There were two hard climbs a lap, two descents, a short flat section, and a roller section. Our race was four laps and 40 miles. At the top of one of the hard climbs what was left of the main pack split, with six to eight riders including Greg Smith, Randy Thrasher, Steve Owens and myself in the second group. We chased down a fast descent and came within a few bike lengths of the group in front, close enough for Randy to sprint across, but the catch was at the start of a climb and no one else from our group made it across. Our group kept it close for a lap or two, but the group in front was larger and had stronger riders.

Knowing that Greg is a stronger sprinter (and kilo) rider than I am, I wanted to drop him rather have him near me at the finish. And Greg was skipping pulls trying to conserve energy. I was trying to figure out how to do this, when Steve took a long hard pull leading into the start of a climb. A little like Jens Voight in a TdF, Steve pulled hard right up to the start of the climb and kept going, making everyone work hard. When Steve finally pulled off it occurred to me that everyone else in the group was more tired than they wanted to be at the start of the climb, and I upped my cadence and power. Without having to stand or jump, I was able to open a gap, ride away from the group and catch a 50+ AVC rider who was a strong climber a short distance up the road (he had jumped hard on an earlier climb and opened the gap). I would have been OK with some of the 35+ riders coming with me, but none did. I caught the AVC rider about the time he caught a 35+ NCVC rider coming back from the group ahead.

The three of us rode together for awhile, with the chase behind us occasionally in view. The AVC rider gapped the NCVC rider on one of the fast descents, I went around the NCVC guy and closed the gap, but this happened as the descent flattened out, and on the flat section that followed. The NCVC rider dropped back to the chase behind us. I was blown from closing the gap and the AVC rider pulled away on the climb and I was never able to close it. Then Paul Mittelstadt came back to me and we raced together, but I was tiring and having a harder and harder time staying with him at the top of the climbs. I discreetly checked behind me every now and then to see if the chase with Greg was getting close; I did not want Mittelstadt to know that Greg might be close behind us.

I was unable to drop Mittelstadt and he sprinted away from me at the finish.

Art won, Randy Thrasher was second, Ad Bax third. I think the AVC rider would have been 4th, Mittelstadt 5th, me 6th, and Greg 7th, but I have not seen the results yet.

While I would like to have had the strength to stay with the lead group (I am so far away from being able to hold Chuck Hutcheson’s wheel I’m not going to worry about it), being able to attack on the climb and drop Greg and the rest of that group was the highlight of the race for me, and I have Steve Owens to thank for setting it up.