Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Plenty of Sun at the Flower State Games


Sunflower State Games ROAD RACE

Only 7 people races today.  I thought a bit more people would show up or maybe the 3s and 4s would be merged didn’t happen.  We get to rolling and the only person I think today would be Kuris Albrecht who races for SKC racing.  Brett Copper was also there.  Joe Anderson showed up who drove up from PA from spending time with the family.  It was nice to have him there for his first race because last year it was my first race against Camron Rex, Spencer Martin, and I ended up getting 2nd that year. 

So we get rolling with a solid rotating paceline going and everyone taking turns in the at the front.  Joe and I notice that Kuris isn’t taking a few pulls and everyone else is and we are not pedaling hard at all with a nice breeze to keep us cool as we ride for 47 miles as if it was a easy Sunday group ride.  After we hit some hills Joe set high tempo and people followed specially Kenny, we both hop on Joe’s wheel and he gets a solid gap and as teammates does we pull through for him and we just make sure he is on and he is with everyone else.  Kenny follows with a good temp up the hill and kind of hangs out in no mans land as I try this also a few times an Kenny does it and he gets a good gap and he is gone and some talking goes around Kuris and Bett make a few attacks but I just cover them so Kenny can stay away as long as possible.  About 5 miles later same attacks again with me covering, and I get a good gap with Armando from GP VeloTek and I tell him if he wants to work with Kenny he better go now and he does and I think when Armando go up to Kenny he didn’t see the sign to turn and we where told in the beginning of the race if you don’t see a corner marshal but see a sign to turn keep going straight but this wasn’t the case and they had to turn around… SUCKS so that was the end of Kenny.  Brett and I have a good gap but I notice only Joe and Kurtis but I was thinking that the entire group was back there but that wasn’t the case.  So it’s a 4-man break of 3.  We work together and it comes down to a sprint finish.  Joe checks in with me that when it comes to the sprint I must crush it.  So we see the markers for finish we make our turn around the bend and it says 200 meters…. Joe starts to set the tempo before but its to late because Kurtis has begun winding down the gears for a sprint and I am third wheel behind him so I begin also,  I pull around start winding down the gears more and more and grank it up to get first.  I got a pretty bad cramp for the lung my bike over the line but maybe it was worth it but then again I didn’t want to take the risk since I started my sprint late and couldn’t tell where the line was but also kept my head up so I could make it around for the sprint. 

Sunflower state games don’t really pay out unless you do all three days of racing,  I just really like the road race and hopefully I can do it one more year if not I would recommend this for anyone!