Wards Ferry

Decisions, Decisions… Do I really want to race?  All the weather reports show Rain, Cold Temps, and my favorite thing of all, The WIND.  Should I risk riding with an Elbow that was fractured 5 weeks ago?  And that Course!  45.2 miles with 4600 vert ft. of Pain.  This is all I had on my mind for the past few days, and all the way up to the starting line.  Luckily the bad weather never materializes, and Geno and I Survived.
Wards Ferry is a very hilly course.  You are either descending down a twisty narrow road (rough at sometimes but not bad), or climbing.  The climbs aren’t actually very steep or long, but always present behind the next turn.

Lap 1 and 2.  Geno and I decided that the best way to approach this race was to ride cautiously, and sit in the pack.  We figured that most guys were going to hammer early, and end up dropping died from exhaustion, or crashing.  Unfortunately this game plan did not work.  I totally mis-judged the abilities of my Cat 5 peers.  Almost from the beginning 7 of 18 guys started charging very aggressively down the twisty road.  As speeds reached >40 mph through the curves, I decided to ease up a little, and figured I would catch up on the next rise.  This was another critical error.  Next thing I know I’m riding by myself.  The Echelon of 7 are over 200  meter in front of me, and don’t see Geno or the rest of the Gruppetto behind me.

Lap 3.  The chase is on.  I figured it was going to be now or never.  At this point the lead Pack was just a fuzzy dot in front of me, but I didn’t give up hope.  It seemed that I was able to gain some on every hill.  The problem I had was the hills were not quit long enough to make the catch.  Every time I started reeling in the Pack, I would lose everything I gained on the next down hill stretch. @#$  !!!.  Luckily the last 2 km before the finish had a couple of climbs that were just long enough for me to bridge the long gap.

Lap 4.  The tempo actually slowed down at the Feed Zone.  Thank God.  This gave me some needed time to re-hydrate, and just sit in.  With 1k to go 3 guys attacked.  I knew I didn’t have the Legs, and felt the best thing to do was try to stay with the remaining 4.  With 200 meter to the finish, the chasing 4 started to charge up the Final Hill.  I had just enough in the tank to sprint around them and finish in 4th…. What a day..  John L