One week later and it is back to Madison, same course as last week opposite direction, only this time I will be racing.
It is another beautiful day, temperature in the 70’s and to say it is windy is an understatement. After yesterday I have set two goals, stay towards the front, but not at the front, and get into one break. We have 5 guys at the start, Chevy, Dr B, Oh Henry, Engine, and me. Before the race we discuss some team tactics, we need to protect Chevy’s points lead and if we are in a mass sprint at the finish lead out Dr B. As we are circling in the parking lot to stay loose, we see Crono has about 50 guys that will be racing, ok maybe not 50, but at least 15. If they hold true to yesterday they will be attacking every lap. It doesn’t take long, maybe 10 minutes, and you see A-train move to the front and then slowly pull away. I look at Chevy; we are both pinned in the middle of the pack so to sprint after him is not an option. Besides I don’t think A-train can stay away in this wind so I relay that to Chevy. It will be a bad call on my part.Chevy gets impatient and decides to go after A-train coming around turn 1; I grab onto his wheel and see we are going 28 mph up the short hill. I also notice that the pack is single file but locked onto my wheel. I ease up so slightly and watch Chevy pull away. He builds a pretty good lead as only a couple of riders see what is happening and sprint after him. No one else wants to work so it is a perfect break. I stay at the front a little longer to make sure they are away for good.
Chevy ends up in a pack with 4 other riders, and from where I am sitting they appear to be gaining on A-train who has teamed up with one other. Moments later Engine takes off to chase up to Chevy to help close the final gap. He is so very very close to reaching him, but the Engine was low on fuel, so he wisely backed it down and floated back to the pack.I stayed in the top 5 the whole race, with only a few sections. I had a great view of Chevy and at one point I hallucinated and thought he was with A-train. Chevy indicated later that he was with-in about 9 seconds but that was as close as he got. The wind made the conditions really tough. Finding the right position behind a wheel was as difficult as it gets, (I need to be on the left side, now the right, back left, etc.). At one point I looked down at my HR monitor and saw we were only 24 min into the 40 min +2 lap race and thought I would never make it to the end. 40% of the time you were making sure you were on a wheel to protect yourself, and when there wasn’t the headwind everyone was sprinting. It was pure suffering. What helped keep me motivated was on each lap I heard Stephie, Kitty, and Ace yelling encouragement. I think I even heard Oreo let out a yelp. It means a lot when they are there.I noticed that we were starting to close in on Chevy, so on the section where no one wanted to be in the front due to the headwind, I went to the lead and eased off the peddles ever so slightly. I did this for several laps and it seemed to be working. Going into the first turn I took the lead or was in 2nd spot and eased up just a little. It was a fun tactic blocking for a mate. Chevy’s group was at least were holding their gap, but with a couple laps to go I was running out of steam, and the pack was smelling the kill. We ended up catching them as we closed in on the final sprint. When we did catch them Team Wheaton took over, Glen lead out Dr B and Chevy for a final burst to the line. Dr J took the pack sprint for 5th, Chevy followed in 8th and Engine right behind in 9th.
I totally mismanaged the finish, I don’t know what I was thinking, well that was actually the problem I didn’t think. I saw Rudy getting a lead out so I moved up from about 15th spot (in the pack) to around 6th, took the turn and realized I was in way to big a gear and watch 20 some riders pass me with ease and ended up in 29th. Oh Henry felt the affects of two races and came in 44th. This weekend of racing has shown me that I will have to work on the finish. But overall I was very pleased with how I rode and how we rode as a team. Dr B took the pack sprint, Chevy holds a 5 pt lead over A-train, Engine showed some strong moves and has great recovery, and Oh Henry continues to build his early season form.I accomplished my goal for the weekend, (although I didn’t get in a break Sunday), I feel I contributed some to the team. Overall I feel stronger now than I did at the end of last season. My legs feel great, and my lungs are pretty much back to normal.