A cold day dawned as we readied for a 6:30a.m. departure from New Berlin to Madison for the early morning start of The Wheels On Willy Criterium.
Glen and I arrived at the course to temps in the mid-40s and overcast skies with the threat of rain that only materialized in the form of some drizzle about 15 minutes before our 9:00 start. After registering and meeting up with Andy we bundled up with arm warmers and either a jacket or vest for a few laps around the course to try to clean out the legs and warm them up for what would most likely be a fast race. Team Wheaton toed the line with myself, Glen, Andy, Bob and Chris. It appeared that we had about 50 guys total for the start with at least 10 of them from Cronometro so I was ready for them to try to control the race and launch multiple attacks. As the whistle sounded we took off at a pretty good clip for the first few laps and I have to say that initially I felt horrible, most likely from a combination of my head cold and tired legs from the Saturday race in Denzer. The pace was pretty fast as a number of teams tried their hand at getting a guy off the front, notably the Atkins team and Crono. Chris was also getting himself out there and tried a few times to liven up the pack with some accelerations off the front. About midway through the race we had Glen and Chris a bit off the front and they called for a prime which Glen won for a nice little $25.00 reward. As the pack came back together we all kept our positions in the pack with Andy, Bob, Glen, and Chris moving to the front or near the front every couple of laps just to keep their position. Meanwhile I was basically hiding in the pack the whole race, and only went to the front on one occasion I think to just test the waters. Seemed like everyone was doing well without me up there so I went right back to the middle. I decided that as we hit the countdown to 3 laps to go that I’d better get to the front, so within a lap I had positioned myself about 10th wheel and was waiting for any attacks to go so that I could cover them if I determined that a strong rider was going away. I think Crono and Atkins riders both went with two laps to go but the move was short lived and we were all together for the bell lap. As we rounded the 1st turn I was in good position and decided that right after the 2nd turn that I was going to move myself up to the first 3 positions so that I would be in an ideal spot going around the last 2 turns. As we hit the back straightaway I felt really good and decided to jump right to the front of the pack and put my head down and make everyone come around me at full speed if they were going to win. We hit the 3rd and 4th turns and I was still flying with my head down and as I hit the finishing stretch I looked up and just stood on the pedals and hammered for all I was worth. It was enough to hold off the pack and I sprinted across the line with a comfortable margin and a victory for Team Wheaton. I was kind of shocked myself that I lead out for almost a half a lap and still managed to take the sprint, it’s not often that I ever feel that good, so I’ll take it. Team Wheaton did a great job with Glen taking 10th place as well and everyone else finishing out very strong. After a great weekend of racing Team Wheaton had some great overall results with a total of 5 top-10 finishes over the two races, we are definitely a force to be reckoned with in future races.
