Sat. 6/30/12

Dan Ulwelling Memorial Race, Freedom  Fest (SpamJam) Austin, MN...

25 miles of fast, flat racing.  Ussually the wind is the biggest factor, but today there was virtually no wind to speak of.  There was a slight breeze from the ESE, so the last two stretches were the ones that I tried to stay alert to my position in the group.
As usual, the Silver boys showed up.  We had Steve, Rob, Shad, Jay, Carlton, Chuck, and myself.

From the start, Silver was up near the front keeping the pace high.

It wasn't long before Al (from Rochester) took off the front and Hwood went with him.  Silver settled in to a more comfortable pace as a few others riders moved to the front to try and chase.  But all of those efforts were short lived, as Hwood and Al gained ground on the rest of us.

As we turned east (and into the slight breeze), two riders launched off the front.  Silver picked the pace up, but the two chasers got a nice gap on the rest of us.  But they did remain in sight, so there was really no panic in the group.

We turned south and the pace stayed nice and high (right around 24-25 mph).  Along the way the main group was getting smaller as more and more riders moved to the back and soon lost contact.

We were down to around 20 or so, when disaster struck.

I was middle of the pack riding the right edge of the road, when two riders up ahead made contact.
The rider to their immediate left overreacted and lunged to the left, coming in contact with another rider.  They went down taking two more riders to my immediate left.

I threaded the needle between the pile on the left and the two rider who had made initial contact.  They had both headed for the ditch mostly, so I was really only watching the bikes to make sure they didn't bounce into my path.

As I cleared the mess, I looked back to see a number of others involved in the crash.  I'm guessing at least 10 people were on the ground.

I didn't see who actually went down, so I continued on to catch the front end of the group.

I did a quick head count of Silver and I think we were two short.  Just then Shad came up from behind, he had gone way left and around the mess.  So we were still one done.

We were only about 5 miles from the finish, so the rest of us pedalled toward the finish.  Though you could really tell the group had lost its desire to race, as the pace was under 20 mph.

We turned south onto the final home stretch and the pace picked up again as everyone dug deep to finish the race strong.  Carlton made a great effort up the left side, I stayed tucked in on the right and as the pace got back up to 28 mph, the legs started to fail (some worse than others).  I went around several riders as they ran out of gas and I found myself back from a group of 5 or 6 (about 10 yards).
I tried to bridge, but by now my legs were feeling it.  Just then I noticed someone on my right trying to nip me at the line, so I dug deep and pulled away from him to finish just behind the small group.

After a quick cool down, I met up with my brother Dennis and we went back into the parking lot.  There we learned the Steve had been involved in the crash.  In a few minutes, here came Steve on his bike.  You could tell he had gone down, by the scuffs on his jersey.  We helped him get the jersy off and sure enough there was road rash on his back, elbow, and hip.  The bike brake levers were twisted, but otherwise the bike looked ok.  We got come antiseptic wipes and helped Steve clean off some of the scrapes.

I'm sure he is feeling it today.  Heal fast there Big Steve, I'm thinking about you.  If I had known it was Steve, I would have stopped. 

Anyway, Hwood got second overall as one of the secondary chasers bridged to them and then kept right on going to a nice solo finish.  Hwood took the sprint over Al for second.

Dennis and I didn't stick around for the awards, but I'm sure Silver Cycling was well represented.

A fun, fast race as usual, but the inconsistancy, inexperience of the riders and their pack skills make it a very sketchy ride.

I was lucky, I'm sure there are a number of people who are not feeling too well today...