(Gee there isn’t much to write about a TT haha)
-Bill Golembieski
My mom and I met Andy Ross and Wayne at 6 to head down to Albany for the race. We managed to cram everything into Wayne’s car and we departed on our 2 hour journey. We arrived and I went in and registered. After registration I warmed up for around an hour and jumped in with my race group. I was riding with Masters 65+, First Timers, One day license, Juniors 15-18, and Local Police,Fire, and Military. I could tell this race was going to be pretty easy to keep up with. We got read our pre-race instructions and there were a few hilarious questions coming from the first timers. Such questions as “What’s neutral start?”, “What’s a feed zone?”, “What’s Junior gearing and do I need to have it?”, and the best one “What’s a race marshal?” My friend Jordan Strober and I were trying not to burst out into laughter.
The race started and we had a 3 mile neutral start. The car was going at around 15-17 mph and I was drafting it with Jordan right beside me. We told the guy to turn on the radio and we were listening to music for around a mile or two. Then I looked back and saw a huge line of cars behind us which I thought was pretty funny. Jordan and I started singing “What is Love?” by Jimmy Haddaway and there were a few people who joined in. We reached the first hill in the neutral start and we sang all the way up to the finish line dropping half the field in the process before the race even started. As soon as we crossed the start line Jordan and I started to Sprint. Everyone jumped on our wheel and we hammered up every hill we came across. We now had a group of about 8 a few minutes later. We slowed down and a Master took off but I reeled him in. Jordan then came up beside me bobbing his head and we started singing “What is Love?” again while everyone was gasping for air due to our constant attacks going up hills. I think a few people then decided to sit in as much as possible after our singing because I was in the front pulling until “The Wall”. On the downhill section I opened up a gap in order to be first to reach “The Wall”. I dropped it into my little gears in order to respond to any attacks that were launched. Sure enough a kid from Farm Team sped by me up the hill. I jumped on his wheel and let him pull me up “The Wall” we reached the top and I took over in the front in order to keep the 10 second gap we had. I was hammering down the hill and through most of the flat section. When I pulled off the front I looked back and I didn’t see the field. This got me motivated to try and destroy the field. When I took over the front again I got down into a TT position and was doing 33 down hill and 27-28 in the flats. I was dropping the kid I was with on flats and downhills. I asked him how he was doing and he said he was fine. I let him pace for a little bit then I took over again. I would do 27ish for around a minute or two then he would take over and do around 25 or 26. I thought “They are never gunna catch us!”. We came into the finishing hill and he pulled up along side me. It seemed he wasn’t going to play cat and mouse so we chit chatted until the 200M mark. I said “Ready?”, then we both took off side by side. He had acceleration but I eventually pulled in front of him with around 50M to go and won the race.
I headed back down to the school and got rolled out by one of the officials. I then went back up and saw the Cat 3/4s finish. I rode back to the car where I met everyone and we went down to the school to receive the medal I won. We got inside and I went over to the table with all the medals and an official came up to me and asked me for ID. I showed it to him and I received my medal. He also gave me a cycling cap,a water bottle, a shirt, and he told me I should join his club and he would get me a coach. My mom said that would be great but we live in Syracuse and unless I biked there it wouldn’t be possible. He said “Well I hope to see you next year.” and I said “I will see you next year.” We then made the 2 hour car ride back. When we got back we got all my stuff out of the car and I packed it into my car. While we were packing my mom said “at least you didn’t get hurt today” because I was complaining about being tired. Not 2 minutes later I slammed my finger in the door and It was bleeding for at least 5 minutes.
It was a great race and a fun coarse! I plan on doing this race again next year. Also I would like to thank Wayne for allowing us to carpool with him and Andy Ross.
((Side Story- We pulled into a rest stop on the thru-way and we went and got something to eat. I got a BK double stacker (regret it) and Wayne got a smoothie of some sort. We sat down and started to eat. Andy Ross then proceeded to eat a plum in front of me while I was eating my heart attack on a bun. I offered him a fry as a joke and he obviously refused. Then Wayne went over to Dunkin Doughnuts and something strange happened. Andy Ross went over and got a jelly filled Doughnut!!! I think he gave in to the pressure hahah.))
-Bill Golembieski
I woke up to the sound of the rocky theme playing on my phone because I set it for my alarm to wake me up. I was running on 4 and a half hours of sleep (1:30am-6am) but surprisingly I wasn’t really that tired. We departed at 7:45 and arrived at 9:15ish. I quickly registered and got dressed. I also switched my junior gearing out from the other day. I then found Jake (another junior) and we started it warm up. You see I already felt warmed up because I was racing 15 hours before this race haha. I was feeling like crap and I went back to the car to take my underarmor top off. I then ate some power gel gummy type things and I gave some to Jake to try out. We then went back up to the finishing line and turned around to go to where we were going to start. Andy Ross called me over and told us to stay as a team through the start because it would get a little squirrelly. The race director told us it was a controlled start and we wouldn’t go more than 12mph or so. Andy was like “yeah right” to me and told me they’ve went fast at the beginning in recent years.
We started off and I got stuck in the pack a little bit until I saw an opening and rode up to the front with the rest of the team. We started to climb a hill and I was feeling a little better. I was going a little too hard and Andy reminded me to not go too hard up this hill. So I backed off and grabbed his wheel. We crested the hill and we then sped up. There was around 40 or so riders still with us and we thinned out to 2 wide as we reached speeds of 27-30mph. Jake had junior gearing on so I got up next to him and asked him how the gears were because he was spinning out. He said “GREAT!!” and we both laughed. I asked him where this KOM hill was and he said we go through a town and it starts right after we get out of it. I then moved up toward Andy Ross as he opened a gap in our group. I stuck on his wheel and then we encountered a pretty decent hill I asked Andy how long this hill was and he told me “oh not long only around a half mile”. We hit the hill and I went up to the front and rode tempo at around 11-12mph. We reached the top and I felt great. Andy then proceeded to pass me. He then accelerated down hill and I got onto his wheel. We then hit a semi-flat section and I asked Jake where the KOM hill was. He told me we would go into a town and then it was right after we left the town. Andy accelerated down the hill and others grabbed his wheel. We got into the town, made a right turn, and hit a 25 yard hill.After cresting this little hill I looked up the road and I saw it winding up at around 5-7%. I then grabbed a wheel and tried to ride my own tempo again. They were going slightly faster up this hill (12ish) so I had to work a little harder. We then reached a flattish section and I asked Andy if that was the top and he said “No we are around halfway done”. He then told me that he would give me a hand signal when we were reaching the top. A few minutes later someone crashed behind us and we were worried it was Jeff Hoover but then Jeff told us he was still with us and we continued riding.There were around 10 guys with us in the lead group by this time. We encountered the final uphill section and Andy gave me the hand signal. Halfway up the hill a guy took off and Jake followed. I was kinda blocked in but I managed to get out. I was catching up with Jake and the other guy when I noticed Jake’s glasses were on the ground. I got in front of the guy chasing Jake and slowed up, and Jake took the $100 KOM hill prime. I caught up with him and so did the others. I then told him that the $100 should go toward his new glasses haha. We had a downhill section and Andy took off and I grabbed his wheel. He then powered through the rolling section of the course. He was really hammering and I had a hard time holding his wheel. We had a nice 4 or 5 second gap but were eventually caught. We then went onto a gravel paved road and there were a few rollers on it but everyone managed to stay together. We then reached a flat section on top of a hill and it started to downpour. My glasses fogged up and I couldn’t see very well. We then got back onto a paved road and it was raining harder than before and as an added bonus there was lightning! We then encountered a hill and Jake attacked. I Thought he was trying to establish a break so I tried to catch up with him and a few guys passed me and I grabbed their wheel. We eventually caught him and I was like “Hey what was that for??(jokingly)
“. He said he had enough of getting water in his face so he wanted to get out of it. We then powered along and Andy took over the front stringing everyone out into a line. Jeff was behind him and I was behind Jeff (GO MAXPOWER lol). We then exchanged some pulls until we reached the turn into the finish. Andy was in front and I was behind him. I started to brake for the turn and I wasn’t slowing down that much. Some guy was off to the side yelling “SLOW DOWN!!!!!” I ignored him and took the turn at around 20 or so. I past Andy and looked back because there was 200 Meters to go. I was right in front of Andy and the rest of the group was about 2 bikes behind him. I then saw the finish line and started to half sprint. I looked back and saw I had a pretty good lead then started all out sprinting. I saw FINISH and looked under to see if anyone was there. I saw no one and crossed the line in First place. I was extremely happy.
We rode down and gave our chips to a girl and she threw them in a bucket. I then got dressed and went down to to registration tent where I saw all the trophy and stuff. Pretty cool. I then talked with Andy for a while about the race. They then started the Awards Ceremony and I received my trophy. We then got a picture of Andy, Jeff, and I holding our trophies. We then packed up and went home.
It was a great race and I had a lot of fun doing it!
-Bill Golembieski
I arrived in Rochester and we drove around for a bit until we came across the race. We asked a police officer where registration was and he told us to go park in the parking lot and it was near the food tents somewhere. So we parked and asked around where registration was. We were told it was in the first floor of the library right behind us after wandering around for 10 minutes. I registered and warmed up on the course in between events. It was a real technical course with a bunch of turns, potholes, and what-not. After my 10 minute warm up, I rode down to the staging area and joined in with the master 35+ group. Right after the womens race we were sent out on the course to go to the starting line. Everyone was going pretty fast. There was this one back road I didn’t like because the road was in bad shape and at the end of the road was a 180 degree turn into an uphill finish. We got to the starting line and I positioned myself in the top 15 or so. I was then told to go to the back of the race because the other juniors were there. I was pretty mad but I went back there anyway to meet my two competitors. We were staring with the masters and I didn’t understand why I had to move back because they positioned themselves poorly or whatever happened.
Anyway, the race started off but the pace car didn’t so I almost smashed into it as everyone went around it. We took the first turn pretty fast but I managed to get myself a few spots up. We then hit a downhill and the pace quickly picked up to 35+ mph and I had trouble keeping up with my junior gearing as everyone I overtook at the corner motored past me. I was at the tail end of the main pack and there was another group about 4-5 seconds back containing the other juniors and I thought “Great they will never be able to keep up at these speeds. So I took I took it easy and drafted the guy in front of me. We came through the start and the announcer said “Look at the masters go!! They aren’t wasting any time at all!” He said that because we came flying through the start at around 27mph. Whoever was on the front was really hammering it because the speed didn’t drop at all until we had 10 or so laps to go. Around 15 laps to go our group split in 2 as people off the front attacked. I hammered to bridge it but I couldn’t close the gap until we hit the hill. I took off after them and eventually caught them. Around 7 laps to go I looked back to see if the other juniors were there and there was one. I stopped pedaling and let him pass me. I grabbed his wheel and stayed on it until around 3 laps to go. We both slowed because we didn’t need to race with the masters because we were riding our own race. A little cat and mouse ensued and I attacked as he swerved over on the downhill. He eventually caught up and I was pulling on the front for a lap. I thought about ways to get him attack. I remembered on one of the tour stages were a Team Columbia guy was in the same situation but I didn’t have a jersey to zip up. So I decided to wait a little bit and around half way through the course on the last lap I shifted down a cog and took a drink out of my water bottle. Boom he attacked as I thought he would and I grabbed his wheel as we went down the road I don’t like and started to go to the finish. At 200 meters to go he started sprinting and I grabbed his wheel and moved back to about a bike and a half back. At 150 meters I accelerated into the slipstream and passed him to take 1st.
I got rolled out and rode around for a bit and watched the Mens 3/4 race. Then around 7:50 I went on the course and rode around with the pros that were about to race. I had a nice chat with a few guys from Toyota United and Colavita. I then exited the course and was stuck behind a bunch of spectators. Just then a kid came up to me and asked if I would sign his helmet. Haha. I was like uhhhhhh sure? I then went back to the car and got dressed. I watched the pro race and wow they are FAST! It then started to rain pretty heavily and a bunch of guys crashed. They took they’re free lap and got back in. They had to do 50 laps to complete the Crit. As the last lap came up I went to the finish line where I could’nt see anything because of the number of people there. All I saw was a Toyota United cyclist cross the finish line first. I watched the award ceremony then went home. We arrived back at the house at around 1-1:30 am and I went to sleep to prepare for the race I had to do the next day.
All in all it was a great race and I had a lot of fun doing it! I also was able to keep up with the masters that were hammering it until 7 laps to go.
-Bill Golembieski
It was a “rolling start” for one mile and as everyone started off it sounded like popcorn from the 200+(?) riders that were there clipping-in. Around mile 2 I started to work my way up to thefront because the guy I was behind didn’t look like he knew how to ride in a straight line. I managed to get up front with Andy Ross and I managed to stay up there until the first climb. They had primes for the hills and I had the race Topo map taped to my handlebars. I thought there was going to be a prime for the first hill, Ben asked me where the primes were so I said mile 8 and I looked down and it was mile 7.5ish. Ben took off and he had a decent lead up the hill. I was behind Andy Ross because he is a great climber and I thought that I would pace myself off of him. It worked and we caught Ben. I found out there was no prime at this hill when Ben asked Glen Swan when the primes were. Glen told him on the other side of the lake. I thought Ben probably thought I lied to him and with past experience with Milosz and his antics, I would not be in good standing with him and he would try (harder) to loose me. Anyway we were going down this highway part and it was downhill. Jason Delillo took off. I was thinking this could stick until the hill because riding with him at the OCC Time trials I knew he had the power too keep it. I was just about to go chase him, then I pulled off the wheel of the guy I was on and got hammered by a head wind. I decided not to bridge because he was going to burn out in this head wind. Just as I thought we caught him as he slowed down. I stayed behind this one guy on an old cannondale until the hill started. Andy Ross came up beside me and once again I followed him up the hill. After we crested I looked back and we still had a good 40 or so riders in the lead group. There was a downhill section and I stayed behind this guy on a Cervelo with Zipp 808 wheels.They were clanking every time he hit a bump and I was thinking “Gee this guys wheel is gunna fail and I’m right behind him”. Nevertheless he looked pretty strong and pulled most of the way until we hit the 2nd hill. During this time Jeff Hoover caught me and said “It took me 20 miles to make it up to the front.” I’m glad I positioned myself well during the start of the race. Also Andy Melnychenko caught me and said “Hey I’m glad you made it” then went on talking about how he was going bass fishing after the race, as I was struggling to keep up with the guy in front of me. Haha Andy you have like the greatest personality =P. On the second hill, Andy Ross again was next to me and I used him to pace up the hill. Some guy took off to chase a group that was about 5 seconds ahead and not 2 seconds after sprinting by me sat up and rejoined the group. Andy R and I were perplexed as to why he would do this. We eventually caught the group that was ahead and we had a group of about 20 or so riders that stayed together on the few rollers after the main hill. After one of the hills I was descending faster than everyone else and moved off to the side and accelerated around the corner. I had one guy pass me and with about 7 or 8 miles to go and he said “Lets go”. Jeff Hoover was right behind him and I thought “Awesome this might actually work!”. I looked back and we had a comfy 10-15 second lead. I’m not sure how far off we were after the 2nd roller but when we went into the little town and crossed the street I looked back and I didn’t see the pack. We were averaging 34-35mph which I thought was a great pace. We hit a roller and were eventually caught by the main group. I think we got away for 5 or 6 miles. I managed to hang on as the group accelerated up the next roller which had a 6 painted in the middle of the road. I could see Ben up near the front and I got on his wheel. There was a few rollers and over the last one I could see the finish line. I could see that at the bottom of the hill Andy Melnychenko took off and everyone grabbed his wheel. Just then off to my right I heard a “WHOA” and all I saw was a bike flipping in the air. I looked at my speed which was 23mph and I thought “that must have hurt.” I got to the hill accelerated and got 18th. I was in the back of the lead pack when I finished, I managed to keep up with Ben and Jake, and I didn’t crash. This was a great race for me.
I rode back to the parking lot and went over to get some free food with Noel. I looked at the results and was pretty satisfied. I then started to talk to Scott and he was ripping on me =P. Haha the ceremony started and I sat next to Ben, and we sat on this bench that was like a trampoline. I’m surprised it didn’t break when Ben was jumping on it to see if anyone would look over. They then started throwing stuff everywhere. I got an Energy bar whipped at me and I wasn’t expecting it. I still managed to catch it due to my my ex-baseball skills lol. The ceremony started. Ben and Jake got a sweet Owasco Flyer blankets. Eli had a jacket on and I said “Eli whats with the jacket? Aren’t you hot?”. It then started to rain a little while after I said that and I’m like “man I can’t believe its raining now!”. Eli said “Hey I’m glad i have this nice rain jacket on” haha
All In all, I accomplished my goals whilst having a great time. Great race. Also I would like to give a special shout out to “Big Daddy” Grimshaw for paying for our entry fees. Without him I would have had to pay $25 and possibly would have had less teammates to race with. Thanks A lot!! Oh and best of luck to Andy Melnychenko in his bass fishing haha.
-Bill Golembieski
I arrived a little late but managed to register. It was fairly windy and around 68ish. I talked with a few temamates and then it was time to go to the time trial course. I heard “Oh its not so bad” a few times so I wasn’t too worried. Well I warmed up and it was my time to go. Just as I was about to head off a tractor trailer came rolling by. I started off and the tractor trailer started to turn so i had to slow down and pass it on the right. I managed to avoid the huge pothole filled with water and I turned up the hill. I was going at a good pace of around 20-21mph and I thought this was how the hill was going to be the whole way up. Wrong I looked up and boom hill. I spun up the hill at around 13-14mph and my legs felt terrible for some reason. A bunch of teammates passed me as they went down the hill for the return trip back to the parking lot and they gave me some encouragement. I then stood up and tried to sustain at least 15mph but I just wasn’t feeling it so i dropped back down to about 12mph or so. I then saw another hill and thought “Oh this must be the finish” because I saw a bunch of guys who started 4 or 5 places before me heading down the hill. I was wrong I still had another 200 or 300 yards to go. At around 200 yards to go a guy in a yellow jersey passed me and I paced myself off of him. I then tried to pass him, but he began to sprint. I finished with a time of 11:04.
I went back down the hill and didn’t have to pedal once(34-35mph)
As I was awaiting the results I helped with the cat 4/5 race. I got to ring the Prime bell =]. The results were posted and I wasn’t on the list and I told the girl in charge and she said I raced pretty hard and would put me in 20th. The ESG team was made and I was 17th. Which means if 7 guys can’t make it I’m in Woo!
It was a fun race (except for maybe the time trial and the being dropped part). And I’ll be training hard so I don’t get dropped again.
-Bill Golembieski
))
-Bill Golembieski
All and all I think I could have done much better but I learned a lot during this race….
P.S. Both Andys had a hell of a race!! Both their races had a group that broke away of about 7 riders and stayed that way for the remainder of the race. Sadly they were not in the break away group but finished very well within the group they were with. I think Andy R got 9th place and Andy M. got around 12th.
-Bill Golembieski
-Bill Golembieski
Saturday, May 17th
I arrived at Song and registered, then I found Scott G. and received the new Team clothes. They looked really sharp and it fitted perfectly. I then warmed up on the back hill going to the finish. After I was done warming up I met a bunch of my teammates behind the 35+,45+ masters car. I guess I was going to race with the 55+ masters so I let the 35+ 45+ start and It seemed like I was the only junior until one rolled up at the last second. He seemed new to the sport.
We started and I was leading the group. I let off a little bit to conserve some energy for oak hill and i grabbed a guys wheel. about half way down that road right before the turn into that little town i somehow was in the front pulling. I let up again to about 12mph and no one would come up. So it stayed like that for about a mile or two and then i just let up and I went back with the other junior and i was talking to him for a while. he said he was using a cross bike and gears so i was a little worried he was gonna beat me up oak hill. But i had my secret weapon too.. My third chain ring in the front =p.. So i saw that he didn’t have and power gels or anything so i gave him one of mine cause i didn’t like the expresso hammer gel one..The pace picked up as we were going down the hill and i moved up to the middle of the pack and stayed there until we were riding along Ottisco lake. I consumed my gel for the hill and got behind the lead guy. Some guy rode off and the lead guy asked me how far the hill was away and i said about 1 mile and not to chase him because he looked “husky” and probably couldn’t climb.
We hit Oak hill and sure enough the guy who broke away couldn’t climb and we caught him with ease. I was surprised that i was keeping up with the national champs on the first part of the climb. I was spinning up the hill on the first chain ring while the other guys were breathing really hard and then we hit the Wall of white Pollen or whatever it was. The guys were coughing up a storm and i just kept my head down until we past it. A group of about 5 or 6 guys broke away and i though i would catch them later on the hill so i let them go. I past Noel while he was doing the KOM and he gave me a good “Come on Bill!!” haha. So I eventually caught up with 4 guys. I guess the other 2 guys broke away and we tried to catch them. I was dropped on a downhill section because I was spinning out but I was sure I could catch them on the hill. I caught up to one guy and he said “We have to bridge them” So we took turns pulling pretty hard until we reached them on the last part of the 2nd hill before the decent into the town. I was again dropped due to spinning out and then some guy caught up to me and we started to pace each other we reached long road and he asked me if I felt strong enough to pull him to where i turn off because he was doing 2 laps and i was only doing 1. I said “sure why not”. I was TT’ing it to the finish averaging around 27mph. I was getting constant encouragement from the guy behind me and he was yelling things such as “come on go harder, keep going” so I picked the pace up until he started yelling “Good Good, Your doing great, Keep it up” I then turned up the finishing hill and finished pretty strong. The other junior was no where in sight. I stayed at the finish with Marcello,Wayne, and Noel. Everyone from our team finished and I went down the hill to song where i got something to eat and sat in the building for a little bit.
It was about 1 hour before i had to start the time trial and I rode over to where Sam S. was playing football with his kids. I jumped in and played catch with them until the other 2 decided to quit then me and Sam played. He was making me run everywhere =p. He then through me one that jammed my finger pretty bad and we stopped. I went to the bathroom and we decided to ride the TT course together. We met up with this one lady that had a pink bike and some pretty nifty boots that matched the bike. We rode around the course where we saw Adam and Eddie Luban running. There were 2 hills where you could stand up and power over them. We eventually got back to the start and we saw Eddie Luban but no Adam. We decided that he dropped him on one of the hills =p. I went back up the road to the building and took off my brand new wind breaker type vest and left one of my water bottles there. I went back down to the TT starting line and lined up. There was a girl junior in front of me and the kid who i raced with earlier behind me. I was thinking ok sweet now I have someone to chase. She started and I ended up passing her before the first turn. I rode pretty hard and kept remembering when Sam told me “I want you to ride sub 7″. I was constantly watching my clock and going harder as the seconds ticked by. I was pretty cooked by then end but I finished strong. I guess my number was on the wrong side of my jersey so i had to go back and give it to them. I then met up with my family and got in the car just as it started to rain. I went home and slept until the next day (5pm-6:30am).
Sunday, May 18th
I got up around 6:30 and got ready. We forgot my water bottles at home and we had to turn around and get them. I arrived at the course and rode over to the start and Noel said I just missed the start. I found Marcello and I asked him if i could jump in and say I had “a flat”. I got to get in at the pit and thankfully started when the other juniors rode by. I was racing two of them this time because the other kid got thrown in with the women for the road race. I asked how this was going to work and he told me we were racing separate from the women and it was just us 3. We were doing 15 laps instead of 20. So I got in front of him and pulled forever (11 laps). During that time he would just sit on my back wheel and i would slow down considerably and he wouldn’t pass me. He would then sprint to get the primes and then let up. The first time, we were racing for a tire or something of that sort and he sprinted and beat me and i found out he was a strong sprinter. I didn’t really care about the tire. the only thing i was concerned with was the points prime.. I again found myself in the front pulling over the bridge i wondered how much i could slow down without him taking off so i slowed down to 8 mph and he was still on my tire. So i ramped it up to 23 and he was hanging on strong. I thought to myself “I have to loose this kid”. He beat me on the $30 prime which again i wasn’t too worried about. I was pulling again and we just finished going over the bridge and I spotted a pothole. I aimed for it trying to obscure it from his view, and swerved at the last second. I heard a painful “UGH” as he rode straight over it .. Ok now it was the points prime lap. I ramped it up and followed about 20 yards behind the women cat 4 I think it was. I was still pulling but getting a little draft off them. The kid was telling me I was too close but screw him he wasn’t doing any work at all. I was formulating a plan to loose the kid. I had a few things to work with. 1. He was following my every move..2. He sucked at cornering… and 3. I’ve got about 20 riders ahead of me to use somehow. So we were coming down the bridge road and I tried the pot hole thing again didn’t work but i got him wet as i rode through a puddle on the side of the road. Then I swung out and took the turn hard. He was 2 seconds back but reached me again. I got within 10 yards of the womens race and sprinted to get past them on the corner. But not too hard because i wanted to be the only one to make it through the turn and have the women block him and make him take the turn wide. I began to sprint and I thought i had it then he came out of nowhere and passed me. Now I had to win the race. I got on his wheel and he slowed down to let me pass and i wouldn’t go. The other junior when to the front and attacked at the bridge which got him nowhere because I was on his tail and the other kid was behind me (again). We got going pretty fast and took the corner to the home stretch I could see the shadow of the other kid as he stood up to sprint. I started to sprint as well but i was in too low of a gear i switched to the right one and started to go by that time he had a good 3 bike lengths on me. I pushed as hard as i could and i began to catch him. My chain skipped and i slowed up a bit and he swerved toward the finish so i let up a little bit. I finished a bike length behind him and we cooled down for a lap.
I went over to Noel’s tent and helped fit the kids for their helmets. I also volunteered to chaperone the 13 year olds race. My parents went home and I was going to catch a ride home with Noel. There were a lot of kids and Sam and I combined the 13-14 year olds. Our race started and the kids were only going to do 1 lap. As soon as it started some kid flew by me on a bmx bike spinning out. I thought this kid is going to die before the first turn. He did I was then caught by Adam Luban on his mountain bike and a kid in a Discovery Channel jersey. They had a huge lead on the other racers and we were going at a pretty fast pace. We got on the finishing streach and the kid who had the discovery channel jersey on won and Adam came in second. They had a huge lead on the field. And i had time to go to the bathroom and return before the last rider to come in. I then helped Noel pack up and we got something to eat then left to go to my house. We arrived and I took the bike out of the van and Noel headed home.
All in all I thought I did pretty well. I got 2nd place overall. I just wish we could have been thrown in with someone on the crit because doing a crit with 3 people sucks =p.
-Bill Golembieski