Wente 45-plus 1,2,3 Road Race

By Geoff Drake


When I finished the race yesterday, I was a little blue. It was the first time I’d been out of the top 10 in a while. As a team, we missed the winning break. After chasing, I got a colossal knot in my hamstring. Sigh.

But now, a day later, I think we should be proud of the work we did—even though, ultimately, it didn’t pay off. We made the classy decision not to sit around and wait for a sprint for fifth place. We went to the front and worked. Being at the front, even on a doomed mission, was the most fun I had the whole day! And it was a gas to watch Russ get low and aero and string the field out single file. Nice riding!

I think Mark’s account of the race was spot on. A few things we might have done:

-Be more attentive to danger men going up the road. We shoulda been on that one.

-Work together—the three of us—to pull the break back. Mark is so superhuman right now that, even if he had expended energy chasing, he still would have done well. Goal number one was to put someone in contention by catching the breakaway. You can’t win if you’re not in the front group!

-Trade off more efficiently at the front, using the skills we have practiced so often on Highway 1. I know I wasn’t riding as smooth a paceline as I could have. Too many surges!

-Get more teammates! With four of us up there, we would have brought things together for sure.

Anyway, we did the classy thing. In fact, I’d do it again!