Twin Sizzler

Hey, I CAN race my bike!

I hit up the Twin Sizzler on the fourth. Loads of fun. And yes, the pavement into the finish is still really nasty.

Derrick, Zak, Matt and I raced the 35+ expert race, while just about everyone else on the team did the under 35 race. Props to them, because they ended up sending not 1 but 3 breaks up the road garnering 6 of the top 7 spots if we include the Spin Multisport Team, which we must since Dave and Aussie Rob drove the first break after about 2 miles in, and held that to the line.

In the 35+ race, we didn't talk much strategy... it is just the Twin Sizzler after all... "not a REAL bike race". Since I haven't raced much this year yet, I figured I would do a lot of covering and see if that could save someone else on the team for the finish.

I must have been away a while since almost all the Orrville guys were in this olive green and orange kit with something like a tin can on the front, and oneXone or something across the shorts... and there were quite a few of them in the field. Like more than any other TWO teams combined. At the whistle, they took off hot and we were racing.

The first move of the day came from one of the SpinMulti guys. He hung out there for a while before getting pulled back in, then Orrville's Lorson got a small gap when it looked like the Green guys were going to let him go... so I jumped across carrying another Green with me. We rotated through once before Lorson looked back and exclaimed that his team had pulled the field back.

So the stage is set. One guy can go, but more than one gets brought back pretty much straight away. I'm pretty sure I made my way into 5 or 6 moves, not one of them worked well together and all of them were pretty short lived. Derrick, Zak and Matt all made jumps of there own, making sure we had someone in anything that looked to move off the front, but nothing stay away.

I think I now know how to position myself for this race. RGF had three in the field and Stephan made one jump before the turn onto Smith road. It placed him right at the front, and he could sit there up the last (only significant) hill on the course. After all my jumps, I was sitting at the back.. literally back of the field of 25 that were left.

On the hill we caught the remains of the U35 field, so we now had about 50 heading onto the crappy pavement... and wonderful left/RR tracks/right lead into the finish. I was able to make it into the top 20 or so on the inside of the left hander, and make some more space over the tracks as everyone puckered up. Unfortunately that put me on the outside for the right hander, and after looking at my current placement, I decided to sit up, having done what I came for, which was to get the first race efforts in two months.

Now I have to get some more... I tell you, crack on two wheels.

Until next time.