Tour of Ohio, Stage 1....

Well, first off it took us about 9 hrs to get down to Ohio due to traffic and construction. But we made it here. Frye’s grandparents’ house rules. Very nice place, pool table, and they are constantly feeding us. I kinda feel spoiled. But I guess they like it.

Ok stage 1. It was about 95 degrees Fahrenheit today. It was a dry heat though, which I like a lot more than that horrible humidity that just zaps my energy. We got there and saw some pretty big teams. Kelly Regional Team, Priority Health, A&F, Colavita Regional Team and others. We thought it was going to be hard. I just wanted to finish. The course was a 1km long 8 corner criterium. We did 40 miles of it, which turned out to be 68 laps. Damn that got boring after awhile. Well, I started in the 6th or 7th row of the 127 person field right next to Seth Meyer. Matt Holecko got a good position in the front row. The race got started and it really wasn’t that fast. Probably because of the all the corners. I got pushed back a little bit in the field. After about 10 laps or so my legs started feeling good and I had a bit more confidence so I started moving up. I thought it was really easy to move up in the corners and on the finishing straight. When I really wanted to I would gun it up to a corner and cut it in close and make up about 5 to 6 spots. The finishing straight was the same thing. The corners were very smooth and I barely had to touch my breaks. God I love people that know how to ride a bike. So pretty much the whole race I kept moving up and then pushed back a little, etc. I had to close down 4 gaps during the race, because some riders just sat right up...right in front of me nonetheless. But it always came out good in the end.

So they had a rule during the race. You just had to make it to 8 laps left and they would take your time at that point. After that you could drop out...the last part was meant for the sprinters, due to the narrow course. I made it to that last 8 laps with the field, so I should have the same time as pretty much everyone else...but I kept going. Over the next 8 laps I started risking it a little more to make a couple more positions here and there. I was going for the Best Cat 3 Jersey. I didn’t know who was a Cat 3. The only ones I know about are me, Seth Meyer, Jason Carr and one of the guys riding for MSU/Hotter N’ Hell. And I wasn’t about to drop out of a race just because I could. I’m definitely going to finish. Many people dropped out after that 8 lap rule. The pace did get faster, but it was still pretty easy. I had Seth Meyer behind me and I was following an MSU riders wheel (I don’t know if he was Cat 3 or not...I wasn’t going to risk it, so I had to beat him). At the end I was able to sprint around the MSU guy and keep Seth behind me. The race only averaged ~24mph.

I guess I placed in the upper third of the field. Hopefully top 40...and hopefully I got the Best Cat 3 rider as of right now. I’ll know that tomorrow. I really don’t think there are too many cat 3’s in this race.

Well, tomorrow is a 53-mile road race. It’s 5 laps of a ~10 mile lap with two climbs per lap. Start time is 5pm...it may rain. I just hope the legs have what it takes.

Oh and congrats to Nick “Steamer” Frye. He won the Cat 4/5 race today and got some sweet new orange tyres that match his bike. Yeah...he pretty much crushed the field.

Ciao ciao....
Waitey