Meyers Report: 2nd and 3rd on the Weekend

Last Saturday marked the return of the annual (for as long as I can remember) Depauw collegiate race weekend—I was excited. The road race has been a blast in the past, and this weekend was looking to be no different. Our official of the day made note of the fact that the previous race had been boring, and he had nearly fallen asleep in the chase vehicle. He said that since he had shortened the race for us, we should ride extra fast, and that our race should be more “interesting”. The field must have taken his words to heart as we started fast and more or less kept it that way. Attacks were made in the first lap, but none stuck. Midway through the second lap, a big group of 12 formed, and the field was nearly at its breaking point. I attacked out of this group and three of us rolled away: Erik Bean (UW Madison), Erik Loberg (UW Milwaukee) and myself. We hammered and hammered. Loberg forgot to eat, and suffered at the doorstep of Mr. and Mrs. Bonk. Bean and I trudged on. As we got to the final lap, I came under the impression that we had something like a minute plus on the field. This was wrong. All of a sudden, Bean says “We have about 30 seconds on them I think”. I turned around to see the bunch closing in. I grunt “GO GO GO GO GO.” Bean and I put it into overdrive. With about 1 mile to go, I have no choice but to go at it alone. With the field hot on my tail, I punch it as hard as I could. Leg cramp be damned. I’m going to win this race with only one functioning leg if I have to.

A moment of bliss comes. I think I’m going to make it! I was wrong. Cross eyed, I see a blurred double image of Derek Laan (Purdue) screaming past me 10 feet in front of the line and raise his arms in victory. Second place. Dangit.

Brett Stewart (Also of ABD/GG fame) rides for Indiana. He was one of the nine Indiana University riders bringing the break back. An unfortunate crash took him out of the bunch sprint. Fortunately, I won’t have to ride against him this summer.

Sunday was a Crit. Warm weather greeted us. Wind too. This was going to be fun—as a 170 lb rolleur, I find flat, windy, power courses to be tailor made for me. 2nd lap or so I follow an attack by a Milwaukee rider. We work together for a few laps, but in a turn I ended up dropping him. I spent a couple laps off solo until a chase group of 5 caught up. We continued at a high pace. At one point I attacked for a prime, and dropped a couple people. It was now just four. Shortly thereafter, it became three. I was starting to cramp, badly. I told my two compatriots that I was not going to sprint. All of a sudden, it’s back to four riders. I had thought we had dropped one guy, but he really just flatted and took a free lap. I was OK with sitting on and not sprinting for 3rd, but didn’t feel that way about 4th. With the little legs I had left, and 3ish laps to go, I guttered it out in an attempt to pop at least one guy. Luckily I did. When the sprint came, I flicked off and watched the fireworks go off. I coasted it in for third, with quads in knots.