March 27th – 30th was the ABD/GearGrinder Team Training Camp, with the Hillsboro-Roubaix Road Race as one of our ‘training’ days. All of the guys except for Alex and Ebert were able to attend. Camp ran smoothly so there’s not much to report. We all just hung out, trained, had some good meetings, and made fun of each other for four days.
Hillsboro went pretty decent too. Ryan went off the front with Jordan Roessingh (ISCorp) and Bill Stolte (HRRC/Trek) mid-way through the first of four 22-mile laps and the main group never saw this 3-man group again. It was nice to see Ryan's form coming along so well. The rest of us took turns going with chase groups, sitting on the back – not wanting to be active participants in chasing him down. This went on until there was one lap to go [which is good … I like it when we’re in control]. Julie was giving us split times when possible; I remember that with two laps to go we were almost 6 minutes down, we were in a good position.
Then things started getting a bit more exciting when Steve Tilford (HRRC/Trek) went off the front with one lap to go. Six more of us joined him, including myself and John Myers from our team, Brian Jensen (Successful Living), Adam Mills (HRRC/Trek) and a couple of other guys. So we formed a 7-man chase group. Out of the 10 riders off the front, 3 were ABD/GearGrinder … in that field, I was pretty happy with those odds. Our only ‘casualties’ were Steve and Jeff. Jeff almost crashed going into the last lap. He destroyed a wheel and got a wheel change. When most guys would have just dropped out, he decided to train. He TTed the last 22-23 miles and finished only about 2 minutes behind the main field! Steve had been in a chase group on the first lap for quite a while and covered a lot of other moves. After making sure he positioned each of the rest of us where we belonged in the front, he dropped out with one lap to go.
Without going into too much detail, we made a few SMALL mistakes that may or may not have cost us the race. Unfortunately, I ended up alone with Tilford and Jensen in the lead group and they took turns attacking me until I was dropped. It’s always hard to beat Tilford and his crew anyway … especially when you throw Brian Jensen into the mix. After being dropped by those two, I was also passed by Adam Mills and Bill Stolte. I rode in alone for 5th place, Ryan hung in for 7th, and John came in 9th. Rob won the field sprint for 11th. We did not win but putting 4 guys in the top 11 is a good race and a great start to the year. Then Sunday night I flew back out to Colorado to go back to work.
Next up for me was the CSM Oredigger classic which consisted of a 4.5 mile TT up Lookout Mountain and a 2K circuit race. Since I go uphill like rocks swim, I decided not to do the TT and just go for the circuit race, but our long lost teammate Zach Watson came out of hiding and did a great ride for 10th with a time of 19:07:40 ( for the record I would still be climbing it).
The circuit race was not flat!! I don't think they like flat courses here. It was very technical, probably one of the hardest courses I have done. My plan was to stay up front out of trouble, avoid crashing on the descent (because we've had too much of that on the team lately), try not to get dropped on the climb and somehow find a way to fake myself into a split. From the gun I got into a 3-man break and we stay away for about 10 minutes but we never cut the elastic. As soon as we got caught Zach makes a monster attack and starts the winning move with 3 other guys that are all on the same team (oops). They get 30 sec off the front and start working him over until he gets popped off. While he is having fun up the road with these guys I get into a 4-man chase group (a THF guy and 2 HART racing guys). I see Zach up the road by himself so I stop working the chase because the 3 guys in front are gone, and I want Zach to get 4th. This is one of my favorite positions to be in; I don't have to do any work! And usually the guys I am with get mad at me for not working with them but they get over it. I sat on the chase, Zach stayed away for 4th and I won the UPHILL sprint for 5th. I am happy with these results. I got the chance to work with Zach and the altitude is not hurting me as bad. Next up is the Tokyo Joe's crit this weekend. I would really like to win while I am out here so we will see!
Josh
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