ah yes, the frozen road race. started off rather chilly but warmed up. even in the sun however, i found myself wanting for a good warm coat.
after the circuit race, ian's lead was essentially untouchable. michael emde could potentially catch him but he'd have to win and then ian would have to finish lower than 7th place; an unlikely scenario.
the race was short, only 60 miles and basically flat and rolling. the typically strong winds are a big factor and the race rarely finishes in any semblance of a pack of riders. today would prove to be no different.
i followed a counter by one of emde's teammates and a group of 4 formed off the front. derrik archibald bridged to us handily and we dropped one of the others. we proceeded in this fashion for 30 or so miles until i discovered that i had a flat (a slow leaker, which was probably the source of my feeling like junk for the preceding 10 miles). there was no wheel car, but it came shortly and i got a fix. i thought the guys were waiting for me....i was wrong. more on that later. i chased for about 10 more miles and finally sat up for the group behind me. it was ian, mcdirmid and andy schultz with emde sitting on. we organized and made a furious chase. we brough the lead down from 2 minutes to about 20 seconds but we just didn't have it. i was pretty much cracked at that point from being in a small break in the wind, solo in the wind and then hard charging in another small break, in the wind. ugh.
so, about that flat. first off, i'm just callin' it the way i see it. i'm a gentleman racer. if i'm in a group with respectable riders with a large lead on the field, i'll wait for a guy who flats. i like level competition and tactical riding. flats, in my opinion, shouldn't decide races. i want to win on cunning and fitness rather than luck. but that's me. when i got my flat the guys knew. archibald rode up to the lead car to let them know so that the wheel car could come up, which was a decent thing to do. but after i got my wheel swapped out i looked up and they were gone. i rode a steady 25-30 mph in pursuit thinking i'd catch them quickly since they were probably waiting and rolling sub 20 mph. i was so wrong. i was bringing them back, but not nearly quickly enough. at one point the road doubled back and i could see them about 45 seconds or so ahead with archibald drilling it.
i talked to archibald afterward and he said "we waited for 'a minute'" (clearly the proverbial minute) and decided to go on because he needed to "take advantage of that". well, if that's what you have to do, i don't know. i just know that if the roles were reversed, i'd not have done that. and that dissapoints me. its a different story if the gap is a tenuous 30 seconds over the pack, but we had a comfortable lead.
somebody pointed out that i jumped archibald in the circuit race after he worked the whole time chasing my teammates in the break. well, duh. that's tactics. that's the point. flat tires are not tactics.
bottom line, they all took advantage of my bad luck. that sort of thing comes around though. as i wrote about the ranier roubaix, i suggested sitting up for campbell after he crashed. well, no more favors from this guy. but it wasn't just archibald. pruitt, who'd been sitting on found it in his best interest to take a few pulls.
incidentally, had i finished in the break of three and mcdirmid not had to chase (cause we weren't racing for third like another rider sitting on us) i'd likely have moved up to 3rd or 4th and mcdirmid held onto second. big impact, that decision to attack my flat.
