Only 25ish riders ignored impending rain, started off at a manageable
pace, it took about 8 miles before someone decided to ramp it up. From
then on it was one attack after another from the Rasy boys. I think
there were 4 of them, but it seemed like double that. I tried to stay
towards the front without spending too much energy. One Rassy rider
was off the front, and Muse was making his way up so I stuck to him
like glue. The group caught the first attack and Muse countered
immediately. It was a half-hearted attack, so I didn't go with right
away only to see everyone go around me to catch him, and another rider
attack. As Muse reintegrated with us I asked him if he was feeling
good. He shrugged a no to me, only to jump again when we caught the
previous rider. That time I went with and around him. We were out for
a few minutes, but he wouldn't pull thru so I quit pretty quickly.
When the peleton caught us, the ensuing attack almost did me in.
Thankfully it was pretty short lived as well. About the time we rolled
thru the start/finish on the first lap one Rasy rider had gotten about
a 15 sec gap and finally everyone just let him dangle for some time.
It was nice watching him look back several times to see how we were
doing in relation to him with little change. After about ten minutes
or so, I found myself on the front so I decided that on the downhills
of the constant rolling roads
I would continue with a tempo pace then on the flats and uphills I'd
settle back in. After doing this a couple times, his lead was down to
5 seconds at most and I didn't feel like as a group we had done
anything too hard or special to bring him back. When it did all come
back together, it was not a real high pace, but everyone was single
file. All of a sudden I noticed two Colorbiotics guys ride up right
beside two Rasy guys who effectively kept them from getting out of
line. If it was intentional or not I don't know but I thought it was
such a good idea that I followed suit, blocking in a third. Rounding a
corner, we came into a right to left cross wind, and as I was asking a
DMOS rider to either hop in line ahead or behind me so that we could
ride the width of the lane to continue holding the attacks at bay, one
slipped away marking the beginning of the end. The race never really
slowed down from then on. A Colorbiotics guy got on the front and held
a pretty high tempo for a couple miles. On top of a hill we could see
the s/f line and I decided it was time for me to give it a go. Bombed
the down hill, and instead of falling back in a longer that expected
flat I just stayed on the gas. The road was marked at 1k to go, at the
bottom of a hill. Not a huge grade but definitely a difference maker.
Halfway up a small group swarmed around me and away they went. The road
flattened out where it was marked 200m to go. That helped me catch one
rider but not enough for anything else. Finished around 8th or 10th. Final numbers look like Avg HR 159, maxed at 191,
highest I've seen in a long time, avg sp 22.7 over 39.5 miles. - Travis Jass
Rose Festival Road Race Results
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Men's 4
1 Tony Muse, Rasmussen
2 Gavin Huseboe, Colorbiotics
3 Jason Berends, Team Aew Pl
4 Rick Noyes, Rasmussen
5 Jeff Osborn, Rasmussen
6 William Rekemeyer, DMOS
7 Jon Edgington, Colorbiotics
8 Jake Kuperman, University of Iowa
9 Travis Jass, Fort Dodge Trisport
10 Brian Soppe, HBA
11 Dustin Mans, Unattached
12 Jeff Long-McGie, Silver Cycling
13 Ryan Pesch, Colorbiotics
14 Dan Davis, DMOS
15 Bruce Timmerman, Chain Reaction/Free Flight