Eric Knuth pulled off a mid-week Trek Midwest Team victory at the Intelligentsia Cup Prairie State
Cycling Series Road race in Sharon, WI. He did so in classic style with a
solo attack 5k from the finish and held off a hard charging group that
finished only a handful of seconds later. The victor picked up a
nice winners jersey and a handsome cash prize.
The race was Wednesday July 17th at 1:10 pm with a
heat index over 100F. It was a small group but the racing was good.
There were some well-known guys such as Gene Tolli, Wayne Simon, and Mark
Swartzendruber making up a quality experienced group. The race started
out relatively easy as everyone was trying to assess how much the heat was
going to be a factor. A couple of early attempts were made with no
success.
Eric rolled off the front at 50 miles to go. He was hoping
for some help that never came and was solo for +10 miles until he was
eventually re-absorbed. Meteyer attempted a counter attack that
Gene joined in but it was shut down quickly. A few miles later a
two man break with M Swartzendruber was allowed to go up the road. It
worked its advantage to about a minute when teams and a few of the individuals
committed some horsepower to the front and worked together and reeled it back
in. One from the break refused to be caught and the pack kept him at a 30
second advantage until the final lap with 10 miles to go.
A
few more attacks were made that helped to soften the group. Meteyer
attacked at 7k to go and forced a chase that chewed up about 1.5 k. Soon
after he was caught , Eric made his move at 5k to go. The pack was
indecisive on the chase, I think they were hoping Eric would crack in the
heat. By 3k to go, Eric’s advantage was out to 20 sec or so. Still
no real chase but the lead out was picking up the pace and the gap was closing
as the sprinters were hoping to make the catch at the line.
But Eric was too tough, not giving into the heat and not giving
up. The pack was too little too late.
Eric crossed the line in
first with about 5 seconds to spare. It was a great effort and a
well-deserved victory in some really unbearable heat. It was a gutsy move
that took some real toughness to pull off. Way to go Eric!
Thanks for reading,
Mike Meteyer
Eric’s victory podium.
Meteyer working on his day off
