After the time trial, Mike and Greg were well positioned in the standings, 4th and 5th respectively, with GDVC rider Dean Lazenby taking 1st (he recently finished 6th at Nationals in the time trial!).
The circuit course suited our team racing style of attacking as it had a 9% finishing hill which we would pass 7 times during the race. We decided to wait until the 4th lap to 'start" the race as we wanted to see if others were ready to play. Needless to say we rode the first 3 laps as a group (no one came out to play!), and then the 4th time up the finishing hill Mike went hard, opening up a gap over the top with just Eric and 2 others (including the first and second place finishers from the time trial) able to follow. We monkey'd around a bit allowing two others to bridge up, and then the 6 of us were off. As seems to often be the case in a lot of masters races, 3 of the 6 in the group did not want to work, despite our cajoling them to do so. We opened up a big gap with John, Greg, and Jim blocking, and started plotting for the last lap. With a little less than half a lap to go, Dean (GDVC) attacked, Mike and Eric hesitated responding waiting to see if the others would chase him down, and with no response Mike set off after him. Given Dean's time trial prowess, the gap was now too big to close, and Mike was brought back to the break away group. Eric attacked twice in the last stretch forcing the others to chase (with the intent to soften up the guy currently in 2nd place overall), with the last attack leading to the finishing hill. Mike and Dave Stone (Scarlet Fire) went mano-y-mano in the sprint with Mike just missing out on second (see pic - he also had to get around a lapped rider from another field!). Eric took 5th (of course beaten by all the guys but one who did not contribute to the break!), and Greg, John, and Jim finished with the field.
After the circuit race, Mike was in 3rd place for the overall, and Eric was in 5th. The goal for the road race was to get Mike into second (first was out of reach at this point), so as the team mathematician, Eric went to work developing several algorithms as well as booking time on the Cray super computer to determine how the race had to play out to make it happen. Simple enough, all calculations led to the same conclusion: Mike had to win! The road course consisted of three 18-mile laps, with each lap including 4 challenging climbs (3-5 minute climbs). On the second climb, Dean (GDVC) went really hard, with Eric on his wheel, and Mike letting a gap open to see if Dave Stone (Scarlet Fire) could follow. When Dave could not respond, Mike bridged up and a 3-man break was underway. We went hard the rest of the first lap trying to establish a big gap, and got it up to a minute after the first lap, over 2 minutes after the second, and as it turned out, 8 minutes by the end. Fast forward to the final climb of the last lap, Dean drives the pace dropping Eric at the final pitch of the climb, but Mike is right on his wheel. The motorcycle official reminds Eric to get up there and help his teammate, but the official is unwilling to let him draft behind his motorcycle! On to the finishing straight, Mike launches his attack at the final corner and sprints to victory and to second in the omnium!!
It was a great weekend of team racing, and we were also so lucky to have the support from our beautiful podium girls.
Although the official podium pictures seemed to take forever as we waited for the final results, we did have a good time waiting on the podium!
