TOTV Final Day

I didn't know Youngstown is so close to Chardon. I drove out 322 East to Route 11 and South to downtown Youngstown in about 1 hour for the downtown Sunday morning crit.

The Cat V race was running by the time I was dressed and signed in, so there wasn't much chance to check out the course. I rode around a little on the sidewalks and got the general sense of it. Closed course, totally flat, wide turns, minimal wind. The pavement on the back stretch of the course was the only concern. In places, it made the concrete of the Westlake course look smooth.

The Cat V race was over in the blink of an eye, and we lined up immediately. I went to the front from the starting whistle and rode an easy tempo through the first couple of turns.

The race was pretty smooth. A couple of riders attempted to get away, but the field shut them down immediately. I held position really well and just waited for the officials to switch from a timed race to 5 laps to go. I moved up to the front with Chris and we were in an ideal position.

As the laps counted down to zero, Dave Thornton (Team 53x11) took a flyer on the back stretch. The field reeled him in with two laps to go and started to slow way down since nobody wanted to work prior to the sprint. Just as he was getting caught, I began my move up toward the front, and was overtaking riders really quickly.

I decided to really go for it. In the best case, I get away and race to victory. In the worst case, I blow up after a long pull, but string the field out and prevent attacks from other riders, and maybe Chris can get a good result. Also, I hate the rolling trackstand finishes to races. It's dangerous and it drives me crazy.

I blasted along and dug pretty deep to make it to the start finish line at the head of the race. It was probably about 2 mph too hard to try to make it the whole way, or about 30 seconds too long for me to recover. I popped, watched the field go by in a haze, then just rolled around for the last lap.

There was a crash and Chris got caught behind, so we didn't get a good result, but we both stayed off the ground and did a pretty good race as a two man team. The rider who crashed was taken away in an ambulance, but didn't appear to be seriously injured. Hopefully he'll recover quickly.

Chris placed 10th in the GC on the strength of his win in the day 1 TT and strong showing in the RR.

Many thanks to the organizers, volunteers, and officials. This was a fantastic event. I hope it's on again next year. If it is, I'll definitely find a centrally located hotel and spend the weekend in the Valley.