Hellbender State RR

Once again, rode hard on Thursday and then long and slow on Friday, not the smartest preparation. I didn't sleep well the night before and the body was pretty tired as it showed on my heartrate monitor. I procrastinated and didn't even think I was going to go until the last minute and then totally mistimed how long it takes to get there. I thought it only took about an hour, only about a half hour off. I got there 20 minutes before the start.

After getting all the prerace stuff out of the way were off. The race starts with a long ascent, although not steep, it got the heartrate up. Shawn took over the pacemaking from the start of the gun and went out hard. We all followed him up for several miles before he finally gave way. It was pretty uneventful. After the only significant climb of the day we were still mostly all together and through the feedzone at 25mph. I figured it wouldn't be neutralized so I brought four bottles with me to do away with the feed.

The second lap starts with more aggressiveness as several riders attack. They never get too far and are all brought back. Then one attack goes away with several riders and it's represented with three or four teams, I tell Casey that this might be the one and he should go. He waits and prepares to launch himself and finally goes. He bridges the group of around five or six riders. Bigshark had a guy in the break and are also in front controlling the peleton, pretty content, as was I, Casey was up there so we were good. Suddenly, Shawn O'neal attacks the left side and he's bringing another group of riders with him so we give up the control and all latch on. It was a pretty big effort to catch the lead breakaway, but now we caught it. Moments later Jim V. attacks with somebody else and they get a pretty good gap. He's a pretty dangerous guy to let go like that so I take over to lead the catch. I pulled for a while giving it all I had before giving way and now we are all back together again. Now that we are all together. Mark G, from Gateway attacks and gets a very large gap, so far that he's out of site. I don't know much about Mark, but I do know he's 50+ years old and a wiley veteran, your typical masters type guy. He's up the road for quite a while. The make or break point is upcoming on the one tough climb, although after the Hermann RR it didn't seem quite as torturous as last year. It still hurt though. I made it up with the lead group, but am in some serious pain now. Denny unfortuneately is nowhere to be seen. After several more miles we catch Mark. Then repeated attacks come and I'm falling off the back, and having a hard time recovering. I'm finally the last wheel and losing ground until none other then Denny comes barreling past me. I yell at him to pull me up, but he's only got one thing on his mind, to catch the group. Casey hears me yell and slows and pulls me up to the group. I was a little pissed at the time that he didn't pull me up, but this is the second time he had to TT to catch the group after that climb and understand his focus.

Now that I'm back on the group is being continuously attacked and doing the yoyo effect, basically me. I'm the only one it seems to me to be in real trouble. It's taking longer to recover from each attack before I'm finally shelled. I wave the wheel truck to come on through and I'm demoralized that I didn't stay with the pack. I finally do recover and am resigned to the fact that I'll have to time trial it all the way back by myself. It was shaping up to be a repeat of last year after I crashed in the gravel driveway going around the sharp right hand turn. My legs are feeling pretty good at this point and am going at a pretty good clip. Then, like a kid in a candy store, I see the pack again and I'm gaining ground on them. I eventually rejoin the pack for the run into the finish. I ask Denny if he wants to try and lead out Casey and before I know it he's in the gravel passing everybody to the front. Only a centerline rule, right? Several guys are laughing their asses off and I'm just thinking he's nuts. Oh well, that's Denny!!! As we make the run into town we pacelined it pretty hot around the last corner and several guys shot out into the gravel, unlike Denny who does it intentionally. The final sprint pretty much finishes in the same order. I couldn't make any ground on the Mesa kid in front of me and I got passed by Mark at the line for 12th. Denny placed 13th, Jeff 25th, and wonderkid Casey got an awesome finish for Dogfish for second. This kid just keeps on finding ways to get results.

As for other Dogfish guys I know Denny's brother was leading the 5's before coming to the last turn and somebody pointed right so he went right. That costly mistake cost him what could have been a fist place finish. I think he ended up 15th, tough break.