Over 100 years ago, some sick sadistic Belgian decided that the best time of the year to have bike races is when the weather can be the most variable and dramatic. Ergo the Ohio Spring Series follows this tradition and two sundays ago this was yet again the case. The race time temperature was about 55 degrees and there was a light rain on and off the entire race. There are pluses and minuses to this. You need less water, but your tan lines suffer. Michael and I were lamenting how we look rather pale yet we’ve been racing consistently for nearly two months. To the non-spandex clad, tan lines are avoided or just ignored. For the cyclist, a painted on leg tan and glove/jersey tan lines on the arms are major badges of pride. Ye,s we look ridiculous when at family picnics and at the pool. Not nearly as silly though, as when we’re wearing our cycling costumes.
This week’s race course was a very fun one. Wind was present but tolerable, a few rollers, a beautiful screaming descent through a river valley and a decent hill right at the finish line. Hungry was well represented by Anne, Zach, Matt, Alex, myself, Michael, and Mr Tee Gambel, making his maiden voyage on his new Felt FC. Matt H and Zach pack finished in the 4s, Anne got 5th in the women’s 1/2/3, and in his first race of the year, Tee raced in the 5s.
As for our race, we had 8 laps covering 58 miles or so. We had one guy break off a third of the way and win the race over a minute in front of us. He has a pretty sweet name, Gabriel Moss Masaquiza. I’d keep an eye on that one, he’s a junior at OSU and was a cat 5 a few months ago. Personally, I rode a rather stupid race. I had a rough couple of days and wasn’t feeling myself. I worked way too hard and chased down pretty much anything that went (minus said Gabe). Finally Mike Schena from BSM took off and a few of us joined him for a definitive breakaway on the last lap. We held off the peloton and ended up battling for second. As a result of aforementioned dumb riding, my legs were zapped on the last hill and I limped over the line in fourth. Schena rode really strong, a welcome addition to the 3’s. Michael Chewning was not far behind in 8th place but honestly he could have ridden a mountain bike, for had already won the series overall at that point. Check out the link below for the Garmin data.
Untitled by asuchocki1 at Garmin Connect – Details.