Spot on Duncan!! But I saw all App State field DNF!! I was surprised
On 07/05/2011 14:56, Fastest Fat Kid wrote:
The road race started at the top of what must be the only hill in Wisconsin so after getting the call up for Western Virginia University we did the most aggressive neutral roll out (someone wrecked...) to the mid point of the decent to pause momentarily for the start. Once the officials turned us loose it was a short sprint up a roller and then a death defying sprint down a sandy/gravel covered hill. Why they couldn't get the state to sweep the hill we'll never know but it did result in one guy going into a ditch and breaking off his fork while at the same instant the rider in front of me decided not to make one of the turns and went off the bank where he managed to break his pelvis. The lap consisted of 12 miles with 3 climbs, two moderate and a final major climb at the end of each lap. Despite all expectations, I stayed comfortably in the field on the first two climbs but had to engage the gentleman's slide for the major climb. I almost stayed in contact but found myself with about 5 other guys just out of contact with the field as we crested the hill. Despite a valiant effort, there was no catching the field so we settled into a tempo and began picking up other dropped riders. The second lap was rather unorganized as riders would come back to our chase group, hang on, then immediately get dropped. The third lap went about the same but with much more order since anyone we caught was immediately shelled from our group. At the start of the 4th lap we, now just myself and a rider from Arizona who could hold my wheel over the climbs...yeah, that's right, I was beating the chase group up the hills, caught a large group consisting of about 8 riders including navy and Pitt. Pitt was informed that he could eat shit. for a lap and a half we rode rather uninspired, besides myself, Arizona, and Navy, nobody seemed to care about riding as if they were at nationals. Navy and I got away over the major climb and rode tempo thinking the rest of the group had DNF'd until we saw the group catching us. We then made plans to attack the group in the event they again gave us a gap over the second climb. The group was indeed kind enough to let navy and I ride away (it should be noted that at this point, Pitt got dropped by WVU) so we put our heads down and went to work, catching a rider from Notre Dame at the bottom of the final climb which now included a sizable accent to the summit. We started picking off several riders including one from Fort Lewis who was weaving back and forth on the hill and another who gave up and started walking his bike less than a quarter mile from the finish line, what a great nationals attitude. In all we caught 6-7 people in the last mile of the hill. I was able to beat Navy near the top of the hill placing me solidly in 95th out of 150 riders.
