This year, they decided to run the Spring Classic as two separate races, rather than a Stage Race. And they also eliminated the Time Trial. Randy reported on the first stage. The second stage was a criterium at Pioneers Park in Lincoln. Run as a separate race enabled the Cat 1/2's to double up on their races, since there was over 3-1/2 hours between them. Randy reported them "stealing our lunch money" on Saturday, and this trend continued even more so on Sunday than Saturday, since riders had to commit to one race on Saturday (since they all started within a few minutes of one another) but could double up for the Crits on Sunday. And this is what they did.
With the Masters 35+/45+/55+ "Open" Division Crits, you were allowed to race Masters, no matter what your Cat rating, as long as you were 35+. And due to minimal sponsorship of the race, all 3 age groups had to compete for the same 5 places overall. The Masters Crit on Sunday consisted of a stellar field of a handful of Cat 1/2's and mostly 3's making up the balance.
The winner of the Road Race, Chris Spence, took off with his teammate Joe McWilliams (both Cat 1's). I was chasing with the pack of 13-14 riders with less than 4 laps to go. At the base of the climb up to the finish, several riders went down in front of me. I thought I was clear but a wheel appeared in front of me at the last second and I went down. This year they had us using computer chips clamped to our front skewers. As I got up to remount, I saw my chip laying on the ground. It took me several seconds to finally tuck it into my jersey pocket (oh, I didn't tell you, that it was VERY cold and WINDY - in the low 30's - and I was wearing my heavy winter gloves!).
The pack disappeared up the hill at an alarming rate, so I chased. I found out later that Mark Brackenbury's bike sustained heavy damage and he was not able to continue. Don't know what happened to the other 1 or 2 guys who went down. With half a lap to go, I caught the pack, but was too pooped to contest the sprint to make it in the money. I ended up winning the 55+ category (beat Rich Pearson in the sprint) but only place 9th overall.
The top 6 Masters finishers, in order, were Chris Spence, Joe McWilliams, Jon Nelson, Marc Walters, Tom Price, Dave Rogers.
I missed not having any of my teammates with me in the race, but everyone had extenuating circumstances. My wife said that race director/announcer John Lefler said some nice things about my accomplishments as I tried hard to catch the pack. I didn't know this at the time, but she later told me that he announced that I WOULD catch the pack, so I'm glad I didn't let him down!
As I told Randy and Pete, the horrendous race conditions this weekend (especially Saturday) help make you mentally tough for future races. Also, I feel strongly that if racing is going to grow in our area, race promoters need to rethink how they structure events. This weekend was a classic example of how to discourage entry by more Masters riders, which is a faster growing segment of our racing community.
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