August 17, 2010

Ore 2 Shore

Fantastic weekend of bike racing again in Marquette. It's really one of my favorite places to go and race. The weather was perfect, lake Superior was warm, and the racing was tough.

It's been a few years since I made it to the finish but this year I made it back finally but missed out on the win by a bike to Travis Woodruff. 6 of the top riders coming into the last corner was nerve wracking, but a good move on the inside of Simonson and Guerra got me into a good spot coming out but just too far off the back of Travis's wheel to make up the ground.
The race itself was a mix between really hard, and somewhat easy as the finishing time was just a little slower than Matter's time from last year where he rode basically solo for 30 miles. This year we had a very strong group of riders, but too many people watching and scared to keep it going hard. Simonson was most aggressive and spent the most time on the front and when he was there, he was going hard. No one else either could, or wanted to keep it rolling if he wasn't and with guys like Derek Graham of Bissell in the group it's hard to blame anyone as it's more of a course suited for powerhouse riders. Still, it worked out for me and I was happy to go 2nd again for the 3rd time, one of these years I'll get it right.
Huge thanks to Mafia racing and Felt bikes for the equipment and support. Most of the guys this year were riding hardtails and I was quite happy on mine as we hit the climbs. Thanks again.

Ellie enjoyed a 3 hour nap on the way home, I didn't think it was quite fair but that doesn't matter I guess.

4 comments:

Justen Stracy said...

i see your signed up for race the lake. dont you have a mtn bike race to do!! are you racing the criterium on sat?

Jessica said...

Spectating is hard too.

~ Tandis ~ said...

Haha! That's a great shot of Ellie napping. What a peaceful 3 our ride.

Congrats on the race too :)

Anonymous said...

Matter didn't really ride solo for the last 30 miles, that young kid Mike Anderson was right behind him. He had some major bike issues too and I heard he had to ride standing up the last half of the race because of seat post issues. Props to Anderson if that was the case.