Hail Purdue....The Road Race Report

Attacking, starting a break-away, and staying in the break for a bit is sweet. Nothing like the feeling of riding away from everyone, only to look back to see a big stretch of road between you and the field with one rider strong enough to stay on your wheel while fans on the side of the road are yelling at you to keep going hard because you've got a gap on everyone.

Making the break stick is a whole other story.

I found myself in this situation during the Purdue Road Race this past Saturday. The circuit is a 4 mile loop with a beast of a climb that makes you hate your body for being merely human and not some sort of mutant or android that is void of the ability to feel pain or fatigue. During the 4th trip (of 8) up the climb, I decided to put the hurt on everyone else. I popped it into the big ring and opened the throttle....it was pretty sweet feeling riding away like that and hearing everyone go crazy...running along side of me and screaming their lungs out. 

After the effort (that made me a little dizzy...I'm no super man) I looked back only to see one rider from Marian College, Isaiah...a real nice chap, on my wheel. I drove it for a bit, the with a flick of the elbow, he came through and started working. Sweet! Maybe we'll have a chance of staying away.

My youthful exuberance got the best of me though, and the ever realistic probability of 40 riders versus 2 got the best of us just in time to climb the devil hill again. I felt wonderful and strong in the break, but once we hit that hill, I seemed to go backwards, traveling from the front of the pack through to the back. I spent the next lap chasing back on. Thankfully, my power animal is a falcon, so I was able to fly like a madman down the descent and catch back on....too bad I caught back on just in time for the penultimate climb up the hill. Needless to say, the gas was out of the tank by then. 

Here's a picture of me finishing, I'm sure you can tell I'm not flying solo for the V. Although, I ended up only being a few seconds behind the lead group, so all-in-all, it wasn't a terrible result given the situation. I came away from the race happy and having had a lot of fun on one of the best road circuits in the Midwest.

I had enough time to give all of the fans on the side of the hill high-fives as I was finishing. They deserved a thanks for all of the support while we were racing. It was especially nice having my family and a lot of close friends there to watch me do what I love to do most. Thanks for caring everyone!

And a BIG CONGRATULATIONS to Chris Uberti for getting a no-questions-to-how-awesome-of-a-rider-he-is victory on the day. That kid's a cowboy!

Two last images that sum up the mood of the race. My friends never dissappoint.