Watkins Glen Race Report

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Here are the race results


Team Big Horn Velo did very well. 33 riders did this race.

2nd 993 Jeremy Wickham M Standard 20-29 1:27:47

9th 997 Paul Kingsbury M Standard 40-49 1:27:51

10th 711 Steve Burdette M Standard 40-49 1:28:15

14th 988 Bob Nunnink M Standard 40-49 1:35:42

17th 987 David Prugh M Standard 40-49 1:40:14

20th 966 Brian Klotz M Standard 19-29 1:41:03

22th 975 Kent Goben M Standard 40-49 1:42:50

27th 974 David Schimer M Standard 50-59 1:51:47

First I want to say a big thank you to Dave Prugh for giving me a ride. The course at Watkins was 3.37 miles we did ten laps. There are 11 turns on this course and two decent hills. It was in the 80's and there was a strong wind blowing just as you climbed out of the boot. The pack took off from the get go. No feeling anyone out the hammer was dropped. Looking at the lap times you can see the pelaton imploded on the first lap. I did my best to hang on knowing any chance I had to do well was with the pack. I stayed on for almost 5 full laps. Learned a lot following Paul in the pack. He was obviously watching for crashes and I tried to follow his line and watch his gearing and shifting. Felt comfortable but being a rookie to this racing I stayed near the back. Not wanting to cause a crash myself. Rookie mistake I should have been more up front. A less fit rider dropped and the gap started. I yelled at Steve to get back on and tried to hook myself and Tim Carlson back on. No good we were off the back, Steve made it good job guy! He finished with the pack. I on the other hand spent the last five laps in time trial mode. I went aero and put my head down. Felt like quitting but I said think of this as training and finish this race. I ended up lapping at least 5 guys and I was only lapped by the damn rocket recumbent. The main pack never caught me. Every time I caught a person or a small group I tried to convince them to work with me but they always were too spent. Grrrr. Lots of drunken fans were in the infield. The guy with the megaphone on the back straight was a riot. I tried to treat him like a sprint point every time. Urging his group to cheer me and giving them a loud yell on the last lap. They had sent a runner to try and race me. Their cheer of amusement was worth the effort. I was thrilled with my finish. My average speed for the race was 21.12 Don't know about the overall series result. Heard Dave Schimer might have won his age group. Paul should have won his age group except for a scoring error the promoter refused to fix. The promoter was bad and I think we should all email him and tell him to clean up his act. I want food and water next year! So I am ready for the next race. There is a race in Albany on August 12th and I think I will try the Chris Thater crit on August 26-27. I also want to do the Highlander time trial on Sept 15th. Finally there has been some talk of organizing our own race next year in May and working on a more organized racing team. I am on board for both.