After working every day last week I decided to skip the festivities at Hyde Park and rest up for the Proctor Cycling Classic on Sunday in Peoria, IL. The race was a 90 minute affair with two very long straights. It was extremely windy. The wind almost took the 404's out. The plan was to do the exact opposite of what I usually do and be patient and not play my hand until the end. However, the IS Corps boys launched attack after attack from the gun. Eventually Kyle Jacobson got a sizable gap. Jeff Schroetlin decided to go after him and I thought he was way too dangerous to let him go up the road. I followed and we immediately got a nice margin and caught Jacobson. We soon dropped him but he was out in the wind for a couple laps before we got to him. Jeff and I continued to roll and opened up an insurmountable lead. Every time the gap started to come down he would go to the front and drill it. The guy is very strong. I have to give props to my Nuvo teammates for riding tempo in the field and covering attacks. Eventually Jeff and I almost lapped the main field which would have been nice seeing as I had teammates that could have helped. However, Jeff did not want to catch and I did not want to bury myself to get up there and have him ride away from me. I led out the last lap and was not sure how I was going to win. He jumped with two corners to go and I could not follow. I had some speed just not enough to overtake him. I finished 2nd again. Just call me Mr. 2nd place or top 5. I have to have faith that the W will come, but it is obviously something I am doing. I need to close one of these out. I keep putting myself in position to win but cannot be the first across the line when it matters the most. I feel awesome and have some legs I just have to get the job done!
Lots of racing coming up though with Superweek, Bloomington Crit, and the Tour D'Burg.
Here is a nice write up from the local Peoria newspaper.
http://www.pjstar.com/sports/x931209964/This-time-first-is-first
Hopefully some pictures will follow shortly.
2 comments:
“In order to win you have to risk losing,” stated Ketterer. Dude that won the 50-54 MasterNatz RR, believe it if you need it.
Ride for Verizon, friends with Weaver and Lantz, from Columbus, I think we met through Mario a few years ago.
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