ESG Day 2

Today, was the tough one, right away we lost Wayne Luther to some food poisoning, and he is out for the crit also. He might be back for the team time trial. To top that off we lost Mike Luther halfway through the race when his chain broke. He walked it back to the feed zone and borrowed Bob De Roo's bike aka "the camel". After a pedal change it made t its first appearance ever at the games. It was quite the site to see Mike on that bike, considering how big he is and the bike was too big for him.

The race course was the Union Vale road course, minus the finish climb. The finish was a fast sprint finish just past the roundabout. Our team executed its tactics flawlessly. Our goal was to always have the numbers and be in control. Right from the gun Adam attacked, once he was brought back, Jay Jossyln hit the field hard. He was away and our team spent a few laps riding tempo, closing down some attacks. Peter Edge jumped away with another rider and made contact withe Jay, giving us 2 out of 3 in the break. We continued to ride tempo and cover any moves that were trying to be made. Soon another rider broke free of the pack and Matthis chased em down like a dog in the junkyard, grabbing him by the cuff and dragging him away. Matthis made contact with Jay and Peter, but they were having trouble, they soon came back to the group.

I must say that throughout the race at this point we were riding very well at or near the front, but one scrawny little climber from Hudson Valley was definately making it a very tough day jumping on every little rise and Ben Jamesson was doing a hell of a job covering his move every time.

With one lap to go; Adam attacked through the finish line and soon our scrappy little climber attacked taking Ben and an Adirondack rider with them, we know had 3 out of 6 up the road. John Roden and myself were holding the reigns in what was left of the peloton. I was feeling god awful at the beginning of the race but was ready to tear shit up of the break was caught. I was sitting in the drivers seat ready to go. Coming to the finish around the roundabout, I was in the wrong gear and shuffled back, I drove it hard to the front to get on John's wheel. John jumped hard with 200 to go and I jumped with him, but the sprinting legs weren't there, I fell out of his draft slowing and allowing 2 riders to nip me at the line. John took 9th (2nd in the field sprint). I took 12 (5th in the field sprint).

How did our boys up front fare? Ben gave it everything to cover an attack by the climber on the final climb and it cost him his legs for the sprint. He took home a well deserved Bronze after all his hard work, with Adam taking fourth and Mike Matthis taking 6th.

It was another good day for the Western team with 5 riders in the top 12, and we continue to hold our lead, although the Adirondack team jumped into second. It was some pretty poor sportsmanship on their behalf as the addy women swept the podium by some constant attacking through the feedzone.

Points race tomorrow, gotta get some rest.