Palmer cat 3/4 - Roy Van Cleef - 4-30-07
The crew:
Scott Brooks
David Chiu
Roy Van Cleef
Oscar “The Fern” Jimenez
Gio Marzot
Julian Gent
Jay Francis
Justin Howe
John Broussard
Dave Rizzo
Another day not much unlike the day before from a meteorological standpoint. Overcast, about 60 degrees and not much wind. Palmer is a large 20 mile loop on some big roads but beautiful scenery. The course seems to descend gently for 10 miles and then rises gently again for 10 miles and the finish is on a slight climb of about 3%. Our field was huge with 144 riders pre registered. I was to save myself for the final sprint and the rest of the gang would chase down or initiate any breaks. Needless to say that I had a good time enjoying the scenery and chatting to other riders in the middle of the pack.
I did notice Nebc jerseys going off the front on occasions and I think Dave R, Dave C, Jay and Scott all partook or started breaks at one point or another. Some highlights were: Not having to pedal for 5 miles at 45mph on the long downhill and riding over the rumble strips just for the novelty of it. At one point I got a little scare as I saw a group of about 10 riders go off the front and I tried to move up a little but they were soon caught. There were also 2 crashes during the race but I have no idea what happened and just heard them. In the final 10 miles I slowly moved up through the field and it seems like everyone else had the same idea and there was occasional bumping. Then with about 3 miles to go Scott drifted off the front on his own and I was about 10th wheel. The pace hadn’t increased much with only a mile to go and Scott was still up the road about 100m. Around the final turn I was 5th wheel and we accelerated hard up the hill and caught Scott at the 1km to go sign. The riders ahead tired pretty quickly and began to fade with about 600m to go. Then a rider attacked on the left and I jumped on his wheel. Again he began to tire and a ccb rider went on the right so I chased after him with 300m left. I saw the line ahead and accelerated with about 150 to go and a CLnoonan rider came past me on the left. Sanwiched between them I slowly reeled in the inches, willing my bike forward past the ccb rider. I could see his frame slowly moving backward against mine with the line coming fast, but it was too little, too late and we all finished within half a wheel of each other. CLnoonan, ccb then Nebc.
Next time…..