Turtle pond cat 3 - Roy Van Cleef - 4-23-07
the team:
Roy Van Cleef
Scott Brooks
David Chiu
John Broussard
Gio Marzot
Julian Gent
What a beautiful day for a race. The temperatures quickly rose to the upper 50’s by our 9 o’clock start time and most riders had already shed their arm and leg warmers. We had 5 laps of an 11 mile loop to look forward to with a nice 250ft climb to change up the rhythm each lap with the finish 150m beyond the top of the hill on a gently down hill.
Things were pretty fast on the first lap with the CL noonan kids taking the lead and occasionally sending riders off the front but not far enough to cause any concern. Scott was right up there with them and even went off the front himself a few times but the pace was pretty high and nothing stuck. I stayed about 20 riders back and enjoyed the scenery, trying not to work too hard each time up the hill. Unfortunately Gio flatted on the 1st or second lap.
There was a crash just behind me mid way through the race and my wheels got bumped and my foot came out of my pedal but I managed to stay upright. I think it was around lap 3 that Dave started to be quite active near the front and Scott was still up there hammering away, keeping the breaks in check. I poked my head up there once or twice but decided it was too windy and joined John about 15 riders back. On the 4th lap Dave took a big pull to chase down a break and wasn’t quite able to stay with the group up the hill.
On the final lap the pace slowed and a rider went off on his own with about 5 miles to go. It still did not increase and I was able to creep up to about 5th wheel. It still wasn’t fast and no sign of the cl noonan posse. Going in to the final sharp turn with 1km to go I was still about 5th and could see the lead rider up the road. The pace increased to the base of the hill and the climb began but no real attacks as yet. With about 200m to the top I was at the front. We had nearly caught the lead rider as he was fading fast (but a great effort to stay away on his own that nearly worked). Suddenly an orange guy attacked and everyone just watched him go. I felt good but didn’t want to go too early as I knew there was still the flat section up top to sprint. With about 150m to the top and mr orange 30m ahead I jumped and went hard up the hill. I caught him just as we crested the hill and looked back but no one had followed me and we had about 30m on the field so I just sat behind him and relaxed a little, changed to the big ring, then with 100m to go I got up and sprinted past him to the line.
Scott, even after slaving away at the front all race managed to finish in 8th place and John wasn’t far behind.