The Long Awaited Belt Race Report

Hey Y'all. Sorry about the delay, but here is a nice, little report, courtesy of our own Jeff Twohig, recounting the day's events. Jeff took second in the Cat4/5 road race last Saturday and Five Valley Velo posted strong standings again. Way to go boys!

Jeff wrote: When I showed up for the RR with Kyle and our fresh legs, from not doing the TT, we were informed that Willie had rode a great TT (Willy took 2nd). Since he had the best shot at the overall (Omnium), Willy would be our protected rider for the day.

With the wind at our back on the first stretch out of Belt we cruised the first few miles of the race with Steve Zellmer (4th in TT- NRO), Kyle, Howard Williams (Great Northern Cyclery), Tamara (NRO) and myself up front. Andrew, the Mountain biker from Missoula, launched an attack on an early climb. With nobody giving chase, he managed to open up about a 1/2 mile gap. This gap was closed a mile or 2 after heading into the back stretch with the fierce head/cross winds.

After a few minutes of slow pace and no action, Miles and Tamara Attacked into the stiff wind and stretched out the peloton into single file. Guys were trying to find any draft they could. Once Miles and Tamara got caught, I decided to counter attack from about 7 spots back, at about mile 15. By the time I passed Tamara I had a good head of steam, put my head down and hammered into the wind.

I looked back after 3-4 minutes, expecting to see the peloton right behind me. To my surprise they were a good 200-300 yards back, so I continued to push. Knowing I had teammates to block or sit in, I pushed as hard as I could to make the other teams work. However the wasn't much willingness to chase a solo break early into the race. At the turn the peloton was about 3 minutes back, and I thought, "I might be able to stay away".

After the turn, Brian Fryckman (GAS) , another GAS rider and 2-3 others pushed hard to chase in earnest. I know Kyle, and Travis worked hard to keep Willy with the chase group, but the chase group got away. Just before the top of the last climb, having gapped the remaining chasers, Brian caught me and created a gap for himself. My 18 miles off the front had come to an end.

Working together to insure 1st and 2nd, Brian and I worked into the wind on the home stretch and with about 300 yards to go and Brian on my wheel, I asked my weary legs for one more good effort. I pushed down on the cranks, out of the saddle, but my legs told me we would be finishing second today...

Willy finished just off the podium in 4th Overall (9th in the RR) & I finished 6th (I should have done the TT!). Other finishing numbers were: Kyle (11th RR), Travis (13th), Ely (17th) and juniors Joel Kramer (2nd in 13-14yo) and Adam Cook (1st 17-18 yo). A job well done. I (ErikD) struggled the entire day and placed way down in the Cat3 Omnium. All I could think of was high school initiation...ouch.