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Vance Creek Road Race
09 April 2005
Report by: Barry Campbell
It was a beautiful day as we drove toward Elma. Blue skies and sunshine. After an hour and a half of
driving, we drew within sight of the Elma city limits - and the enormous fog bank encasing it. "Well,
it's got two hours..." We got everything together and warmed up, then threw everything back in the cars
and headed for the start. Which was delayed by about 20 minutes, due to some logistical problems with
a maintenance crew and some of the parked cars. Then a neutral rollout, delayed by somebody flatting,
while we crawled along at 6mph waiting for them. Finally, we were racing, just as we hit the base of
the hill. My heart monitor graph looks like I got shocked back to life, from about 80bpm to 170 in
seconds. At least the hill wasn't too bad, three or four rollers with flat to slightly downhill sections
between them - until the sharp right hand turn onto a 12 percent wall, at the 200m sign. Fortunately,
that was only 30m or so long, and then flat to the finish.
We headed down the backside of the hill on the first full lap, to discover the wind that would complicate
things all day. It was blowing hard out of the west, and almost everywhere except the uphill was exposed.
On the way down the hill, on a sweeping left hand turn at 40mph, we would come out from behind some trees
into the teeth of a 15-20mph headwind. That gets a little scary. The flat section was narrow and consisted
of basically 200m to 1km straight sections, with 90 degree turns. Let's see, crosswind, crosswind the
other way, headwind, crosswind, crosswind the other way again... The only spot we had a tailwind was the
main road past the staging area, which promptly turned right, into a crosswind again.
Aurora was up to their usual tricks, although this time Byrne was sending people off the front, too. Shawn
and I chased breaks, mostly for fun, since they weren't going to stay away, anyway. I felt like I did my
part keeping things together, though, and I got some good jumps and hard chase efforts in, which I needed.
J and Wilbur mostly stayed in the group, although they occasionally tried to get into some of the bigger moves.
As we got to the top of the hill to begin the second lap, an Old Town rider took Shawn's line through the
sharp turn, pushing him into the gravel. He jumped off and ran up the hill, in time to watch the pack
rounding the corner 200m ahead. He chased valiantly for most of that lap, but the flat section is no place
to gain ground solo with all the wind, and he abandoned at the top, electing to wait for us at the finish.
Just into the third lap, the same Old Town rider tried to take my line after we had already
gone around a corner. At least it was a different corner. The guy next to me yelled at him as I was going
through various body and bike manouvers to stay upright.
We chased down the last solo break on the flats just before the last time up the hill, and started up it all
together. I moved toward the front, as small groups kept trying to go, and I chased down one of those as
well. As we approached the bottom of the last roller, I was moving up toward the front after having pulled
the group back to the break, so I carried my momentum and rolled off the front, just to see what would
happen. I was already pushing LT, so I knew I'd never sustain any gap, but I figured I'd make them chase
me a little, anyway. Soon enough, the pack swarmed by, J and Wilbur in the first 5 or 10 to go by. I sat
up in satisfaction, feeling like I'd put them in a good position, then watched as the pack swarmed by them,
too. I guess we need to work on hilltop finishes. Wilbur finished in 27th, J in 31st, and I was 33rd.
At least it was a fun race, and I felt like I got some good work in...
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