spanish lake, 2007 swan song

being the last race of my super short season, i have been targeting spanish lake as sort of a mini peak. i really wanted to end the 2007 race year with a great result.

it started out very ominously, with clouds and lots of rain on the radar. no rain at the race, though. and things looked up as a few of the areas best riders showed. eric p, plochmaster, and travis from down under (cape girardeau, sp?), as well as some of the usual suspects. i think the women's class had as many racers as we did, though. at least we had quality, if not quantity.

ep, on the lightest bike i have seen in a while, rocked our little world with a start from the middle 1990's. i hung on as long as i could, with ploch and travis in tow. we lost eric, and the three of us started a strange game of hot potato with 2nd place. travis, with his youthful enthusiasm, bounded off, only to come back several times. chris went off the back momentarily, and of course came back. since eric was having his own private time trial up front, i saw no reason to pull around superior riders, and used their momentum and draft when i could. when the last lap came, travis again caught us, passed us, and then fell behind again, only to reattach. strange, but it made for some interesting jockeying. with less than half a mile to go, i took the front, waited for a slow section, then launched my finish line attack. the guys were slow to respond, and i took it in for 2nd. i was quite pleased, and certainly aware that this time last year i was more than 3 minutes behind chris at the same race.

i really owe my turnaround to my support crew. my wife and children do everything possible so that i can race. and my friend and coach, dan. i couldn't pay a coaching service enough money to give me the hands-on (hand-holding is more like it) guidance that i get from dan. of course, i'm not training to be a pro rider, or even a national class amateur...but when you're just trying to be as good as you can be, whatever that is, it helps to have people who care.