Lyndale Road Race - Carline reporting

Lyndale Road Race (June 12, 2012)

Conditions:  Windy, Sunny, and Buggy if not moving fast enough

Upon my arrival, infrequent Pete was the only rider at the site – this instantly caused a panic that we most likely missed some information about a course change.  To our relief, Jimbo showed up followed by Ed. 

The four Rotts prepared for the first road race of the year – Lyndale Course (measuring at 60,000 ft~11.4 miles per proportional extrapolation from Mapquest).  Jimbo verbally explain that he has just placed 5 sprint flags on the course but his body language said, ‘without Steve, John B, and George here, I plan on winning all 5 sprints and you can’t do anything about it’.  With that the four Rotts were off to the races with - at least for me - a singular goal of preventing Jimbo from clean sweep of all the sprints.

Race started with a strong headwind and at a casual pace.  At the uphill first flag, none could challenge Jimbo’s sprint prowess and John and Ed was left fighting for second with John nipping Ed.

Casual pace continued and at the slow inclining second flag, again none could match Jim and Ed and John was left for second with Ed nipping John.  Pete evidently was strategizing to take the back half.

Causal pace continued toward the roundabout and with half mile to go, John took off with dreams of separation and backwind at the turn to help maintain it.  The separation was maintained for the next 2 miles and unbeknownst to John through the 3^rd flag.  Bit further, the 3 rider peloton sprinted past John which again unbeknownst to John must have been the 4^th flag.

The group stayed together as they headed towards the last flag on the apex of the largest hill.  As the group approached the hill Jimbo noted that ‘this is a challenging hill and we’ll see who has the legs for it’ (i.e. ‘you ain’t got nuttin’).  With that Jimbo and Pete took off for the flag and evidently Pete did not do enough strategizing to prevent Jimbo from taking the final flag.

                      Finish  Hill     #1       #2       #3       #4       #5       Total Points

Jimbo             9                    3         3         1         3         3         22

Pete               10                   -          -         2         1         2         15

John               8                    2         1         3          -          1         15

Ed                  7                    1         2          -          2         -          12

Editors note:  Mr. Carline's report indicates that Jim beat Pete at the finish.   This mistake is understandable since Mr. Carline was a zip code behind the top finishers.  The points have been corrected.