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 3rd flag. Bit further,
the 3 rider peloton sprinted past John which again unbeknownst to John must
have been the 4th 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.
