Leon Basdekas, Wente RR, 35+ 5

My goals were just as Stan described-- stay upright and have fun. Mission accomplished! My strategy was to hang with the lead group and then try to hang in the pack and recover, I started calling it "hang and hide". Justin did a great job of describing our race so I'll just add a few notes from my perspective. The first climb was very tough and I was thinking I couldn't hold the pace long but was able to hang and make it over the major climb. I was glad to see Justin made it over and from there the rest of the first lap was mostly uneventful. The second time through the climb was tough again and I saw Justin fading and was thinking that would be it for him. I was able to hang through the climb and then at the bottom imagine my surprise when Justin came up beside me panting like a dog on a hot summer day. Awesome effort to catch back on! Justin didn't give himself enough credit, that guy is a fast descender and has a never give up attitude. So as the race progressed down to the highway that runs north there is a short hill. Well the group slowed way down so I figured that I would go up front for a token pull and speed things up a bit as my legs had recovered pretty well and hoped to maybe take a bit out a few others that were hurting. Well nobody would pull through after that I eased up and everybody stayed behind me. So I just settled in and rode tempo for a bit. It was actually kind of fun being on front for a bit. After passing through the start area I slowed to stretch my calves and finally people started to come around and I settled back in the pack. The pace really slowed after a bit and just by the group morphing I found myself on front again at and easy pace so I figured I would take it up again. We went through a few areas with slight inclines and I could hear the guys behind me saying things like "oh no here come the hills again" That was my cue to lift the pace a tad. After we made the right turn to "the climb" I started increasing the pace and shortly after that the guys started to come around me. I was trying to hold the pace while looking for Sandrine with my bottle (I carried two and got a new one on the last lap) I spotted her and waved and it was a perfect handoff (Thanks again Sandrine and Lauren, you rock!, It would not have been the same race without that bottle). After we got dropped Justin was hanging tough but cramped briefly I think it was just before a right hander and a small climb, I asked him what I should do he said go, so I did. Well not too long after that I thought I heard something, looked back and saw Justin chasing me so I eased up, the two man TT formed and we were off. Apparently he had to yell four times before I heard him. Did I say this guy won't quit!! He had his head about him keeping us on orderly pulls as we TT'd. We worked very well together. I was fighting cramps at one point and needed a quick stretch, and was really thankful for that extra bottle! Coming through somewhere near the start area we caught what we thought was our race pack but it turned out to be a pack of juniors soft pedaling and strategizing, that was a bit demoralizing but we pressed on. I was hoping we had a shot at top ten as long as we didn't get caught. Then we saw the Synergy guy and thought that passing one rider may make a difference if we were close to a top ten position. When we stared the the last climb I rode determined that I could catch him and closed on him as his teammates on the side of the rode were yelling at him that I was closing on him. I stayed about 20m behind for a few seconds to size things up when I caught a glimpse of the finish. I tried to shift quietly dropping a gear or two and gave it my all in a sneak attack. I went around him with enough speed where he couldn't jump my wheel, he would have to work to get it. I didn't know if he was there or not so I just kept my head down all the way through the finish line going across with a heart rate of 188 (1 below my max).

Lesson learned:

When people are hurting you on the climbs do not pull on the flats (even if you feel good)
Teammates can make all the difference: TT partner, lets you back into pace line, encouragement etc.

Thanks Justin for making it a great race experience.

Leon

p.s. Getting 9th was just icing on the cake...