08/31/02 by Team Summit
Another fine installment of TeamColumbus's series of Ohio Crits took place in Lancaster, Ohio on August 31. Like all of the Tour of Ohio races this race came complete with stage, announcer, a welcoming town, and the chance to race for a tidy sum of $$. The top bill for the race was the men's 3/4 race for which all the cat 3/4 men in the area should appreciate and give a huge thanks to Tym Tyler and his crew for throwing some bones to the little guys this year!!
Team Summit had one rider (Denis Osowski) in this event with the rest of the team cooling their heels for the big race in Windsor, Ontario the next day. In fact, it seemed that a lot of riders were cooling their heels too as the starting field sported only about 25 starters (give or take a handful). The only team with any significant number in the field was the Tri-Tech squad with about 5 or 6 riders.
Coming off of the 60+ fields of Tour of Ohio, getting good position off the gun was a simple task. Ironically, getting the good position wasn't really that important today on the atypical course selection by Mr. Tyler. It was a wide open, simple, four corner rectangle of 40 laps. There was a grade up to start/finish but nothing that would make you cry for momma.
The pace was downright sluggish at first with a few single riders trying some moves but being chased down quickly. A good looking move went away in the first 5 laps with 2 Tri-Techs and a United Dairy Farmer (UDF) rider (can't remember the name). Osowski bridged up to this one quickly but 1/2 lap later it was shut down as well. Somewhere between 30 and 35 laps to go Osowski made a hard jump just before turn four and forced the pace hard. Other riders then put in strong efforts and the move strung out the field creating a split that successfully put about 6 riders up the road. The remainder of the field broke apart for a few laps but then regrouped into a bunch of about 7 or 8 with the remainder of the entrants apparently calling in quits for the day.
With 30 laps to go Tri-Tech apparently kept the pace of the regrouped field low being content with having two riders in the field split up the road. They did such a good job that by 17 or so laps to go the leaders could see the them again and by 14 to go the lead group lapped the bunch and it was all together again.
A few primes but not much excitement later, the field approached 3 to go and Osowski figured it was time to try the field's determination with a hard attack into turn 4. The field was, however, very determined and obviously nobody was riding away from the group at this point in the race. Setting up for the sprint Osowski made the lead out move early between turns 3 and 4 hoping to get and maintain a gap up the start/finish straight grade. Things looked good until 50m out but then a poor gear selection (too high for the grade) left Osowski off the podium by a wheel length. The UDF rider won, with a Tri-Tech, and Saturn of Dayton rider finishing out the top 3. Another top three for Team Summit would have been nice but fourth was not hard to take!
Thanks again to TeamColumbus for another well done event!