9/17/03 by shawn adams
The race this report is on the The Subaru Challenge. This race was in Massillon on Saturday. There were only 4 freewheelers there, that's a shame because it was a well-run race that was 20 min from Akron. This race was a good opportunity to do a local road race instead of a 10 mile crit. The course was an 8.8 mile lap. There was one small hill and a technical finish. Josh, Ted and Kurt did the 4,5 race and I did the 1,2,3 race. The 4,5 race was 4 laps and the 1,2,3 was 7 laps. In the 4,5 race a break was formed on the second lap. Kurt managed to slip in to this move. Josh and Ted were happy to sit in and control the rest of the field because this was the only hot day of the summer. On the last lap Kurt took a wrong turn near the finish, but Josh and Ted work together and Ted managed to get 5th. In my race the first lap was fairly tame. The second lap was a different story. On the hill Brian Batke attacked I followed but everyone responded. On the third lap Brian had a small gap over the hill and Jeff Brauburger bridged up this started to detonate the field. I missed the move, but I thought that there was a small chance that we might get across to it, because there were 4 laps left. It turned out I was partly right. This first move had 8 people in it; on the last lap my chase group caught 4. In the finally Tris Hopkins jumped my group on the technical last corner and I won the field sprint for 6th place. Overall not a bad result. The first 4 were Jeff Brauburger 1st, Brian Batke 2nd, Zack Daranger 3rd and Jeremy Grimm 4th. RIDE ON..... Shawn