09-04-2005 by Jay Wynne
The Ohio State Road Race Championship at Malabar Farm near Mansfield has provided me with my best opportunity yet to do a race report. It was an absolutely beautiful Sunday and I had been looking forward to riding here in the Mohican Country all summer. I lived here for half of my life, and the best part of it was the beautiful scenery and hills. I was not disappointed.
Matt Lott and I arrived at the farm about an hour before race time, and for once there was ample time to mentally prepare and warm up. My only problem is I wanted to fill my water bottles and couldn't find where to do that. After riding around aimlessly for a little bit, I remembered the artesian spring at the Malabar Inn about a mile down aptly named Pleasant Valley Road. As a youth my parents would frequently take me to the spring, which spews out 52-degree water (crystal clean as far as I know), and I know many people in the Mansfield area who make the trek to fill their gallon jugs for drinking water. I told myself this water would give me the advantage I needed to wynne my first race
The cat-V race appeared to be a full field and the group was disappointed when the distance was reduced at the start from 40 miles to 30. Nonetheless we started up the hill and Matt and I assessed which riders appeared to be of the "stay clear of that guy" variety. It's a tough call to do the Cat V race as your desire to win a race is in constant conflict with your need to avoid explaining to your spouse and boss what it was exactly that made you believe it was worth it to risk your skin and bones in a group of 50 bicyclists going 25 mph. One guy in particular caught our attention, as he was riding a hybrid with straight handlebars. Matt said, "He's going down, no doubt." After the race, I saw him at the finish with blood on his chins, and surmised that it wasn't from scratching to relieve a bad case of poison ivy. The kid looked young, and I tip my helmet to him for making the step to racing. Here's hoping he learned from he experience and will work on some things as we all do.
Anyway, I was determined to conserve my energy this race, at all costs. I've made a habit of getting impatient in races, and either pulling the pelaton or recklessly attacking "just for kicks." I had taken part in a two man breakaway the day before in Valley City, in fact (that wasn't really an attack...I was just tying to catch up with the suv that happened to be traveling in front us, to let the guy know his 4 way hazards were on). Matt and I decided to try to stick together, But that strategy went by the wayside on the second lap when I dropped my chain mysteriously turning right onto Pleasant Valley. Fortunately it was a downhill grade and I was able to work that out while coasting, and bridge back up to the group. Matt had his chainring morph into a square on the hill, and lost us the second time up. The other Freewheeler that I saw in the race was Matt Weeks, who I had met for the first time at the start. He also introduced us to a guy who was wearing a Zebra outfit, Scott. Matt W. pulled for at least half of the race, and spent he entire time in the top 5 of the race. The pace wasn't particularly fast, but whatever it was, he was the guy setting it, along with a guy from Orrville, Brent Warner.
This race was destined for a bunch sprint, so I spent the entire race preparing for that. A couple of flyers were not successful, and Ted will be proud to know I wasn't one of them. As we approached the final turn, about 150 yards from the finish, I sat in 5th or so behind the Orrville guy Warner. I hit the pedals on the turn, and to my chagrin, so did everyone else! But I had a lot of power and momentum and Warner was leading me out to the right side of the road. Unfortunately as we hit the 50 yard point I was staring at the steel finish line sign dead ahead and my tires were riding on the cinders along the road side. I yelled an instinctive expletive as I hit he brakes, realizing my hopes would not be realized, but somehow managed to finish third. Warner took second, and the Zebra won. Matt Weeks later told me Zebra was looking at joining the Freewheelers, so we may want to do ourselves a favor and take up a collection for a uniform. Just kidding, Scott Burdy (real name according race results) rode a nice race. I also wanted to let Brent Warner know I didn't mean to take my frustrations out in his ears, and I thought he rode a great race as well (he and Matt W. were the strong men). I am happy to take my first top 3 finish in a sanctioned event. Full credit goes to the fountain of youth.
The course was great, and it's a place where I'd love to do some group rides. There's a lot of hills and twisting roads in Richland County, and it's only an hour away. Anywho who's interested....let me know and I'll start negotiations for the time away from everyday life!