6/10/2007 by Rich Gould
It was a beautiful day in Youngstown on a great criterium course. The Category 4/5 team had a good showing (Rich Gould, Noah Gurney, Andrew Esterle, Doug Williams, and Russ Fogle) for the race. As a matter of fact, towards the end of the race I overheard someone in the back say, "there are a lot of rainbows in this group".
We worked very well as a team. There was a prime lap somewhere about the half way point. We had a couple riders at the front including Doug Williams. If you are familiar with the course there is a fast downhill followed by a tight right turn a steep climb and a few hundred meter flat finish. Doug strung the field out before the downhill. I wanted to lead Russ out to the finish. I moved up to the front and opened a gap through the downhill and right turn. I looked back and found myself alone. Doug was shouting at me to go...so I did. The rest of the team did a great job of slowing the pack through the final corner so I could make it to the finish...thanks Doug.
By the end of the race, the field was down from 25 to about 15 riders. All five rainbow jerseys were still there at the end. Our goal was to string out the field the last lap and get Russ or Noah positioned for the sprint. Doug and I squeezed up the right side as we crossed the line for the last time. I took the first turn and strung the field out for the first quarter mile, Doug took over for the next quarter mile +, but we missed the third pull. However, there was still a lot of rainbow at the front so we were able to keep some momentum. Noah was the best at the end and finished a nice third.
Hindsight being 20/20, I think we would have been better off on the last couple laps taking turns attacking. Worst case we could have tired out the stronger riders by making them chase at the end of the race. Our team made up a third of the finish field and I think one of us would have been able to stay away in the end.
All-in-all it was a great day of racing in Youngstown. I really liked the course and will definitely go back again.