Rolling into Somerset around noon there were strong winds and light rain falling. Temps were in the mid to upper 60's and I had a few painful flashbacks to last Saturday's painfest in Zanesfield. Teamroll: was well represented again this week with Marco, the talented young Andy (aka "kiltman"), Dan Tinderholt, Luca Braci (Dave C.), Josh Morrow, Mike Matrka,Farmer John and Cadillac George Conti. Andy also had a friend with him from Weslyan. Almost everyone from our team was sporting their new teamroll: kits and we received lots of compliments - Yes, they look that good!!!
After signing up and then sitting in the car waiting for the rain to die down, I mustered the stones to get out in the rain and get dressed. A group of us rolled out and hit the hills for a warm up ride and you could tell from the terrain that we were in for a tough, hilly day on the saddle.
Marco was sporting his sweeeet new shiny Kuota today and Cadillac George crossed over to the dark side with Marco, Andy and me and was riding his new compact crankset. There were probably around 30 or so riders overall so Tym started all the groups together. Fortunately as the race began the rain stopped and the sun came out. A few folks probably thought I was nuts putting on sunblock in the rain before the race began, but it was nice to have the protection after the sun came out. This was an epic course with lots of climbing. We had constant rollers and approximately 3-4 (maybe 5?) significant climbs per lap. The group stayed together until the climbing got tough and then everything broke up by category: the 2-3's were first off the front followed by the 3-4/masters and then the 4-5's. About halfway through the race I found myself in a group with Mitch Tallan from Torelli and the two leading 4-5 riders who were teammates from from West Virginia. Since we were from different categories and didn't threaten each other's positions, the 4 of us worked well together for the remainder of the race. There was a fairly tough climb up to the finish and I was able to cross the finish in 1st spot for the Masters.
Great weather, a beautiful course and a nice sized group to race with all contributed to a pretty nice day. Tym put together an awesome race today with plenty of police support at all the major intersections. Anyone who didn't come out to race Perry County today missed one of the nicest, most challenging courses on this season's race calender.
This should be a nice tuneup for next week's race in Wilkesville which is arguably the grandaddy of the season!
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