Henleyville Road Race September 24, 2011 Men’s 45+1/2/3 Masters
Henleyville Road Race is not a race that you need to warm up for. So after John and I got our numbers pinned, we went down the road to just spin a little. As we went by the start/finish, I waved and said Hi to Jason Arrino (35+), not knowing that at the time, the officials had combined our fields. Well, once John and I turned around and started back. Atac rode by, and said our race had started! A Velo Promo race on Time?!? Well the chase was on! Luckily they started slow and we caught them in a couple kilometers.
- Fred Schnarrs climbing in an earlier race this season
Because of the field size, the race was on the timid side so there were few attacks and counter attacks. Nothing seemed to be able to go up the road. I commented to Steggall that we needed Big (Chris Bowlus) here to stir things up.
At one point John, “I can't race because I'm out of shape,” Steggall took off, and got a good gap on the field. I was controlling the front, and at the time couldn't figure out why no one went bridge across. Finally Jason (35+) went, and I let the gap open. Then Jan and Robert (Safeway) went, and I thought to myself... Finally!
If they could get together, I knew they'd be gone. Well, Joe (Wells Fargo) saw this, and came up and pulled the group back to the break (Darn!). Anyway, this cat and mouse game continued for the rest of the race. My downfall came when I missed the third feed... At the time I still had fluids and knew I'd be okay for another lap. WELL! as we came back around on the last lap, Velo Promo had pulled most of the feeders and, as always, we came by at speed and I missed it again!
- John Steggall when he was “in shape”
As we were coming into the final 10K I could feel a slight cramp coming on. Generally, not a big deal in that I can usually ride through them. John and I were sitting patient as the kilometers were ticking by. He asked when he should go, and I said if you do, keep it at least till the 1K sign. John got pinched, and couldn't move forward, and next thing you know were coming at the 200m sign fast. I had put myself on the left side knowing that when we hit 200m, we went to open road. Now here's the part for me that was very frustrating: I should have won this thing! Well, when we hit the gas my legs, in the first time that I can remember, said, "We don't think so!" I stood to sprint, and the cramps hit me full bore! My legs were misfiring all over the place! I had to sit back down... So out of our small field results were... Jan 7th... Fred 8th... and Steggall, “I'm so out of shape!” 9th.
John’s overall comments about the race: “This was the slowest and weirdest race I've ever done. Think about this for a second -- for the last 14 km (even at the 1 km mark), we were going about 17-18 mph. By 500 m, we were up to maybe 19. By 200 m, we had ramped it up to 22-23. The moto ref kept us pinned in until we hit 200 meters and the three guys leading us didn't budge until 200 m. So, we basically finished how we arrived at the 200 m mark. Bizarre...”
