1-2 at Wente Criterium: Race Report
by Daniel Holloway
I have always like Wente, Its a longer circuit with wide roads. Its always fast and the racing just flows. A smaller field than normal was in attendance, but still had some strong riders. Travis, James and Myself were the representatives for Team Mikes Bikes p/b Incase. Having never seen a break stick it on this course our tactic was to follow moves that only included the few danger men and teams that had numbers. About 20 minutes in to the race we did a big team effort for a prime to get a feel for the final lead out, the group gave the guys going for the prime a large buffer (3 of us). Knowing there was going to be a counter attack, I kept my awareness up. Sure enough a few guys come by, unfortunately we spent a little to much effort for the prime and couldn't latch on. After a couple laps of everyone attacking the race was in 4 groups. 2-3 guys off the front, a group of 5-6 chasing, another group of 10 or so and then the rest of us. James made a great move to be the second group and then jumping them once they were tired to make it all the way to the front. I had to do it the harder way, I leap frogged from group to group over 3 laps to finally making it up to James and the 4 guys he was with. Once in the group we rolled along smoothly with everyone doing there fair share to make the break stick.
With 7 laps to go on the back side a couple guys started looking at each other and the gap opened with my self and Jesse Miller Smith from MarcPro. We worked well together and a few laps later lapped the field. Straight to the front, we kept working hard. Two laps later James group laps the field also, Travis and James now start to ride tempo at the front of the field to get ready for the final sprint. Travis did an amazing job on the final lap leading from the start finish all the way to 300 meters to go!! He died a thousand deaths, but a lot of encouragement he kept going and going. Super impressive. After a hard race and the fast lead out, no one was able to come around James and I for us to place first and second.
Thank you to Clif Bar for the easy to digest race food for the last minute pre race fuel. On hot days it is no fun to taste race food a second time. Thank you Osmo for keeping us hydrated on a truly hot day! I had 3 bottles in one hour!! Thank you Zipp for making incredible wheels to make spending time in the wind that much easier!