Summer Solstice Stage 1: The Flats

As my last post suggests, I spent this weekend at the Summer Solstice Stage Race near Wilmington, OH. Run by Ohio Valley Racing, this conglomeration of four races in three days had a good reputation among my fellow riders, and I had the weekend off from work, so I made the trek down to the Dayton area with my girlfriend (my wonderful, patient girlfriend who actually doesn't beat me when I ignore my spellcheck). Each stage will get it's own post, so stay tuned; there's more to come shortly.

Friday's Stage: The Flats

Despite the crummy weather, my dad opted to go down and watch me race. Even though he got lost when trying to find the course (it was a couple miles from the staging area, and not all the roads were labeled well), he managed to watch most of the finish. He also provided much needed support and patience while I waited for results and prizes. All in all my family was definitely incredibly supportive throughout this weekend, especially my girlfriend who was very understanding when I wasn't terribly attentive, being somewhat focused on kicking immense amounts of ass. At least the first day, it paid off.

Stage One was aptly named: the only things even close to hills were the overpasses across I-71. This 12-ish mile circuit was nicely paved, fairly clean, and pancake flat throughout. Due to impending doom in the form of thunderstorms, the 2.5 lap race was cut to 1.5, so the first time we saw the finish area was the bell lap. No one managed to get a break off the front, though several tried. With such a flat course blockers were really necessary, and no team had enough riders in the field to commit to a break and block. I worked quite a bit with Mike Abney from 7 Hills; we alternated lead for a while, but when it looked like we were both getting set up to lose on the last lap, we dropped back into the field to rest and recuperate for the inevitable field sprint.

That field sprint was to be held on a narrow road recently soaked with rain. No one had clarified whether the yellow-line rule was negated in the last 200m (some races it is, and others it isn't), which led to an even tighter finishing sprint since no one wanted to get DQ'ed for crossing the line at the end. With around 150m to go, one guy from Buckeye Cycling Club went up the middle through a hole that was maybe 45cm wide. With him off the front people started moving. I planted myself on the white line and hauled ass up the side. Along the way another rider started to come over into my line and we bumped shoulders. Unfortunately he went down, taking another rider with him. The rest of the sprint was clean, and I wound up taking second place by several bike lengths. Prizes for this race were a case of Gu and some Performance gift cards, both of which will find good use in the coming months.

As it turns out, the rider who went down in the sprint was the sole Cat 5 from Stark Velo in attendance this weekend. He was pretty scraped up, and his rear derailleur was trashed, but he fortunately had spares of both with him. After claiming my winnings for the evening, I headed home to prepare for Saturday's road race.