New rider Ryan Kelley made an audacious move in the 4/5′s to get himself in the top spot at Bazaar, while Big D made a mark in all the other categories entered.
Bazaar Road Race was just as hilly and windy as always, and no race group stayed intact in the 25+ mph head wind which greeted the peloton heading south. There were crashes in every large group as the wind gusts played havoc with the riders ability to hold their line. If you got caught out of your group, you had a major task ahead of you to get back in.
Here is Kelley’s account of his superior effort in the 4/5 race, the biggest field of the day:
“I went into the race not really planning on getting a great result and just focusing on getting a good workout in. I met up with Shawn Knight and we discussed what the team tactics were going to be for the race. I’d done this race once before, as a 5 last year, and got shelled off the back at the first turn around, so I knew that if I was going to go full gas anywhere, it had to be there. I sat in the pack most of the time until the first turn around, when there were two crashes (one that I narrowly missed being caught up in) and I took it as a sign that people in the pack were starting to get tired and careless. About a mile after after the wreck, the first hill came up and I decided that I would launch a little attack to see how everybody was feeling. Instantly, a few people were on my wheel and we had a gap starting, but no one was able to pull through with enough power to keep the break going. It was doomed to failure, so I waited for us to get pulled back. About a mile to the first turn, I made sure I stayed in good position before the peloton mushroomed out.
Kelley was dominant in his first race for Big D
When we hit the first turnaround, I was behind two other riders who started pushing the pace, and it wasn’t fast enough to make a selection so I just laid it down as fast as I could for about a minute, then I turned back to see who was with me, and realized that I was alone. It looked like someone threw a bomb in the peloton. Groups of 3 to 10 riders everywhere, so I put my head down and pushed as hard as I could. A majority of the time I was spinning out my 53×11 at 105 RPMs!
When I hit the second turn around, I was greeted with the most horrible headwind I could imagine after 25 miles of TTing, but I knew the team was counting on me to keep the move going, so I got as small as I could and just kept pushing. A group of 3 riders were about a minute behind me and working together to pull me back. They even told me to slow down when we passed. I eventually caught the masters 50+ field and after that I was having a hard time telling if the riders coming after me were the masters, or if it was the group of 3. So I just put myself in the pain cave and focused on the next turn, the top of the next hill, and finally the finish line. At the mile to go sign I knew I had the victory locked up! And what better way to win than 30+ miles solo?”
Schleicher and Wilson stayed close to each other most of the race
In other racing, Skittles (James Summers) was positioned well in the 1/2/3′s but got tangled up with another rider, crashed and flatted with just a few miles to go. He held on for 13th, coming in bloody with a flat front tire. Rochford’s account.
Lynn Wilson got third in the women’s 4′s, while Chica-D teammates Rochelle Schleicher and Susan Ruettimann came in second and third in the women’s 40+ race. Paul Fancher was in the masters 50+ money with a fourth place finish, Bill Mason and Donavon Hottman grabbed third and fourth in the 60+, Shawn Knight came in with a top-five in the 4/5′s.
Mason used his TT skills to pass several riders heading north
See more images from Bazaar here.
