Texas State Road Championships

May 28, 2007

Cat 4 Race report

-- By Ronnie Strange:

Saturday:
It was really hot when we started. There were a couple of attacks
thrown in by different riders through out the race and all of them
were covered by one of the 100 riders we had in the group. Then
Brad made one last attack on the last brutal hill and broke away. I
wasn't about to bridge up to my teammate so I just waited for
everyone else to do it. Well no one wanted to bridge the gap so he
soloed in about 35 sec’s ahead of us. So I just waited for the
sprint and blew by everyone and got second. We went 1/2 in the Cat
4's. Brad Winn - State Road Race Champ!!

Sunday:
Another very hot day, Cat 4's should not be starting at 1pm...we
started out with only about 18 riders. We split the pack up about
10 miles in to the race and got a 7 man breakaway and we just worked
together till about 2 miles before the hot spot and Brad told me he
was gonna’ attack, so he did. 2 people followed so I grabbed there
wheels and chased with them. Then Brad sat up and then attacked
again, then I jumped on his wheel and we broke away with 1 other
rider from Mirage. I won the Hot Spot ($100 Gift Card to Bike Barn)
the 3 of us broke away with about 25 miles left to go. The guy that
broke away with us told us..."you guys are strong, I'm not gonna’
sprint at the end, I'll be happy with 3rd". So we just did all
the work and he held up to his end of the deal. I won and Brad got
2nd. 1-2 again =) We finished 5 min’s 30 sec’s in front of the 2nd
group. Tilson kicks butt!!!


Cat 4 Race report

-- By Brad Winn:

Ronnie's report is good, but I would like to add a little more detail...

Saturday:
Like he said, it was pretty hot when we started, which made me
thankful we were only doing approximately 50 miles instead of 2 laps
in that heat. Since it was so hot, I didn't really warm up that
much, but the short little spin ride I did was enough to give me a
rear flat about 5 minutes til the start. Not only that, but I
was about 1/4 mile away and had to run back to the team camp to get
it fixed. Anyway, Tom gave me one of his wheels (thank you very
much Tom) and I made it to the start in time to line up in the back
of 100 riders. It took me about 10 miles to work my way up to the
front, no big deal. In my opinion, the race was fairly casual for a
while nothing too exciting. A few solo riders would go off the
front and everyone would get all nervous and chase them down (a
couple of times Ronnie and I chased ‘em down by ourselves.) We both
decided before the race that we would just cover any breaks or
attacks that looked serious, and then plan to make our move towards
the end in the more difficult rollers. With about 10 miles to go,
we were on one of the longer hills, and I was on the front driving
the pace. I was really just trying to split up the pack and get a
break going, but when I looked back, the guy behind me was toast so
I just kept driving and when I crested the hill, I had a decent gap
so I decided it was do or die and went for it. I knew the last 7
miles to the finish had enough hills to give me a chance to hold off
any chase so I just kept pounding it. I never saw the pack again,
but I'm not gonna’ lie, I did look over my shoulder a few times. The
funny thing is, the guy I was most worried about was Ronnie. It
worked out well for both of us I think. I'm not that strong of a
sprinter, so the break works well for me, and if it comes down to a
sprint, I know Ronnie will take them to school all day! 1-2 finish.

Sunday:
Hot again. Ronnie and I wanted to break their spirits early, so on
one of the early downhills, he picked up the pace nicely and carried
it for a while and that half hearted attack (probably not even an
attack) broke the massive pack of 18 in half. So seven of us worked
together through the first feed zone. One guy was being a chump and
not helping so Ronnie growled at him enough to get him to do his
share (don't worry he gets it even worse later in this story). I
knew the hot spot was coming up and I wanted to make sure Tilson got
it. I let Ronnie know I was going to attack so he could be sure to
jump on any chase wheels. I took Tom's boxing advice and decided to
give them the 1-2 combination. I attacked hard and made sure to get
a good gap. I glanced back about 45 sec. later and saw the chase
coming with smart Ronnie in tow, so I sat up and let them get even
with me. When I looked over, guess who was leading the chase...the
guy who wasn't doing any work earlier! He looked like he was going
to have a heart attack on his bike so I decided it was time to
attack again. I went hard again (probably only 5 seconds after the
chase caught me) and then it was game over. One other guy stuck
with us, but like Ronnie said, he conceded victory 25 miles before
the finish. He knew we would crack him and leave him solo if he
didn't throw up the white flag, so it worked out best for him to
just sit in, which was fine with us. It was hot and we at Tilson are
good people so we shared water with him and only made him work every
now and then. Another 1-2 finish.

Congrats to Marcus again for the dominating sprint to win the 5's on
Sunday. You'll probably be Ronnie's biggest sprint competitor in
the 4's now!

Also, I concur with the 3's that the course was not marked well.
Our race had an official at the notorious turn (because our race was
AFTER all the chaos), but I'm sure if they weren't there we could
have just as easily missed it. Either way, Congrats to Slade for
the top ten!! That's awesome!

For those of you who didn't hear about the 3's on Sunday, Corey went
off the front after about 15 miles, was solo for about 65 freaking
miles!! and then a chase got him and I think he finished about 6th
overall. He did pick up the hot spot though and definitely scared
some guys. Man he's strong!!

I'd like to thank Kirk for helping me get on the team, and everyone
else involved with Team Tilson Homes. You guys are all awesome and
I'm proud to call you teammates. The races are MUCH more enjoyable
when there is a great group of people to hang out with. Thanks for
all the advice, loaned equipment, shared rides/hotels, and
everything else. See everyone out there!