Todd's 2011 Bulldog Race Report

Unfortunately the age groups were separated and sent off in waves 10 minutes apart.    We couldn't ride all together.  It sucked for the overall classification because there were different group strats.  Here is my update just for the race since I'm sure Rich's report will have the pre ride and post ride info.  After watching Noah's group and then Shannon and Mitch's group head out,  the 40-44 yr old group lined up.  It just stopped raining, but the roads were wet and slick.  We had a rolling start behind a vehicle and it eventually turned off to let us go.  I was in the middle of the pack at that point and wasn't really sure when the start happened.  I was trying to get a feel for what people were trying to do and some of them had no clue how to ride in a pack.  I was constantly getting squeezed by the same guy who was giving no room.  All of a sudden I ended up pounding on the guy's wheel in front of me 4 times and wobbling all over.  I thought I was going down in the first 3 miles.  I pulled it out and thought screw this, I'm getting to the front 4-5 guys.  About this time, I saw Gary shoot up to the front and push the pace a little.  We cruised at a pretty light pace (24mph) for the first 10 miles.  At the key turn before the climb, the was a line of cars on the right and cars coming in the opposite direction.  It wasn't a very smart traffic control, but we weaves through it, made the left turn and headed up the hill.  I thought the group of 30 plus riders were together until the turn.  Once we turned and hit the hill, the group exploded apart and the race was on.  I quickly latched on to the lead guys and helped push the pace up the climb.  I thought the climb was shorter than it was.  I hit the top of the first section first with 4 other guys.  We were passing quite a few people from the earlier groups.  We start to work together since we gapped the main field.  One of the guys dropped off so that left 3 other guys and me.  We continued to work together all the way to the top since we were all pushing a pretty good pace.  On the return trip, we worked pretty much in a pace line for the next 10 miles.  We picked up and dropped a few, but mainly just blew by some of the other people in the earlier groups.  I thought maybe the skinny guy that I was riding with was going to drop, but he was strong.  The other 2 guys were built like thoroughbred horses.  I thought they were going to be trouble.  We worked together until 3 miles out and then all 4 of us were trying to strategize for the finish.  The thoroughbreds would break one at a time to gap the group, but we would quickly latch on to the burst and squash it.  I was content to counter since we were still too far out.  The skinny guy gapped the 3 of us and held it for a while.  He stayed a constant distance and I asked the other guys if they had anything left, since they said yes, I back off a bit and led them at a steady pace to close the gap.  The skinny guy and I picked up the pace with a half mile left.  I looked back and saw the thoroughbreds falling back.  I thought they may give it one more shot.  We could see the turn for the finish and I wanted to hit that turn in first.  I hit the gas and turned it on.  I saw the skinny guy's head drop so I figured he was done.  The thoroughbreds were still behind him.  I hit the turns pretty fast and looked back.  I hit the gas one more time to make sure there were no surprises and finished 1st in my age group.  It was a lot of fun and there'd was great competition.  Great festivities at Rich's house   Thanks Rich.