By Michael Sherry

(Note: Modesty prevents Michael from stating the obvious, so let us do it for him. This race was anything but a fiasco for Michael.)

Oh boy where to start…it seems like I never leave enough time to get my things together for these stage races, so I end up packing up my apartment and bringing everything cycling. My team/roommate for this trip can attest to my utter disorganization. Let’s just say you could tell which half of the room was mine! However, thanks to Adam we got to the race early and got to do some course previewing and get some quality rest.

Stage 1 – East Lake TT

One thing I can say about this stage is I did my homework. Actually, that’s a lie, Anthony Accardi did my homework. Anthony found times from last year’s local TT series (on this same course) online so we could estimate splits. We even got some course strategy from the local TT guru who won every stage of the series. Priceless information when you don’t have the opportunity to preview a TT at full throttle. I had an okay warm up thanks to the start delays, and with optimal fueling, felt pretty solid rolling into the start. My bike felt perfectly dialed in for the first time and I was hoping to lay down a screamer. I was third out of the gate, which was not ideal, but you start when you start and at least I wasn’t first up.

The race started off smoothly and I didn’t crush the first part intentionally. I eased it up to speed as to not flood the system with lactate so I could keep the output up in the long run. The roads were fast and I was already at 30+mph without gunning it. I thought I went out too hard when I caught my 30-second man literally within 2k but then figured he was just dogging it to go for later stage results. Another bummer was that power lines along the road rendered my HRM useless, so I had to the ride by feel. Then I caught my minute -man at about the 5K mark. Uh oh, it kinda hurt a lot, maybe I did go out too hard…but then it’s a TT, it’s supposed to hurt…right? I went with it. I found some recovery spots on a downhill and really drilled the 1.5 mile climbing section. I dropped the first two riders out of sight and now it was just me and the course…no more rabbits to reel in.

The rest of the ride was kind of on autopilot. I was constantly adjusting the throttle, drilling some of the rollers and recovering on the backsides and I really got into a nice rhythm while just at the edge of exploding. The wind was a huge factor and when I neared the turnaround it was blowing directly across the road. While the course is usually hard on the way out and fast on the way back, the wind made it pretty damn hard in both directions. I figured my return split would be a whole lot faster. While it was faster it wasn’t as fast as I wanted it to be. I came in at 36:12, way off the time I was aiming for. I was disappointed to say the least. I figured I’d be lucky with a top ten and would have my work cut out for me. Well, it was true that I would have my work cut out for me but that’s because it was the winning time…by 33 seconds! Damn that’s a nice cushion…I definitely didn’t see that coming. While I was relieved, it’s kind of weird winning a stage that way. But hey, I’ve never won a TT much less a stage so I was pretty damn happy despite the roller coaster of emotions.

Stage 2 – Prison City Criterium

@##=#<3,L>@##=# Wow! I get to wear the leader’s jersey! It’s pretty cool until you put it on. It seems 50 lbs heavier than your regular team jersey. You roll up the start and realize you have something everyone else wants and they’re going to do everything they can to take it away. Oh boy, talk about nerves. This may sound weird but as luck would have it, it starting raining during the pro women’s race, which made the course really slick. Not something you think the GC leader would be excited about, right? Well, because of this, the race organizers asked the field to vote if we wanted to remove the intermediate sprints to avoid the inevitable positioning crashes. Lucky me, the field voted them out. As a result, there were 48 seconds worth of time bonuses removed along with the 8 sprints. Ah yes, thank you rain! This made my race a lot easier. Stan Jurga (ECV) was the second placed GC rider and he’s really good at that type of racing. He’s especially potent in short fast uphill finishes. He could have taken a lot of time back if I didn’t play well, plus he had a strong team to help wile I was on my own. The third placed GC rider, Nick Turner (Boston Road Club), was about 45 back so I let ECV worry about him, the 4th placed rider, and Matt Howard (CRCA/Blue Ribbon –Transalations.com) since they were all breathing down Stan’s neck in the GC. I really only had to mark a few guys unless a big break formed, which was highly unlikely on such a fast course.

The race itself was pretty boring. While Stan did take several shots off the front I was able to contain him along with the other GC threats. If I did have to chase I made sure to bring things together slowly in case I needed to jump with the counter move. Stan tried to get away in those situations but I felt like I anticipated him pretty well. In the end the ECV boys controlled the last few laps and Stan was able to take a stage win along with a 10 second time bonus while I finished mid pack. I was happy with the finish. He may have gained time on me but I was confident I was the dominant climber amongst the GC riders and had a really good shot at controlling the road stage for the overall win. And YAAY!!!!!! I get another pink jersey. (A little sidenote: My teammates mock me for my fascination with pink, but despite the abuse, I’d ride a pink a bike if I had one and even suggested the ML kits be pink and blue when I joined the team at the end of 2003. However, no such luck so I tried to enjoy my two stages in the pink jersey as much as possible.)

Stage 3 – El “Road Race”

@##=#<1,r>@##=#75 miles, 3 KOM sprints (1 with double time bonuses), and one intermediate sprint. There was a lot to think about and a lot to lose. There were enough time bonuses on the road for Stan to win without having to ride away from me. I had the race profile taped to my top tube and studied the time bonuses and scoring structure the night before so I was 100% prepared. The first two KOMs were in the first 15 miles. I never feel good in the first 15miles of a race so this would be interesting. At about the 2k mark in ECV got to the front an made the pace to bring back solo artist Jonah Tower (Quad cycles/Arlington BC) who was hoping for a few bonus seconds to move up in the GC. As the sprint approached, ECV reeled in Jonah 500m from the line and launched Stan who won the maximum bonus. I got crushed, took 6th, and got nothing. Uh oh…. He looked good, and I felt bad…really bad. And then? Ah yes, thank you climbers (!), a small break of three of KOM riders got away. The next debacle you ask? There’s no marshal at one turn and the break goes the right way with the pace car and the bunch goes the wrong way. We realize this pretty quickly but the peloton takes a little time to get turned around. I get back to the front and we get back on course. I’m thinking, “CLIMB KOM-ers !GOOOOO! Take those time bonuses!” We hit a double points climb and the break hasn’t really climbed that well so they were in sight. They pulled it off though and held on for the first three places. I went for the remaining time bonus and picked up 4 seconds. As it turns out I probably would have taken the full ten seconds with out the break but it didn’t matter much to me. No GC riders were able to come with me so I felt like I had the upper hand. With those 4 seconds Stan now had only gained one second on me and there were no longer enough time bonuses left to win without riding away from me. I could now happily sit on his wheel and wait for his attacks. It also seemed to me that he became more concerned about keeping his 2nd place GC spot than going after mine so I was in for a much easier day. His boys controlled the front and chased a mid-race break of four for a while. While he tried to attack and bridge a few times, I was pretty much attached at his hip. After the last KOM, a group of 6 got away but no GC threat were there so we let it go. They finished 48 seconds ahead of the bunch sprint (taken by Stan) and I rolled in for 20th place and the GC title. Wow! Now that it was over the jersey lightened up quite a bit and I was able to enjoy it for a change.

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One observation I had in the leader’s jersey was, even though everyone secretly wants it you get an awful lot more respect in the bunch. Moving around is easier, you never get boxed in, you get a lot more breathing room, and I even got to know the KOM boys a bit since we had common interests. The last thing they wanted was for GC guys to be battling for those points. All in all it was a great weekend. It’s always great to go these races and see how strong NYC riders are and I always love hearing, ”How do you guys climb so well? Where do you train?” While the race organization was little bumpy and perhaps a bit understaffed I can say it was some of the best racing I’ve done all spring. The race director was super accommodating and a real gentleman. Thank you Dean! I hope this race reaches your goal and becomes an NRC race one of these days. I definitely recommend Owasco. The community was really friendly and supportive and the race has something for everyone (climbers, time trialists, and sprinters). I’ll be back next year for sure.

Thanks to the Owasco Velo Club and the Auburn Rotary for putting on the race. Also thanks to Cat 4 teammate Adam Duncan for helping keep me in order. I know, I know…. I’m a total slob! I also owe all my finely tuned fitness to one Mr. Craig “Smilie” Upton for training me to be a machine these past 5 weeks. It’s been a hugely successful spring season for ML-Hincapie Sports and I’ve progressed as a racer faster than I thought possible thanks to all my teammates, our sponsors, and friends.