Sunday, July 18, 2010

Le Tour de Rand Hill

The Tour de Rand Hill is put on by the Plattsburgh YMCA to help raise money for scholarships to give children the opportunity to attend Camp Jericho (local camp). There was both a race and a recreational division, not really sure how many were in each, but there was a good showing of some where in the forties I want to say.

Tour de Rand Hill Course Map

So the day started off well…..well at least not for our bikes. There apparently was a tree next to the road just looking to scratch or damage any bike that apparently wanted to drive through it. Yes Jeff accidentally drove his bike through a tree and then Ashton’s mom did the same thing with his bike (bikes on roof rack). All in all the bikes turned out okay and where good to go with a few turns of a hex wrench.

There was a nice little roll out led by a trooper and then once we were out of town it was on. Immediately I turned on the throttle and picked the pace up to 25mph and separated the racers from recreational riders. We formed a pretty good pace line; however, with strong head to crosswinds, everyone felt it. By the time we reached the Rand Hill Rd. there was still a pretty good pack, but soon to be smaller and smaller.

The pace was pretty high and a small group broke away, included Ashton and I. I keep sneaking to the front to keep the pace up a few times, as a group of riders were trying to bring us back. As most us know we went up and up some more. At the little decent of the climb, I raced to the front and started pulling at 36mph, with Ashton right on my wheel yelling “Hi-Yah, Faster Faster!” We had a small gap but were soon brought back, because downhill attacks never really work. Nothing else to major happening until about ¼ mile from the finish line. Two riders pulled us back, and I thought one was a pretty strong rider, so I immediately attacked up the last kicker, dropping those two riders. As soon as I got to the top I was like “Crap,” but in a more non-acceptable re-quoting kind of way. Because I could see the finish line and realized I attacked to soon. But my attack did not go in vain, for it allowed Ashton to only have to fight against two riders instead of six. Unfortunately Ashton was taken at the line and came in second. Pretty sure if he would have thrown a few head-butts he would have won.

After the event’s award ceremony we went to Zuke’s for a recovery lunch…were we had the Zuke’s special and a tuna melt….Jeff had a PEPSI and yelled at Ashton for having an iced tea!

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