Raceday! Ken picked me up and we drove North to Lancaster county for yet another PA road race. This time the venue was Manheim, PA and after a few wrong turns and playing with his navigation system, we made it. We parked at the end of an Amish farmer's driveway, unloaded our bikes and rode up to the registration tent. The sky was overcast and the whole day felt grey. But we were registered soon enough and found ourselves with over an hour until the start.

Together, we rode a lap of the 7.5 mile course. The seemingly pre-storm weather also had plenty of wind, which I've come to expect in Lancaster county. The course was basically downhill for the first half, then slowly working its way uphill over rollers for the second half. The promoter spoke of "two modestly difficult hills" and I guess that was about right. The only significant hill was at about halfway and was a steep, but short climb. It was going right into a headwind, and the false flat afterwards made things tough, but not killer. Other than that, this course was textbook Lancaster: rolling farmlands with little tree cover.

The finish, for once, wasn't on a hill. It actually was a very fast looking finish turning onto the finishing straight just after 1km to go and then running slightly downhill and leveling off at the line. Snitger's last weekend taught me I can sprint decently so long as I don't have to do it on a hill. So I was encouraged by what I saw on the recon ride. John Larson joined us not long after we finished the first lap and we had time to ride another one with the three of us together.

Having three riders in the race put us as really the only other team presence with the exception of Iron Hill who I think had about four. I knew going in to the race that the man to watch would be Jeff Schalk, a mountain bike pro riding for the East Regional Trek-VW squad. I'd seen him at Quicksilver, Tradezone, and Strasburg--each time in a different race thatn my own. And each time he'd been incredibly aggressive, instigating breaks and doing long pulls. He has the engine to ride the way I wish I could ride.

We started off 2:30 behind the 1/2/3 group who was scheduled to ride 7 laps to our 5. The pace early on wasn't anything special. It was generally pretty relaxed with Schalk and a late 1/2/3 rider who'd just decided to ride in our race doing turns on the front. I stayed safely tucked in for the duration of the first lap. Ken, however didn't far quite as well. Going into the turn approaching the hill, he grabbed his brake a little too much and hit some gravel. He immediately hit the deck and luckily didn't take anyone with him. I contemplated waiting for him to pace him back on, but I wasn't sure whether or not he'd continue. He did and eventually made it back to the tail end of a chasing group.

Coming up to the start/finish line, someone looked up and asked, "Is that the 1/2/3 race?" I thought he was nuts but as soon as I looked up, I noticed he was right. Somehow they were riding slower than we were and we'd caught them! By the time we reached the significant hill, we were fully mixed together and I was getting pretty excited about that. I'd joked on the line about how cool it would be if they'd combined our fields in to one race. It wouldn't help my bid for upgrade points, but it surely would be fun. And then, here we were. At least the dude who'd showed up late for the 1/2/3 race was happy. He could race with them now!

We rode intermixed until probably two miles before the end of the second lap. At that point, the group started to divide a bit and a few 1/2/3 riders were making a move up the road. Being the cunning rider that I am ;-) I decided to try and sneak in with that group and move away from the 3/4 field unnoticed. If I could get in with them I'd win the race easily and be able to draft my way to the finish. So in the last 1km of the lap, I attacked on the left side of the group (our numbers were on the left as well, so my identity was shielded) and made my way up to the front group. No sooner had I put in that long attack than I noticed all the officials standing in the road waving at us to stop! Stop? Were they crazy? Asking us to stop then seemed madness as we were in somewhat of a break. But that's what they wanted and we were forced to comply.

We soon learned that they would restart the fields separately because they had become mixed. They again started the 1/2/3 race 2:30 in front of us (5 laps to go for them and 3 for us). This time, however, they started our race in two groups, 1:30 apart to preserve the gap that had formed in our field. That was fine by me as our group now had only 25 or so riders left. For the next two laps, Jeff Schalk did what seemed like suicide. He literally pulled the entire field for 15 miles! He kept the pace respectable and I was getting very tired just drafting off of him. I was in third place most of the time right behind he and a Swashbuckler's rider. Occaisonally, we'd drift in front, but it wouldn't be for long. Of course, I was totally content to sit in and watch him do what seemed like idiocy.

Because they'd had to take such an unusual move and halt our race, the organizers decided to give us all a preme to chase on the penultimate lap. So coming around to hear the bell for the final lap, we were also racing for some prize of which I'd never quite heard. But I was feeling ok at that point and wanting to test out the finishing km and I gave it a go. I attacked hard with probably .6km to go and got a decent gap. It looked like I was going to take the preme until at the last moment, an Iron Hill rider passed me and I couldn't quite get him back. He took it and I sat up a bit to gain my composure. No sooner had I done that did Schalk and three others (including Karabin, the Iron Hill rider) go just up the road in front of me. The gap was miniscule and I had every intention of immediately closing it. But the burn in my legs had other ideas and even though I started to put out all the power I could, the gap continued to grow ever so slightly. I was getting frustrated and started attacking out of the saddle to close the gap solo. But I couldn't do it and the gap was, by now, fairly large. I gave it a few more go's, but it soon became clear that I couldn't make it alone. I was very dejected to have missed out on the winning break on the last lap, but I looked back and had no choice but to wait for John Larson and three other riders. At least the rest of the field was long gone.

The five of us traded pulls almost equally for the remainder of the race. I was pretty well toasted, so it took me a little while to gain back some strength. I occaisonally would skip a pull and let Larson take it for me in an attempt to save some for the finish. Once John and I were in the back, we were able to whisper about strategy and I asked him for a lead-out. He said he'd give it a shot. With probably five miles to go, the motor official informed us that we were 0:30 back on the main break of four riders. I confirmed with him that there were indeed four riders up in front because I needed to know how many of the guys around me I'd need to beat in the sprint in order to score some points. Four up front meant that I'd need to finish no worse than second in our pack.

We traded pulls as if we were all on the same team until just past the 1km to go mark when one rider started to up the pace ever so slightly. I had no intentions of repeating my previous lap's mistake of going too early, so I hopped in right beind him and followed him as close to the finish as he'd take me. I looked back to find Larson for a lead-out, but it was clear he was trying to hold on at that point. I rode the other rider till just past the 200m to go banner and then gave it full gas. I easily gapped everyone in my group and finished a solid, but still disappointing 5th. I secured two points to run my total to twenty-one and become eligible for a Cat. 3 upgrade. But it was terrible to think that if I'd only closed that gap I might have had a shot at the win, or more realistically, second place. Schalk took the victory for an absolutely amazing display of strength. Chatting briefly with him after the race, I found out he's also a Cat. 4 and that put him over the limit as well to upgrade to Cat. 3. Funny to think he's only now a Cat. 3.

The results were posted very quickly due to the small fields. I soon had my $40 in prize money and a free entry to the Pieffer Hill RR to be held in two weeks time. Not bad for $75 in total winnings. My legs were absolutely gone and I was happy that I could rest on the ride back home. I think I fell asleep for about an hour after we stopped at Arby's. This was really the hardest race I've done since Poolesville and we have Mr. Schalk to thank for that. I told him thanks, becuase without him, I'm fairly certian this one would have ended in the standard field sprint. This one was comparable to the Tour de Moore in terms of how my legs felt. But finishing 5th is a lot less demoralizing than finishing unnoticed in the peloton.