The race is billed as the hardest race of the season and after doing it, the promoters called it correctly. The course is a 9 mile loop with 2.5 miles of dirt roads. The women and 55+ did 4 laps, the masters and cat 3 did 7 laps and the Pro 1,2 doing a whopping 12 laps (180k).
Zmotion had representation in just about every category and the results started early. In the Masters 55+, Dave Viney took off early and Billy went with him for a while. By the third lap the field had shattered (a recurring theme for the day) with Dave gone and Billy and newbie Mike in a six man break. A crash in the break threw it into chaos and Billy took off solo and time trialed into a podium position of 2nd with Mike coming in 4th. Wow!
In the 45+ we had Steve, Raife, Mark and Chuck. Today was the Steve Show with a break by Steve and Chuck Jerebek on the first lap. Zmotion got right up front and policed the peleton to assist Steve. On lap 3 the front guys hammered on the dirt section and blew up the field with the front group whittled down to just around ten guys. JRC seemed motivated to chase their own guy and we finally picked up Steve again. With just two laps to go the field again separated and Steve made the final cut and finished in a solid sixth place.
The Master's 35+ was absolutely the best teamwork of the season and was represented by Captain Jeff, Chris, Julio, Jody and the amazing Pedro. On the first lap Jody got away with three others and Zmotion shut down the chases until lap two when five others including Jeff bridged up. By lap four the front group had a couple of minutes on the field and Jody was helping pull Jeff back to the group since Jeff seemed to think he was on a slip and slide. By the next couple of laps the front group deteriorated into four, then two and two with Jeff in it. In the much diminished main field Pedro launched attack after attack and finally got away with Brian Lancaster, with one lap to go, who bridged up to Jeff. They proceeded to drop Jeff's original breakaway companion with Jeff finishing 8th and Pedro in 9th. As the next group approached all you could see was Chris charging to the line for 10th followed by Julio in 12th with Jody rounding out the top 15. Beautiful racing.
The Pro 1,2 field had 47 total guys who were just asking for pain by the boatload with 12 laps (108 miles) through the dirt section that was getting severly mushy. In an absolutely stunning display of power and prowess, Juan broke away solo for lap after lap until he had several minutes on the field. In a late breaking move, Hector followed three others up to Juan and the five of them were never to be seen again. It came down to the sprint and Hector yanked the win from the breakaway group to give Zmotion it's second victory in P12. Juan still had enough gas in the tank to come in 4th. Only 18 people finished and Victor came in a strong 10th with Alex in 14th. What an amazing race!
In the Cat 3 and 4 race, Joe found himself in a 9 man break. He got dislodged from them and spent several laps in no man's land with a couple of other guys. Finally a group of 15 guys bridged up to them and the combined group then caught the breakaway. Joe then hung on for 7th. In the 4's, Joel got dislodged from the 35's but still managed to place 10th in his category. No flat's for him.
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