Bazaar RR

Rolled down to bazaar, ks, just past emporia for a 50 mile road race. Raced in the cat 4/5 group with 5 other colavita racers. Our plan beforehand was to secure the win for Brad....keep him protected while trying to burn out the rest of the field. First 15 miles was quite pleasant, tailwind, smooth pavement, wasn't breathing at all. Approaching the halfway point the attacks started coming, put in some good efforts to stick with the group...still hanging in there. For awhile Eric Schaumberg, steve and I put on a few attacks ourselves. We had to have hurt some of those riders as we attacked in rotations. Steve would go off the front, get caught, eric would launch, get caught, the I would sprint off, settle in etc... Meanwhile brad was hanging at the back. somewhere after the halfway we lost fellow riders phillip and joe. climbed a big hill with about 4 miles to go and found myself and brad sitting on the front, both of us were feeling good. I jumped in front of brad to give him a wheel and was feeling like I had the legs to give him a good leadout for the finish. There was no doubt in my mind he was the fastest racer there and in a sprint could have torn some legs off. Got down to about a half mile to go, and was boxed in a bit, had to squeeze by a rider on the outside, almost going onto the gravel shoulder. Somewhere in the next 5 seconds someone bumped into brad and pushed him into the ditch off the road. He was able to ride it out and was okay, but out of the race. When he didn't come around me I figured something must have happened, I heard a lot of bumping around in back of me.....jumped from one wheel to another and crossed the line 4th overall, finishing 1st in the cat 5's. the picture is of the actual medal they gave me...pretty funny. During the awards ceremony they mistakenly handed me the 4th place check, which if I was a cat 4 would have gotten to keep, but when they figured out I was a 5 took it away and handed me a crappy medal. Maybe it's time to cat up??

side note: Great job to steve v. and Eric Schaumberg who put in a bunch of work on the front. They pushed the group at a good clip for awhile....tough luck for brad, at the end he said he felt like he didn't even get in a workout with the missed sprint opportunity. There will be good finishes for all in the future.

Velotek grand prix next weekend. Probably my final cat 5 appearance.....or cat up beforehand and help out for the team first place in cat 4's. I've said it before.....our 4 group is very strong.