Brownstown Road Race
Saturday was the Brownstown Road Race in Lancaster County. This is another of Rich Ruoff ‘s (Red Rose Races) well run races. The day started very hot (90+) and sunny. This course is along the rolling corn fields and provides no shade. The 5 mile course has long legs in a north-south direction. This resulted in a headwind going out and a slight tailwind into the S/F. The course is rolling with a couple of power hills leading to the S/F.
I rode the 50+ category 25 mile (5 lap) race. For this race Rich choose to mix a few juniors (both 15/16 and 17/18) in with us. A BIG mistake!
The race started ok. The field was somewhere between 30 -40 riders. The pack was a little tighter than normal because of strict yellow line rules except for a short section right at the S/F. These first laps were unusually jumpy with lots of breaking in the pack even on the straight section. My Powertap data definitely shows VERY spikey power output. On third lap things got very dicey. This lap was the FINISHING lap for the juniors. Thus, they were trying to move through the pack. The first effect was significant and dangerous yellow line violations.
The second effect was aggressive in-pack moves when there really wasn’t room. Whether this was do to inexperience in pack racing, there being a race within a race or just being young, I don’t know. But one of the juniors hooked handlebars with my teammate, Steve. After unhooking, this junior went down and took me and 3 or 4 other 50+ riders down also. Fortunely, this all occurred on the first power hill and thus it was a low speed crash. I unshipped a chain. Everyone was able to quickly get back up and ride away a little bruised but the race was over for us. I continued and finished the race, probably last. Neil was on my wheel at the crash but was able to avoid me and finished. Steve got 9th, Neil got 10th and Kev was 12th. My crash was unfortunate as I was feeling pretty good in the race and might have had a reasonable placing.
I ended the day with some small scrapes on my knee (same spots I keep scraping since my spring crash) and bruised hip. The bike shows no damage at all including the new Powertap SL, whew!
Posted: June 27th, 2005 under Bicycle Racing.