Antelope Island: 9 April 2005
Despite legitimate attempts to provide a neutral, unbiased recount of Saturday’s race, the following will most likely convey a grotesquely skewed version of how the BODE Team conducted itself. If you prefer an impartial report, speak to an inactive member of the peloton who was content to simply hang on instead of race bikes. Chris McGill and I, Don Calvino, did not travel 280-miles (each direction) to sit at the back of the pack. Nor did Chris parents’ offer the emotional and caloric support (host housing with scrumptious burritos) to see us passively pedal in the draft of other teams.
We loaded the BODE-mobile and escaped Boise’s magnetic field at 4:30pm on Friday afternoon, mentally and technically prepared for the forecasted 34-degrees-and-raining race on Saturday morning. The weather was surprisingly nice on the drive down, and although we didn’t risk ‘jinxing’ it we quietly prayed for similar weather during the race. Four point five hours later we pulled our oh-so-pro-looking Volvo into Chris’s parents’ driveway, visited a bit and ate some Mexican food, then crept into bed. I zonked out before Chris, but by 11:30pm we were both dreaming of antelopes and glory.
Eleven hours, three cups of coffee, and seven dollar-sized wheat pancakes later, we pulled into the parking lot on Antelope Island’s eastern edge. The Cat Fours and Masters were well underway, while hordes of Cat Three riders and roughly sixty Cat Ones / Twos prowled around waiting to begin.
11:45am, the pop-gun barked and everyone snapped in to begin the fifteen-lap, sixty-mile race. The weather held out, and aside from a 20mph wind it was beautifully pleasant. The peloton was quite nervous, as demonstrated when a fellow Boise rider (non-BODE) pegged the first cone on the first lap and nearly wrecked all five-dozen racers. Chris and I moved up to the front third of the group simply to avoid being broken, and within five minutes the attacks started flying.
I countered an attack with the sole (malicious) attempt of blowing an Ogden One rider out the back of the group, and by chance I got a gap with a few other riders. Matt Weyen, to be described later, bridged up to complete our group of nine riders. I assessed the situation: Orbea, Ogden One, Contender, Sportsbase Online, Porcupine, and BODE. Well represented: NAIL IT! We drove hard and within three laps had two and a half minutes on the main group. Back in the main pack, Chris McGill kept a tight rope on any individuals attempting to spoil our break’s success. A few teams missed the break and earnestly wanted to bridge, but McGill (whose legs and race-savvy are blossoming ten-fold each race) would allow no such thing. Within a few more laps the main group lost its impetus, though up ahead we kept it smooth and the gap widened.
In the main group: chaos. The aforementioned 20mph wind created unique conditions on each section of the course. On the tailwind-climb the riders averaged 28mph and were offered no draft, while on the western edge the wind drove hard from the Northeast and swept the riders left, across the yellow line, and into the left-hand gutter. The main group shattered into chunks of colored-lycra-shrapnel, with McGill toward the front and riding strong. However, due to the yellow-line violation by various individuals trying to draft and survive, the officials decided to disqualify the entire field! When alerted of the situation with six laps to go, our break had 4.5 minutes on the main field. At that point our break actually picked up its pace, ironically, and we shed three riders from our group.
To make a long story short, we kept the pace hot until the finish line. With three laps to go, Matt and a Contender Bicycles rider accelerated on the tailwind-ascent to break free from our group. Few people can match Matt’s power at 30mph, and although my legs are coming around I couldn’t respond. I drained my legs driving it hard to try and regain contact, but Matt and his companion widened their lead and maintained it to the end. My group of four popped one of its riders coming into the finish, and I took third in the sprint to the line.
The 52 riders not active in the front break voiced their frustration to the officials, many demanding a refund for entry and travel to a race only half-completed. To no avail, unfortunately. Chris asserts he was riding with a pair of “top-ten legs�, and I believe it, but the disqualification of the group prevented any placing beyond the top seven spots.
Great things are coming around for this team, and I’m anxious to see how the rest of our riders are pedaling. A few local races remain before we test our mettle against bigger fish in bigger ponds. Stay tuned for more blatantly biased accounts of our superhuman individuals. Special thanks to my mom and sister, aunt and uncle and cousin, and Chris’s family for the support at this event.
-Captain Clavin
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