Wapello-Burlington Cat. 5 Report

Well, Tim Keeley inspired me to post my first report. Hope I don't
ramble too much. Here it goes...

Oz Ozguc and I carpooled to lovely Wapello, Iowa for the race. We
quickly found out that the grill at the Honey Hole Bait Shop & Diner
closes at 1:30 (keep that in mind, any of you who plan to go next
year). We questioned the wisdom of a bait shop and diner in the same
location, but hey, this was Iowa. They apparently have a rather
lenient Health Department. Regardless, we found lunch at another
(the only other?) location there.

Just prior to the race we ran into Sead Duranovic, who flagged us
down saying he had just joined ABD and was glad to see some
teammates. Sead didn't have an ADB kit yet, so he was flying his own
colors. It was great to have a third member of our crew!

The Wapello-Burlington Road Race was 33 miles through flat to
slightly rolling terrain. A few moderate hills, but nothing big.
The field comprised about 52 riders, with Mack and Dice Racing having
the most representation. There were quite a few squirrely riders
looking shaky from the start, and sure enough about 1/2 way through
the race one of them lost their line and caused a big crash. Someone
went off my back wheel, but I managed to stay upright. Sead said he
missed a guy's head on the ground by inches. Ouch.

Oz tried an early break, but was reeled in. I tried my luck with a
few riders, but working together wasn't on too many riders agendas
and we went nowhere too. The Mackies did a lot of work at the front,
Dice sat in and didn't do anything on the front at all. The
strongest rider was from OKC Velo, on his own. He made a solo break
last about 25 minutes, was finally reeled in, but had enough gas in
the end to win the race. He was a horse.

Sead and I managed to stay within the top 10-15 riders in the last
couple of miles. We didn't know where Oz was...Sead thought he might
have gone down in the crash. I didn't dare take my eye off the wheel
in front of me to look back for him, but it turns out he was in the
pack just a few riders behind us.

In the end, Sead did a great pull to get us up into the top 10, then
I was able to take over a little coming down the sweeping downhill
into Burlington. Unfortunatly I didn't know where the finish line
was...aarrgghh! By the time I figured it out it was too late to move
up any more. I took 6th, Sead 7th, and Oz came across 24th. All in
all, we thought it was a great showing for ABD!

Til next time,

Steve Middaugh