Saturday August 5, 2006 Sheboygan WCA race

With two races left in the WCA cup schedule and 19 pts out of first place, this race was to be a critical race on my calendar. I could lock up a top two finish or tank and end up in fifth. Things started off bad as I had forgotten my trainer which I love to use to do my warm up. Fortunately, there were some descent roads nearby to warm up on. The race started with 31 riders and at first it seems there was some sort of disease on the front of the pack that no one was wanting to catch. I did a short pull as well as Scott P and a couple of others. Things were really going slow and I was doing my bit to stay off the front when there was a two place $20 prime offered. Mike K went hard to get the prime and I was trying to stay on his wheel. I wasn’t feeling like sprinting this early in the race so I just tried to hold on to him and take the 2nd place prime ($10). Just before the line I looked back and noticed that we had a considerable gap on the rest of the field so I told Mike K to hold on to my wheel and that we should “go for it”. I pulled long and hard and Mike was able to come around and give me relief. He was pretty tired as he had done the Cat 4 open race and was panting seriously. I did the lion’s share of the work though he did quite a bit and we worked together perfectly. I tried to give it my all and would take short breaks as I reloaded. At one point we had increased our lead to over 20 seconds and then it gradually began to come down as the riders in the pack realized that we were serious about our effort. We kept it up lap after lap, trying to stay out of sight of the pack though at one point we looked back and they looked dangerously close. Mike commented that they were “catching us” and I responded by saying that we should “make them work for it” and that they were “suffering” just as much as we were. It seemed that suddenly there were only two laps to go and then the bell lap. The pack was in a frenzy trying to catch but we kept working. The gap was probably less than 10 seconds when Mike told me that If I could hold off the pack he would not sprint me to the line. Wow, that was noble. I had done a lot of work in our break but this was a big sacrifice on his part. He had taken 3rd in the 4’s open and stood to get second in the Masters 4. I guess today he was going to have a great day no matter what. With a half a lap to go I put things in overdrive and went as hard as I could. I could feel the breath of the pack as we made the final turn to the finish. I don’t know what Mike was thinking but I went ballistic up the final stretch and with a grunt, shout and hands held high took 1st. Ended up gaining 10 pts on Ryan F and now stand 9 pts out of first place. One race to go and we will see who is the champ. I was able to lock up a top 2 and am tempted to take my cat 3 upgrade and taste the masters 1/2/3 race the final race. Tony Phillips