Ronde van Burns Training Series. Week One.
Each summer Competitive Cyclist hosts and promotes the Ronde van Burns crit series. It’s a simple concept- 55 minutes of racing on a Tuesday night. Five bucks to enter and you always get more than you pay for.
For the 2010 edition the Panther pb Competitive Cyclist team will ride all of the races. Just to keep things interesting, our own sponsor built a team of the remaining local racers that they feel can take us down. The SRAM Froggies (get it?)have about ten riders and are solid I will admit. So, 10 guys vs. 4 guys, but the 4 are all cat. 1’s.
About 20 minutes into the races a few attacks had been thrown out, but nothing was really sticking. Finally, Wade (Panther) laid down an attack and was quickly marked by local stud Peter Beland (BMC/Wal-Mart). Those two are both known to have some punch, and once they got about 15 seconds up the road I did everything I could to bridge up to them without pulling the field. I went, and turned around and had a clear gap. My two remaining teammates were blocking and I made it safely to the duo up the road. With about 30 minutes still remaining, and 95 degree temps it was going to be an effort. We grew our gap while taking perfectly timed pulls lap after lap. Shortly after we got up the road Zach and Kris (Panther) tried to bridge up with two other Froggies in tow. They came within about 15 seconds of us but didn’t make it. We never even knew they were trying to bridge up, and just kept the pace at the 26-28mph range. Once they were back in the field I think it was pretty calm for the rest of the race for the pack. Meanwhile Wade, Peter, and I were leaving nothing left in the tank, and just burying ourselves to stay away.
With four laps to go, Wade attacked Peter and I to get away. Peter quickly followed and it didn’t stick. Immediately after that, I gave everything I had for my attempt at a break from the breakaway. It worked. I quickly grew a 15-20 second gap for the three remaining laps. I saw the field in front of me, and out of principle felt obligated to overcome them. It would just be cool. So, with about 300 meters to go I made it around the entire field and came across the line with my arms in the air, as they continued on for one more lap. Wade then jumped Peter for 2nd, while Kris won the field sprint. Panther went 1st, 2nd, and 4th. Not a bad way to start out the week, and open up the legs for the upcoming Tulsa Tough series this weekend.
Below are nearly 200 photos from the race last night, all taken by Competitive Cyclist photographer Rob Karman.
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| Ronde van Burns Week 1 |
