Small field at the race yesterday; only 15 guys. That's a shame since its a good, well-run race put on by the South Chicago Wheelmen. A few moves went early but Tony and I stayed on top of them. Eventually a serious break with a Wheelman and a XXX guy got about 15 seconds. I had to start taking pulls. As we got closer, tony bridged and the Wheelman got dropped. Eventually Tony dropped off too, so I hit the front to kill the move.
After that the race was winding down and the Weelmen started sending guys off the front. Their strong juniors made good moves. With 4 laps left one of them got a big gap. I rode tempo to keep him in sight, but I thought he would make it.
With 2 to go I saw the lap counter flipped to "1" early. I got the sense that the two guys in front of me didn't realize it and thought it was the last lap. Sure enough, I followed their wheels as they sprinted a lap early. I looked back and had a substantial gap just like I hoped. I measured my effort since I knew I was likely to get the win if I could last. I caught the wheelmen kid with a half lap left. I eased up since I wanted him to grab my wheel so his team would sit up. Unfortunately he couldn't hold it. I was committed at this point. I still had a healthy gap out of the last corner, but jim flora from the wheelmen caught me with 200 meters left and took the win. Several people rode his slipstream to pass me in the last 50 meters. Anyway, it didn't work out but I played my cards well. You have to risk losing to win, and that's what I did.
Thanks to the wheelmen for putting on a great race again. Hopefully there will be more riders next year!
