Team Headwind had a 6-man squad present for the team’s debut race on Sunday at Lake Hope. The threat of cold temperatures and rain hung heavy over the start of the first race of the Ohio Spring Race Series. Luckily, the weather broke, the sun came out, and we took the line. The course was a hilly 20-mile loop with two steep climbs around Lake Hope State Park, and, as Cat 5 racers, we only did one lap. The short distance meant that the pace was kept high, however. The pace picked up around mile three at the turn onto Mine Hollow road, one mile before the first climb. The pack strung out leading up to the Mine Hollow climb, a 1.3 mile hill with an average gradient of 3.2% but with several sections in the high teens, possibly reaching 20%. This split the pack into several groups, and Andy, Brian, and Neil from Team Headwind made the split to stay with the lead group of 10 or 11 riders. This group stayed together over the next 5 or 6 miles to the next climb while the rest of the race split into groups of 3, 4, and 5 riders trying to hang together. The lead group splintered again on the second climb on 2 Mile Road, this time 1.9 miles with a 2.5% average, but again with steep ramps up to 15%. Neil dropped off the back at this point, with Andy and Brian hanging on. Brian would soon drop off too, leaving Andy the lone teammate in the break. Neil crawled back, though, picking off a Bishop’s Bicyles rider from the back of the break and holding him off until the final 3-mile flat run-up to the finish. Neil and the other rider worked together, and Brian had also dropped back to join. Unfortunately Brian didn’t quite have the legs to hang on and dropped off. Neil made a move with 300 or 400 meters to go, but this proved to be overly ambitious and was beaten to the line by the Bishop’s rider. Meanwhile, Andy had taken 2nd in the sprint and a podium finish in Headwind’s first appearance as a team. We ended up with three riders in the top 10, 4 in the top 15, and all 6 in the to 20.
Final Results for Team Headwind:
Andrew Eastman: 2nd
Neil Wengerd: 9th
Brian Large: 10th
Aaron Mowery: 14th
Dan Rapp: 16th
Mike Buckner: 20th
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For full results, go here.
