Rules?...

Greetings from Day Two of the Tour of Ohio. As you might remember, the U-25/Elite team is out here for a five day stage race. I am not going to lie to you, it is a little disappointing and strange. As you may remember from yesterday's email, Justin was amazing in the criterium with da' Bomb, No Nickname Nate, Leero and Big Craig also rode well. With only about 25 finishers, you would think I was super psyched as manager. Well, the promoters decided to make the race prologue event, and only score the top three finishers with 20, 10 and 5 second bonuses for their placings. Every other rider gets the same GC time, whether they finished or not.

This is a bummer. We absolutely owned this event. The team was amazing. So instead of Justin being minutes and minutes ahead of the rest of the field, he had exactly the same time. Ugh.

The race is being governed by the rules of the American Bicycle Racing Association, not USA Cycling as we are used to seeing. That basically means there are no rules and they can change them without impact; why not? Back to today: a 70 mile hilly road race in southeastern Ohio starting in a big local state park. Things are weird here as they line up at the start line 15 minutes before the stage even starts. If this was back home, Tony would still be in bed! Really though...

Things get exciting quickly as someone who constantly campaigns that everyone but him is a bad sport attacks in the neutral section of the race. Way to make friends there buddy. TARGETRAINING wastes no time and go to the front with Stylin' Ben and BFD Dave to keep everything in control. I am in the caravan behind the race when I see the Inferno team get a mechanical and sit up. I shout to "go" in the radio and the pace goes up as the entire team attacks into a headwind ala CSC. Nice.

And then, chaos. Just as we crest the first KOH (hills, no mountains in Ohio) Justin gets a flat front tire. He pulls over and Adam Bomb calls the team over the radio: Justin has a flat, all hands on deck. Dave, Will and Adam drop back and get Justin no problem. I peel off for the feed zone to get them all drinks.

The zone is 20 miles later and surprise: Justin is off the front in a 3 man breakaway. We are so happy. He grabs a bottle but drops it 50 feet later. Disaster. I get in the car to chase, but the official wont let me by him. The move doesn't stick but now he and Lee are away with a ten man move. It is super negative so it doesnt work and a counter gets away. Craigman chases and tries to launch Lee and Justin again on the final climb. They do tremendous damage to the race, but miss the win.

Ordinarily you would think that this was good. But here in Ohio with the ABA, there are no rules. The promoter says that if you attempted to race, then you get to finish. What? Is this T-ball? There should only be 25 riders left in the race, and at least 4 of them are wearing the green and blue. What is happening?

Well, tomorrow is another lumpy 60 mile road race. We will continue to be aggressive, but instead of letting the course dictate the splits, we will make things happen. Look for updates as I am off to make dinner again. Second dinner. All they do is eat!
Thanks!