Classic finish at a classic race...

On my schedule this weekend was the West Branch Classic presented by Michelob Ultra, in West Branch, MI as the name implies. This year, race organizers added a criterium to the weekend's events in addition to the road race that had been a tradition for years. The road race was over the same 22-mile lap course as years past and the criterium was downtown near their school.

The road course was more challenging than I seem to remember from last year. For the most part it is through rolling farm roads with some good power climbs, a really long downhill and the Mur de Huy finish at the top of a 11-12% grade hill. Needless to say, after 3 laps (66 miles) the third time up the hill for the finish was a challenge. I had done some work to catch breaks, launch breaks, and to hopefully weaken/string out the field. I was pretty toasted when it came time for the final climb. I gave it my all, got passed by a few people, but finished 19th out of 42 starters. Not bad after a long day, I still wasn't happy.

I had a rough weekend last weekend, finishing 16th out of about 25 at LaRue-Denzer-LaRue and 12th at the Wheels on Willy criterium the next day. It was a great weekend of hard workouts, I was slightly demoralized and I knew I had to turn things around this weekend. I was hungry for a good sprint.

Today was the brand new criterium at the West Branch Classic. The course was pretty flat, had 6 corners, potholes and rough pavement but Priority Health was sure to make things interesting right from the get-go. Two of their riders broke away just 3 laps into the race. One of them stayed away for the entire race while the other drifted back to the pack and sat in and continued to fade with about 5 laps to go. At that point we had the gap down to 10/15 seconds and we were working hard, we got it down to just seven seconds but with only two or 3 laps to go organization crumbled and the gap enlarged. I however didn't know how many laps were left.

I heard the announcer say something so I asked the guy next to me how many laps were left, he said "one, this is the last..." I guess you could say I got a little adrenaline rush, I had fallen back in the group around 25th wheel or so and I had ground to make up if I wanted some good results. That little rush put me into 10th/15th on the second to last straight. I shot the inside of the last corner, knowing that the right side of the road would be the clear part out of the wind. My move in the corner got me into 8th place and I sprinted my heart out behind two guys for about 50 meters allowing me to spin up real nice. I flew around them on the right shoulder about 250 meters from the finish, it was a long straight. It looked like a long ways to go still and I was afraid I had gone to early with the head/cross-wind. I felt good and just kept pedaling while my confidence built to the finish. I crossed the line, sat up, looked back and just caught the rest of the field crossing the line. I had won the field sprint! I was extremely happy, I had broken my dry spell and gotten a podium finish.

As usual, results took forever to get posted. Today's results were posted with me in second because of the one-person break and after the omnium points were scored, it was time for awards. One of my fraternity brothers took 5th today, followed by a couple guys from the Wolverine squad, then myself in 2nd, and Lex Vermeulen in 1st. I was very pleased with my results and much to my surprise I got called right back to the podium for 3rd overall for the weekend. All in all I walked away with a 100 dollar check, a 6-pack of beer, a Michelob Ultra hat, and most important was that I have my confidence back.

Time for a week off from racing, some solid training days and then some of my most important days of the summer, Tour of America's Dairyland and Superior Bike Fest.