I've done the Chequamegon twelve consecutive years and Saturday was my first trip to the podium. Back in the Short and Fat days I once placed 4th, but never a top three so it was a great experience to get up there alongside two highly accomplished pros. This race is a homecoming of sorts since the starting line is just 25 miles from my hometown. Being around family and so many friends makes this event unlike any other. While I go to most bike races, with Chequamegon it's almost as if the race comes to me.I knew that I was prepared for a great finish as a lot of good energy went into the preparations. It's not just the training or preceding races that had me set, but a great amount of mental energy that went into the planning and execution of this race. Most will agree that it's a race where avoiding mishaps is equally important as pedaling hard. The road lead out, the fast corners, the sharp rocks, the puddles, the wheel to wheel action, the gritty drivetrains, and the rain are all reasons for concern. Good planning goes a long ways and little bit of luck helps out too. The competition was as tough as ever with a lot of fast dudes at the starting line. I played it safe on the leadout and was right where I needed to be once we got to Rosie’s. Before OO I kept collected and towards the front, but never really got on the pace too much since all of the real action happens much later in the race. Jeff rode off the front of the group through the narrower trails after Martel's Pothole, countering off of Bender's move. I was towards the rear of our 10 or so man group when Jeff rode off. No one wanted to work together in chasing, even when the gap had grown to 45 seconds. I wanted a chance at winning and that wasn't going to happen by sitting in and looking around so I put in a couple hard digs only to be quickly chased. Most seemed content only to follow and not to contribute so I continued with most of the pace making. Chris and Mike were the exceptions, Chris put in some help early while Mike later pulled the entire stretch down Telemark Rd. Page did zero to help the chase, but he did have a nice hard attack saved up to bridge to Jeff once we hit the final Birkie trail section. These were good tactics on his part since he did the least amount of work possible to still get the win. I couldn't match his pace when he went for it, but kept on to fight for third with hopes that we might catch Jeff. This didn't happen, but I was able to shed the rest for the final podium spot. Some nice pictures of my chase train can be found here.
It was some close racing and good battling out there. Jeff was brave to attack and it made for some exciting racing. I'm very pleased with third and I don’t know that I would have been better off any other way. I had the biggest cheering section at the finish and it was a nice view from the podium. Thanks to everyone who was there and also to all of those who helped get me there. It has been an incredible season and having yet another 'break through' day for Chequamegon was an incredible experience.
Up next will be some UCI Cyclocross racing, something I've never done before. I'll head back to Tucson soon as I'm about due for a break from all the racing, but before that happens some of these bigger cross events ought to be fun. This weekend will be a trip to Michigan and then the following will be UCI races here in Madison. We'll see how they go... TJ
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