Editor: The following is adapted from a race report by Lee Venteicher. The title was taken from D Cassaday's response to said report, noting poignantly that Segnor Venteicher's zest for life and victory is Sheen-esque.
This old man's season began the last weekend of February with a 100k gravel race called CIRREM down by Des Moines. I headed down with a local MTBer and knew that it wouldn't be the typical roadie event, but upon arrival I was greeted with 7 or 8 typical roadie riders from the Zealous team. We took off and I managed to keep making the splits until I got dropped when my STI lever actually froze in place in my highest gear. I ran a few climbs and tried to thaw it out and eventually got it going again. I was a ways back and put everything I had into chasing back to the lead. Unfortunately, I put a bit too much in for what I'd eaten and bonked in the 17 degree sleeting weather with 10K to go. I crawled in with some very cold feet for fourth place. Not the place I'd have liked, but considering I got the first bonk of the year out of the way...it was acceptable.
The next weekend was a little team training camp. Mr. Tempel, Mr. Turner, Mr. Greenwood, Mr. Fagersten, and Mr. Buntz all made their way up to Waukon for a weekend of long miles and lots of hills. We were joined by a very underfed Mr. Newlin on day one and on day two we got to meet the Novian. After two days and 160+ miles with a very, very large amount of climbing we learned a lot of things. Among them were the facts that eating is a very important part of cycling (two hard bonks helped us see the light), and that while we were getting fit we still had a way to go if we were to keep up with a 40-something college professor who hasn't raced in years. So we were somewhat humbled but ready to get back to racing.
I made the drive down to Iowa City for a spring classic gravel race in WoB home territory the following Saturday. I showed up to see a lot of riders including over half a dozen Zealous guys (this was starting to look like the theme for the year), but none of my guys. After wandering around a bit wondering what was up Mr. Buntz arrived after riding from IC. A while after...which was only minutes before the race was to start...Mr. Fagersten and Mr. Temple arrived as well. Sweet, we'd actually have Zealous outnumbered...well, not really, but it felt like it. We rolled out and I watched with pity as a guy on a MTB tried to hold on in the paved section with a 30mph tailwind. Needless to say he was quickly dropped by the rest of the field on road bikes. Soon after I ended up covering a Zealous guy off the front and began putting in time in a two-man rotation with little shelter. Back in the field the rest of the squad were testing everyones' legs and soon Mr. Fagersten rolled off with a Zealous and a Velosport rider. My little break was adequately tired at this point and they soon caught up. Mr. Fagersten was looking strong as he caught up and having learned a lesson about the bonk from the previous weekend requested some tasty fruit snacks from my pocket. Sadly, the fruit snacks were the best I could do to help him out and I got dropped along with my early break companion shortly after that. Back in the field Mr. Temple and Buntz decided the breaks were clear and it was time to test their legs. Mr. Temple tried to test his legs but found that his tire was not up to the task and promptly flatted out. Mr. Buntz then rode away from the field and almost caught the early break. Back in the lead group Mr. Fagersten rode smart and had plenty left to sprint away to take the win. I rolled in fourth and Mr. Buntz finished 6th. It was a pretty good day as we got to mark down our first win of the year.
Next Saturday was the final Iowa Spring Classic gravel race. I knew we weren't going to have a big turnout since it was during spring break, but since the race was on B2Y home turf just outside Grinnell it was an event that we needed to do well at. When I showed up there were Zealous guys everywhere and I was our only guy, but Mr. Buntz was supposed to be on the way. He had decided that he needed to ride to the race while pulling a trailer into a headwind in order to get some more training in (he may actually be planning to ride to every race this year...we'll have to wait and see). The headwind had slowed him a bit, but he still showed with 15 min to spare and we rolled to the line and were off. I'd done my best to convince him that he'd have plenty for this race even after riding to it and he took it to heart and attacked early. Soon he established a gap with another Zealous rider to leave me back in the field to police the remaining teams. I was very happy with Mr. Buntz up the road and set about blocking as best as I could. Zealous seemed to want to chase, but didn't do it consistently even when Mr. Buntz dropped their rider with 90% of the race to go. Luckily Mr. Buntz realized that his Zealous companion might be strategically useful and picked him up again. The break went out to 1 min after the first lap, 2 after the second, and 8 min after the 3rd. At that point I decided I had better start working on securing 3rd and the pace picked up in the field and soon we were down to me and two Zealous with half the race to go. And then...oh crap...I saw Mr. Buntz on the side of the road after breaking a cable. He looked disappointed both because he wasn't going to get another win for the team and because this meant he would be held to a 678 mile training week because of a two dollar cable. I, meanwhile, hit the gas the second I saw Buntz and really, really wished his cable hadn't snapped. However, I tried to keep my hopes up because I'd been feeling pretty good and sitting in for the first half of the race and I knew the Cat 2 Zealous guy up the road had been on the rivet trying to hold our Cat 3s wheel. I mainly focused on opening a gap on the remaining Zealous chasing and didn't get any splits to the leader until the last lap when Buntz was screaming that I was within two minutes. I buried it some more and sure enough, Buntz had tired out the Cat 2 enough that I caught up to him with a mile to go and rolled past him for the win. It was nice to get our second win of the year, although I'm not sure my body agrees that chasing was really the best idea.
So, there you go, the last few weeks in a nutshell. Next Sunday is Kent Park and I've heard the other teams will be out in force - but let's do our best to show that we can race well even when half the course isn't gravel. BTW, I'm currently the only B2Y/WoB rider showing up as registered...
Until later,
The Old Man
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