Every state has a Senior Olympics. If you finish in the top two of your state you qualify to compete in the National Senior Olympics which occurs every other year. 2009 was the summer games in Palo Alto, Ca. and in 2010 will be the winter games.
I had won the road race the day before in the last two seconds. It was an uphill finish and everyone had gone in to the hill too hard. This was the race the following day. It was a 40k Road Race. Very windy, out and back course. I figured people would mark me because I won the day before so I waited until the last few seconds to stage in the back of the pack. It was a neutral start down the climb we would finish on so no one really noticed me which was fine.
Once the race started, my plans almost bit me in the butt because there was a crash in front of me which took out 4-5 guys. I managed to roll over someone’s deep dish rim, clipped out with one foot and stayed upright. However, since we had just been let go from the neutral start the pack was moving, plus when they heard the crash they stepped it up even more.
This wasn’t a training race and if you could get rid of some people from a misfortune, then their tough luck. A 2-time Master’s TT National Champion, John Novitsky kept going off the front and trying to get away. I would let him dangle unless he got more than 10 seconds. I would then bridge and drag the pack to him. A couple of people tried to get away but it was way too windy. It all came back together for the short power climb to the finish and this time I was 6-7th in to the corner.
Everyone was in the big ring hammering but I let them go. I’m not a big ring climber. I thought I had lost the race. I maintained my pace in the small ring and spun as fast as I could. I started to pick people off one by one. They were using fast twitch and I was using slow twitch muscle. The climb was a snake of four corners so the crowd could witness the action for the whole climb. With two turns left I was in fourth and thought “one more guy and I can place.” After the last turn there were only two people in front of me. I clicked down to a bigger gear, stood up and went as hard as I could go. We finished with the same time but I had won! The day before I had beaten the same guy by only two seconds! The Master’s National TT champion got 7th both days. I got a write up in the paper and a photo in another paper so it was a lot of fun.
