March 27, 2011
Team: Steve Weller and Max Korus
Result: Max Korus 13th Overall
I drove up from Philadelphia to join Steve at the Michael Schott memorial circuit race. With only the two of us at the race we knew we had our work cut out for us. The plan was to let the race unfold early on and look for a promising move to go later in the race. As with most plans, they look great on paper, and today, that was as far as it went.
The early race was dominated by a couple of small breaks that seemed like they had the right mix to be the move of the day. 3 CCB riders attacked from the gun and dangled off the front for a few laps, and when Josh Lipka put in a dig to get across I went with him. The group was reabsorbed and another flurry of attacks went. It was clear that people were starting to get a little tired, and after a the field reshuffled time and again over the next several laps, a group of 6 was up the road.
I saw Lipka jump out of the field on the left along the backside of the course, and this time I was sure it was the move. I missed his wheel, as did anyone else with hopes of bridging. I attacked and tried to follow, bringing a MetLife and CCNS rider with me. As we came to the rise, the CCNS rider jumped across to the break, having seen that the Metlife rider was roasted. I tried to bridge solo for another lap, but the break was working well together and the wind was unrelenting.
Without a rider in the break, Steve and I continued to be active at the front of the field. But every move that got a gap was reeled back, and no one seemed too interested to work. With the laps counting down, I was finally able to get into a group of 8 that got clear of the field. The group built up a 30 second or so lead over the field, but was still nearly 2 minutes back from the leaders. The group started to jockey around for position coming into the final lap, and my legs were nowhere to be found. I finished 6th in the group, good for 13th overall and Steve came across in 23rd.
