Brownstown Road Race

Saturday we drove the 45 min necessary to get to Brownstown, PA where we were registered to do a 50 mile circuit race. Nearing our destination not much looked different from the roads around here other than the fact that there were tons more horse drawn buggies on the road. I had seen them before out on rides around Kutztown, but before this I had maybe seen 2 or 3 in the last 3 weeks of riding. In Brownstown, they were all over the place. As we were getting ready by the car on the side of the road, a buggy would trot past us every couple minutes with the little Amish children sitting in the back seat staring at us (half naked and wearing bright-colored spandex) and all of us staring back at them (fully clothed, complete with suspenders and top hats). I think it was a real culturally eye-opening experience for both parties of starers. This was Amish country apparently.

Not long after we had registered, suited up, and pinned numbers, the clouds opened up to give us a nice soaking before the start of the race. Not long after, the rain stopped and we lined up to start the race......all 17 of us......that's right, there were only 17 people there to race in the Pro/1/2/3 category. As the race unfolded, we ended up making a mistake or two and two guys ended up off the front without us. No big deal right, it's only 2 guys versus the 4 of us, and one of the guys we knew was not very fast anyway....well that's what we thought. As Oscar and I went to the front and started chasing, these guys were still gaining time on us. The two of us were accompanied at the front by a couple other guys that were not only content to let us do the chasing, but they wanted to get in our way to slow the chase. So, one time, after a good hard pull, Oscar pulled off and slotted in line right behind me as I pulled through, first wheel now. He let a big gap open up in front of him and behind me as I pulled away from the bunch. Doing this, I was not actually supposed to go anywhere serious, it was just an effort to make all the guys sitting in behind Oscar a little scared and have to sprint around him in an effort to hold my wheel....but I guess everyone was content with going slow cause no one came around him. I ended up riding off the front by myself and was now in an effort to chase the leaders alone. Oscar eventually bridged up to help me but this was a pretty bad position to be in. Through the strong winds and intense rain, we just didn't have enough gas to close down the growing gap to the two leaders. I ended up with 3rd in the race and Oscar 4th. It still kinda blows my mind how those two guys gained such a big gap (around 2 min at the finish) on the rest of us, and honestly, it's kind of embarrassing.