ToO

Stage three of the tour of ohio. The tour of the land of duct tape windows. The tour of a place where it is legal to ride a dune buggy with license plates down the highway.

The stage looked to be pretty hard. 60 miles according to the race bible. 68 miles according to the Garmin on Rowley's brother's bike. It was a lolipop state, heading out to a town then doing a loop, then coming back.

Early into the race, I had some shifting troubles, then some pedaling troubles. Turns out my lockring was stripped. I turn around to get a neutral wheel from Shimano, and they are like a quarter mile back switching out another dude's wheel. They come up to me, we do the change. The field is gone. I hold onto their truck going about 55 for maybe 3 minutes before I decide that it is not worth dying to get same time on GC.

I turn around and ride home to watch the finish.
The finish had a chicane and then a 1k climb that was steep. Apparently in true bike race fashion, there was a huge crash right before the turn. Everybody got the same time despite time splits. The group had like 80 guys in it.

The sprint that the winner had left was pretty impressive after that climb.

The dude who came in second was swearing a ton going across the finish line for one reason or another. They relegated him. Whoops.


Today is a crit and tomorrow is a circuit race. I just hope my luck doesnt get worse.