Ansgar in the 3s race Photo: J. GrayNo, I didn't race it this year - lots of good reasons for abstaining - but I did head down to U of C after my pre-TT ride to watch friends and gladly be the start/finish 'gear bitch' for my teammates. I've done MoM in the past and won it many times so it was fun to just spectate for a change. The course is one big flat, boring rectangle with a killer dose of fierce wind on the backstretch. The corners can be deceptively tight - especially at speed in a large group so as simple as it seems, there is a fair amount of strategy that needs to go into pulling off a good finish - the sprint is LONG. I arrived just in time to see the 40+ masters race. Dan, Ansgar and Andy were representing for PACT/Dishnetwork and all finished safely in the bunch sprint.
Mike (right) looking for a breakaway companion Photo: K. KerrI watched the 50+ masters race from just past the start/finish area. They had a good size field - I want to say there was somewhere between 20 and 30 on the line. Things broke up pretty quickly...Mike hit it pretty hard once and got an immediate response but then tried a second time not long after and was lucky enough to get Andy Kerr as a breakaway companion.
The break in the 50+ Masters race Photo: K. KerrThe two built a 30sec gap over the next 25min or so and ended up holding it all the way to the end. Andy took the sprint and Mike took all the primes along the way - it was indeed an impressive performance by two very strong guys. Well done, gentlemen. The best part was watching a big chase group with some strong riders attempt to organize and chase multiple times and still not find a way to catch them. So cool.
