WEST LAKE VILLAGE, ILLINOIS -- This just in from Ron Mattson, owner of the Freeport Bicycle Company and team leader of their bike racing team. Ron's recap demonstrates the importance of having a team focused on getting their leader to the line and on the podium.
"I felt honored to have the support from my teammates, Bob Kenneke and Russ Damhoff. They are great climbers and it was a rolling course so they used all their energy working for me. They covered the early breaks by Team MAC (4 guys) and allowed me to sit in for the first 16-18 miles of the50 mile race.
The pace was pretty fast but I felt really really strong. Then, on the start of lap3 (of 6), we got caught out on a huge attack (7 guys) lead by Team MAC. Bob started to work to bridge me up but popped. Bob must have covered a half dozen vicious attacks and worked his buttoff. So I had to go it alone with one guy on my wheel ... who did zero work.
I had to go since all the medals were up the road. I TT'd it @ 27-28 mph for ~ 3 miles to catch the lead group (still with 3 Team MAC guys). The lead group was now 9 guys. We worked together until we completed lap 3. Then the attacks started again with MAC guys one after another attacking.
I covered 2 or 3 attacks myself and still felt super strong. I made the decision to mark the two best sprinters in the field ... turned out to be the wrong choice. Team MAC attacked again (They had two guys left now) and 3 guys opened up a 20-30 sec gap.
I figured we had 6 guys still in our group and someone would help bridge the gap. But no one would take charge, and the gap grew to 1 minute with the 3 guys up front working hard together. I had only 2 laps left by now, so I went to the front and hammered, but still found no one to help work.
One of the sprinters had a teammate in the lead group so he would not work. The other sprinter refused to work. After about one lap, there were only three of us left-- Team MAC's sprinter, a Polish Sprinter (Best in the Midwest), and me. The 2 other guys with us could not hold the pace on the rolling climbs and got spit out the back.
With one lap to go I bridged ~30 secs so I kept hammering. The two sprinters were yelling at each other because neither one would do any work and they had no chance to win unless we bridged... but they still didn't help. I knew my only opportunity to get a medal was to bridge the group and beat one of the three lead guys (6 of us and only 5 medals). So I kept the pace up 26-27 mph.
With only 3-4 miles left, the lead group was 10-15 secs up the road, and I kept up the steam. When we reached the last corner ~ 1-1.5 miles from the finish, I was 8-10 secs behind and they knew I was coming.
With about 200 meters left I has out of the saddle giving it all I could. The 3 lead guys started their sprint and the two sprinters, which I towed for 20 miles, came around me. I had no gas left and took 6th (3-5 secs from first). That's racing. I made the wrong choice."
Congrats, Ron, Bob & Russ. Great effort!
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