Union City, GA - About 40 riders lined up for the 58-mile long Masters 45+ road race championships. As it turns out we spent the entire morning chasing the rainbow stripes. David Grice is a UCI Masters WORLD Champion and showed why he wears those stripes today by simply riding everyone off his wheel. I found myself in a chase group of about 10 riders and we eventually caught Grice, a couple of times, but then he would just ride away from us again and he ultimately soloed to the victory. Doug Pomeranz and Eric May hung with Grice for a while toward the end and then they battled each other for the jersey (only GA residents are eligible for state champion awards, everyone is eligible for the purse however). About 15 seconds behind I was in a chase group and took third in our sprint for the line (23.4 mph avg total, including the neutral 5 miles out to the parkway). The peloton arrived about 2.5 minutes later and Andrea Castro won that sprint. For my GTC/YKK teammates, Gerard finished in the pack and Marshall dropped out.
Medals are awarded to the 5-year age groups, so I got 2nd in the 50-54 gang.
1. David Grice 47 NC
2. Doug Pomeranz 46 GA (Gold and Jersey)
3. Eric May 45 GA (Silver)
4. Greg Turner 51 GA (Gold)
5. Vic Rodgers 58 TN
6. Dan Coy 54 GA (Silver)
7. Ted Manley 58 GA (Gold)
...
For me this result was surprisingly good because I went with absolutely no special preparation and no expectations for anything other than a good hard workout with a very strong field of riders.
Among my collection of medals and awards, usually the silver and bronze medals represent the most memorable and toughest competitions of my life - this day was one of those.