WISport Friendly Century, April 19th 2003
Darryl Mataya

Addendum to Clint and Robyn's Great Report

Clint gave an excellent account of the feel of this ride. The weather, the pack, the wind all made for a harder than typical century ride. Atkins was well represented with Heidi and Greg, Ken, Ryan G, and myself riding along with Clint and Robyn. Although it wasn't a great day for conversation, I did have a chance to catch up with some other regular Wisport members. The Halverson's were there riding their tandem, Erica Meier and a few other Sharks showed up, and we got a chance to catch up a bit with Steve Fouts and Ryan Blennert. Steve gave me a nice scouting report on their new time trial course, which I'll write up before that event (May 17).

I wanted to cover for Clint and Robyn's modesty and point out how incredibly well they rode yesterday. They were always up in the front mix, riding very strong and smart. It is pretty tough to hang in with singles who are constantly speeding, slowing, and moving around. And there was lots of moving around as Clint discovered when a guy just about rode right into their path as they were coming up at one point. A loud holler from Clint and the guy quickly got back in his spot.

As for teamwork, Clint and Robyn made the move of the day, as Clint described, as the 20 mile final section got racy. The pack was still watching and waiting as we rolled out of Thorp, and it was about to get dangerous as everyone was trying to crowd to the front. The Big Ring Flyers had several people riding up front and looking ready to race, so I was watching Dag Selander and Dave Goetzinger pretty closely. I was almost willing to start something because what we needed was the "race" to get harder without necessarily doing the work. But even though Clint/Robyn, Greg and I were still in the pack, we were outgunned by the BRF guys and didn't need to do their work for them. (Even though there are no placings in this event, there was a trophy for the winner and the natural bragging rights.) I had positioned myself right behind Dag Selander and I noticed Clint coming up on my left.

As Clint described, we came on a slight downhill and he and Robyn took off. It was perfect, and not a moment too soon. Dag took off after them and I followed. In 15 seconds the break was formed with the rest of the pack strung out - reminded me of the start of a Wisport race. Unfortunately I had exhausted my glycogen supplies long before this and was probably running on the fat stored in my ear lobes. We came to the next slight uphill, Clint and Robyn kept the hammer down, and both my quads locked up. Oh well, I was surprised they made it 85 miles. I literally couldn't push or even stand up on the pedals. This part of the road was all rolling - you were either on a slight rise or speeding downhill. So the 3 tandems took over and shredded the chase groups that tried to form behind them. After coasting for a while, I recovered a bit and got into a chase group. Shortly after I saw Clint/Robyn with yet another flat - what an eventful day for them! I am looking forward to watching them in a real road race with live bullets.

Meanwhile the lead group whittled down to Goetzinger, Selander, and the all male tandem, with Goetz winning the sprint from his teammate. It was grueling over the last 5 miles - nothing left in the legs and straight into that headwind. A bunch of us ended up motorpacing for a bit behind one of the sag wagons, but Greg recognized this was not honorable and attacked the sag wagon! Once the rest of us realized how pitiful we would look riding into Willard behind a chuckwagon, we began to follow Greg's lead and one by one we would suck it up and drop that 92 GMC like a wet rock into Lake Superior. (he was going about 12mph at the time). That's one of the things I like about racers - if there is nobody left to race, I'll race the truck, or that lady walking to her mailbox.

-Darryl