Peter Fairbanks
I think it was a 5 up sprint coming into the last hill, so there was one other
guy. Kyle B, or was it [Timmer]? I can’t remember. I remember really wanting to win this race, though. Any local race with a climb in it always provided motivation, and at the time Henry Walker from Nature Valley was the promoter, so it was our team’s event too. I think our roster for the race was Dave Shulman, Justin Haley, Rob Lewis, Henry Walker, Brian Koeneman, Tone “Local Hero” Coughlin, Mike Eberlein, Peter Everett and the mighty Terry Beenken. Conditions for the day were extremely summer-like. Like he’d been doing all year, Kyle B. attacked real early and got a good gap, which I think Tone covered. The next few laps are kind of hazy. Then, going up the climb with 2 laps to go Flanders, Knudsen, Fisher, Gates/Butkewitz/Mulrooney)?, and I got away and pretty much rode the remaining two laps at a steady pace. Down the descent and through town I was very nervous, and didn’t feel confident for a sprint, even though it was uphill. Aside from the climb, the race wasn’t hard enough to cause anyone to show fatigue. I don’t remember trying to get away, and everyone seemed content to wait. We approached the base of the climb slowly, and I remember feeling good but unsure about everyone else, until a couple others dropped to their small rings. Just after that everyone started the sprint, and I went as hard as I could to the line. That win was one of the results I’m most proud of achieving.
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