The weekend of September 11^th and 12^th brought on the Michael Rabe Memorial Stage Race at Waterford Hills. The race, dedicated to fallen Wolverine Sports Club racer, Michael Rabe, consisted of a 3 mile prologue and Short Course Criterium on Saturday and a Long Course Circuit race on Sunday. All racing took place on the Waterford Hills Sports Car Track. This is also the site of the early season Flying Rhinos Cycling Club Spring Fling Race Series, as well as next weekends Pino Morroni Circuit Race to be held on Saturday, September 18^th. This race was well organized and provided a fantastic opportunity to get some great racing in on the Waterford circuit before the last Michigan Challenge race of the year, the Pino Morroni Circuit race.

On the line for Team Bikesport/Lifetime Fitness/AAVC were Vince Roberge, Mark Caswell, Joe Lekovish, and new team member Ramon Corpuz. Each of these racers are on the Category 3 team and would be butting heads with some Cat 1’s and 2’s in the mixed Cat 1/2/3 field.

The race was blessed with fantastic weather and some racers even took advantage of the ability to camp out on the infield for the weekend, which looked like a fun time. The prologue consisted of 2 laps of the 1.5 mile circuit. Mark Caswell showed up with a stunning brand new Felt S22 time trial bike. This thing looked FAST! Unfortunately Mark had not even ridden it on the road before and despite warming up with it for nearly 40 minutes as soon as he started the seat shifted downward at an uncomfortable 45 degree angle. This didn’t seem to hold Mark back as he posted the best time of the team, 6’19” for 8^th place. Vince, Joe and Ramon placed 12^th, 14^th, and 15^th respectively at 6’29”, 6’31” and 6’33”. The victory in the prologue went to Cat 1 racer, Steve Mlujeak in a time of 5’56”.

Next stage was the Short Course Criterium, 45 minutes + 2 laps, which was raced from the traditional start/finish line going counter-clockwise (a reverse of the normal circuit), onto an infield service route and back for a distance of 0.42 miles per lap, a fast circuit. Winning the morning prologue was a curse to Steve Mlujeak as he was a marked man. At the informal team meeting Mark, Joe, Vince and Ramon all agreed that we’d just ride defensively and not be too aggressive. Joe chucked this out the window in the first ½ lap and attacked immediately. After 2 laps solo former Masters 30-34 Cyclocross National Champion, Jeff Weinert, joined Joe and they were off trying to lap the field on the short course. Joe and Jeff stretched their lead out to ½ a lap until the pack reacted. I’d like to think that everyone was thinking “Lekovish is a threat, we can’t let him get too far out there”, but I think it was the presence of Weinert which caused the most panic. After an escape of 19 minutes 2 more riders bridged up with the pack close behind. With 4 in the break, about to get caught, Joe bailed on the break and took a fantastic prime for a $25 gift certificate at Nami Sushi Bar in fashionable Ferndale, then sat up, sucking wind like a broken window air conditioner.

Taking advantage of a momentary lull in the race, Vince followed an attack by Adam McClounie of the Maple Leafs and were joined by Tom Markley of WSC. These 3 caught up to Vince Francesutti, also of the Maple Leafs who had followed Coach Aldo’s directions to keep going after placing 2^nd in the prime sprint. As soon as these guys got ½ lap the real action started in the pack. Attack after attack was launched by Steve Mlujeak, Jer Walker, Jeff Weinert, Danny Klein and Ray Dybowski, among others. Mark, Joe and Ramon worked tirelessly to neutralize these attempts as Vince pressed on in the break. No one would let anyone get away with everyone watching Steve Mlujeak especially. Tempers started to flare and the frustration levels rose with some shouting and yelling going in the field. The in-fighting played into the breaks hands as they lapped the field with 10 minutes and 2 laps remaining. At this point Ray Dybowski and Wayne Tomkins took advantage of the fatigue in the field and slipped away. With 1 lap to go Mark Caswell took the front and lined up with Joe, Vince and Ramon in tow. At the top of the small rise before the short drop to the finish line Vince took matters into his own hands yelling “I’m going inside” and sprinted right past Joe then Mark who moved to the right slightly for him. Vince powered down the short drop and to the line for a fantastic win in a hard fought race. Remarkably, Mark stayed on the front as the field needed to complete one more lap and was well placed for the pack sprint before being cut off by some erratic riding through the last turn. Results for the Short Course Criterium were Vince, Joe, Ramon and Mark in 1^st, 13^th, 15^th and 16^th, respectively.

With 25 points being awarded to the winner of the Short Course Criterium, Vince was tied for 1^st place with Adam McClounie of the Maple Leafs who had placed 6^th in the prologue and 2^nd in the Short Course Criterium. It was a fantastic day of racing. Personally, I’d like to thank Red Bull USA for giving us some free energy drink to give away at the race. Before it was all gone, each of us saved one for ourselves and consumed it before the race. I really think it helped as I had given some to those Maple Leaf riders also and they did well too!

The overnight GC was Vince Roberge and Adam McClounie tied for 1^st at 25 points, with Tom Markley and Vince Francesutti tied for 3^rd at 18 points and Steve Mlujeak in 5^th at 14 points.

On Sunday the 3^rd stage was run, the Long Course Circuit Race. This was set up as the traditional Waterford Hills circuit and was scheduled for 1 hour + 2 laps. Helping out for this 3^rd and final stage was Ric Lung of the Cat 1,2 team. More racers had shown up for this last stage and the field of 25-30 contained about 10+ Wolverine riders. A nervous pack raced conservatively for the first 30 minutes with occasional accelerations and attacks, all neutralized by either TBLFAAVC or the Tailwind duo of Walker and Weinert. Again the most persistent attacker was Steve Mlujeak. At about 25 minutes to go Mlujeak put in a great acceleration on the back stretch and was followed by Jer Walker of Tailwind. Latching on were Adam McClounie, Joe, Vince and 3 Wolverines, Terry Palmer, Brian Kozeliski and some guy named Pat. These 8 finally worked together to press the break and with Mark, Ramon and Ric sitting on the pack in the back the break was made.

After about 2 laps of hard riding a winning advantage was established and the pace slowed just slightly. At this point things got a little fuzzy for me as I was starting to go a little cross-eyed. Steve Mlujeak started attacking and various riders would chase him down, then others would attack and my recollection was hazy. Last thing I saw was Mlujeak absolutely burying himself and Adam McClounie of the Maple Leafs and co-leader on GC gritting his teeth to stay on his wheel. Within 1 lap they were about 20 seconds up with Mlujeak pulling the whole way. I gave it my all (which by then wasn’t much) and so did Vince but they really opened up the gap. With 2 laps to go the race was up the road and the only thing to do was try to salvage Vince’s GC placing. Unfortunately we had 3 somewhat less fatigued Wolverines with us. With a lap to go Brian Kozeliski of WSC slipped off the front. Joe worked to try to lessen the gap with ½ lap to go hoping that he could bring Brian back enough for the group to bridge the final gap. They couldn’t and Jer Walker ended up leading out the other 2 Wolverines who followed Brian in for 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th respectively, with Vince in 6^th, Jer Walker in 7^th and Joe in 8^th after being dropped before the final turn onto the finishing straight. The much reduced pack came in about 1 ½ minutes later.

With 10 points for 6^th place and a final total of 35 points, Vince was knocked down to 3^rd Overall behind Adam McClounie with 45 points and Steve Mlujeak with 39 points. Vince had needed a 4^th place to tie Mlujeak and a 3^rd place to finish 2^nd overall.

In the end, despite the disappointment of losing the overall, I am personally satisfied as the Cat 3 team (with Ric’s help) put on a great team effort against a strong (albeit small) field. We raced as a team and fought like heck and left everything out on the road.

I have no doubt Vince is on his way to a great upgrade to Category 2 and bigger and better results in 2005! Way to go Vince!

Unfortunately due to a scheduling conflict this was my last road race of the year. What a year it has been. Simply fantastic. I started the race season by nearly colliding with a mailbox (John Rigdon and Jeff Elam can elaborate on this more) on a steep descent at the Schabobele Road Race in Kentucky on February 21^st!!! I finished today nearly 7 months later with a great, tactical and physically demanding race in Waterford.

Next up for Team Bikesport is the Pino Morroni Circuit race, again at Waterford Hills, on Saturday, September 18^th. Check out www.flyingrhinocc.com for more information. If you can, make it out. I will be extremely disappointed to miss it. Someone, please, please, post a race report.

Take care all and I’ll see you out on the CX circuit starting September 25^th at Bloomer Park in Rochester.