First Race Back: Will Nowak on the Fat & Skinny Road Race

I’ve been taking it easy for the past four or five weeks with a nagging IT band injury, and this last weekend was my first opportunity to finally mix it up with the team. I’ll let Waylon tell you all about Sunday, but on Saturday he and I headed down to Indiana to join Mike Sherer for the Fat & Skinny Tire Festival Road Race.

The race started out pretty slow and I was stuck at the back with strict adherence to the yellow line rule. There was no reason to risk safety or a DQ in my first race back (or ever, for that matter), so I struggled to see the front of the race for the first 15 miles. At that point Waylon rolled off in a group of six, but I figured it was probably a little too early to stick- fortunately with Waylon up there I didn’t have to worry about it. I tried to just be attentive, and watch to see if Panther was going to try and send a guy across to the break.

As Waylon’s group was being reeled in, I knew that a) a counter was going to go and b) I hadn’t really yet turned a pedal in anger yet, and being almost halfway through the race, I was ready to go. Once Waylons’ group was caught, I hit off the front with Greg Christian of Panther (who is always down to make a race hard and fast), a strong  NUVO rider, and Curtis Tolson. We got a small gap and were drilling it pretty well. Soon Mike Sherer came over with some more Nuvo’s. With our fast man Mike in there, and Nuvo with three riders, we worked hard to put about a minute into the field. Unfortunately, we weren’t working super well together, and a chase group was able to bridge up to us. Panther brought up reinforcements in the form of Chris Uberti and Ryan Knapp, which made our situation less than ideal. My legs were starting to deteriorate, so I told Mike that I would try to work, cover attacks, and either lead him out at the finish or do a late solo flier so he could sit on the group. 

Eventually with 15 miles to go, attacks started, and I was chasing things down. I decided to take the initiative and attack on my own. I got a decent gap solo and put my head down. Only a couple of miles later, Uberti and Erik Hamilton (Nuvo) bridged. This was a good group, but I had Mike back in the field, and had to be thinking about the win so I chose to sit on. I never like to sit on a group, but we are racing for first place, and Uberti has been flying in sprints all year. I’d rather us go back to the field and let Mike do his thing than have me go to the line with him. So I apologized and sat on. I tried an attack with a few miles to go, but Chris was all over it. He led out the two-up sprint, and I almost came around but ended up losing the bike throw by inches. Good ride by Chris- and good stuff all day from Waylon and Mike.

Waylon and I headed back north and prepared to move up one step higher on the podium at Vernon Hills.

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