Wolfgang Freitag Memorial 2-Man 50K TT
July 12, 2009 – Herscher, IL
Masters 30+ – 2nd – 1:13:53
252 watts – 25.3 MPH
You can tell you’ve had a good race by the amount of salt and snot on your jersey. And let me tell you, Brian Morrissey and I sure looked like a handsome pair after the Wolfgang Freitag Memorial 2-Man 50K TT. We were covered with enough salt to supply Frito Lay for a month and our snot-encrusted shoulders begged for a case of Kleenex. Thankfully, we weren’t there to pick up chicks…just medals. And we scored (a silver)!
Brian had stepped up earlier in the week to help me in the 2-man TT, despite having a rigorous Superweek schedule. In fact, he did two races at Blue Island the day before the TT. And, this wasn’t a short TT, it was 50K. The course was beautiful. A 25K loop with just 4 corners and relatively good road surfaces. Plus, there was only about 5-10 MPH wind from the north. Talk about ideal conditions for going fast.
Nothing that exciting about warming up or getting to the race, except it’s nice when there’s no traffic early in the morning. Our start time was right behind pro racer (and former XXX member) Reid Mumford and fellow pro Bryce Mead). We joked with them about how soon we would catch them and then pleaded with them not to lap us. It’s amazing at how much better these guys are compared with us mere mortals. Reid and Bryce scorched at the course at an average speed of nearly 30 MPH. Yikes!
Despite being caught in Reid and Bryce’s exhaust fumes, Brian and I’s plan was to go out steady, build a rhythm and try, and hammer the last 10K. OK, easier said then done. We were very strong the first lap, but Brian’s racing from the day before began to show about halfway through. Brian never let up, but you could hear the pain in the sound of his breathing. Thankfully, we kept communicating, took the right length of pulls, so we were able to keep our pace nice and high. It was amazing how fast the 50K goes despite the pain.
My goal for us was to be a hair over 1:12:00, since this would put us in a good spot for a podium finish. We ended up crossing the finish line in sub-1:14 and I was jacked. I knew that was a contending time. We stuck around for the results, which were gradually posted at the village park. We had the fastest time for Masters 30+ and one of the top ten fastest times overall. We were getting pretty excited only to find out we were nipped for first by one of the final teams. Oh, well, second place was a nice showing. This made our trip home nicer except for our quest for Culver’s, which is another story AND doesn’t involve Neil Patrick Harris.
I know the 2-Man TT is held around Superweek, but I highly recommend checking it out. The folks at Midwest Masters put on an incredible race and you often don’t get a chance to race this distance with this little traffic let alone as a team.