By Mike Krywanski, Team OAM Now Cyclist
4/09/2015
Despite a bitterly cold winter which made training outside uncomfortable at best and on many days almost impossible, the masters 55+ squad managed to find a way to get their workouts in, as evidenced by the fine showing we made at the first big event of the year, the Barry Roubaix. Those 10 degree group rides along with the regular Thursday night “pain cave” workouts paid dividends in the form of podium finishes for several of our riders.
Leading the pack and finishing at the top of the podium in the 55-57 (36 mile) age group was Leonard Van Drunen with a smoking time of 1:58:05. Larry Strayhorn rode a strong race to 22nd place, setting a personal best time of 2:12:11. Also finishing on the podium was elite club rider Greg Neagos in 4th place followed by Ken Lown in 19th at 2:11:02. In the 58-60 division, Glenn Dik and Steve Buccella rode together for much of the race finishing on the podium in 2nd and 3rd place respectively. While Glenn has been racing almost forever and his result was certainly not unexpected, Steve has made a big jump in his level of performance and his fine 2:00:40 shows how hard he has worked over the winter. In the 61+ division, Loren Simons finished in 7th place at 2:08:12 demonstrating good early season form for a rider who normally doesn’t hit his peak conditioning until mid summer.
Senior riders Dave Stebbins and Mike Krywanski took on the challenging 62 mile course and were a bit outgunned by the younger racers in the 51+ age division. Both got off to their typical (relatively) slow starts and missed the split which came early in the first 3 miles of the race. Despite a hard chase by the second group on the road, the gap widened and Dave and Mike had to be satisfied to stay with the fast moving chase group. After racing literally side by side for the entire 62 miles, Mike finished in 10th and Dave in 11th, averaging well over 19 miles per hour.
Overall, this is an outstanding performance and really showcases the hard work the team did over the winter. We hope to continue this momentum now that we’ve moved outside regularly and the racing has begun.
