Miami of Ohio Road Race

Another racing weekend and another strong showing. We started off the weekend in Oxford, OH to race a road race put on by Miami of Ohio. The course was a 9 mile rolling loop with absolutely no where to hide and recover. The teams agenda was to ride tempo for the first 20 miles and see what was left after that. The team drilled it and 18 miles into the race Mike House of Miami of Ohio attacked coming over a hill, I was able to follow along with Jake Rytlewski a teammate of mine and a handful of other riders. We continued to push it and the breakaway blew to pieces. Eight riders were cut to 4. Mike House, an Ohio State rider, Jake and myself. This left us with a good long time to sit in the saddle and drive the break. We rode in that breakaway for 50 more miles and sprinted to an up hill finish. Jake started the sprint and Mike tried to follow. I then jumped Mike and Jake and I were able to take a Marian 1, 2. When we finished we were 13 minutes in front of the main field. Looking back we probably worked a little too hard.

Marian College Criterium Classic

Sunday was the big show, Marian College Criterium Classic. Of course I'm biased saying this but it's the best Collegiate Criterium of the year. It's put on better than almost all USCF criteriums, truly a professional job. Needless to say everyone in a Marian jersey was 100% committed to bringing home the win. Tom Hanley of Marian started us off with an attack on the first lap which was promptly brought back in, where I countered. I looked back and I had a gap of 10 seconds and again Mike House of Miami of Ohio. We still had 38 miles of criterium to cover on a hard course and at the time to say that I was having doubts was an understatement. The break stayed right around 10-15 seconds for 3 to 4 laps. Finally it broke, we started building huge chunks of time. With 10 laps to go we had the field in our sights and with 6 laps to go Mike and I started attacking on another. We each had the same thought; attack and bridge to the field and leave the other in the wind. Neither of us were going to give an inch and we both picked up a lap. What he wasn't expecting was for me to go again. I rode the last 4 laps of the race solo and rode to my second Collegiate victory of the year. I've never had so much fun with a win, this one was something truly special to me.

All in all a spectacular weekend for myself and the Marian Team. All that is left is Regionals in Illinois and Nationals in Kansas. I think though that with this past weekend I have all be won the Conference Omnium and I'm looking forward to putting in my best performance in Kansas. From there it's on to the real racing and time to get down to business in a Sakonnet Jersey!

Thanks for reading, stay in touch and keep riding!

Jonathan Swain