Andrew Barker finishes 6th overall in Iron Horse; shares the glory of his “breakthrough”

Iron Horse Classic Report from Andrew Barker

Last weekend in Durango I finally had a breakthrough race in the P-1-2 field. I have been racing 2’s all season so far, but I was finally able to show the fast field of riders what I was capable of at the Iron Horse Classic. Unfortunately, the famous and epic road race stage was canceled due to the 40 degree and rainy weather…in Durango. The race goes over two 10,000 ft passes and it would have been miserable at the summits. Later that day, the weather cleared and I got out for a nice preview ride of Monday’s time trial course. The scenery was excellent and I got another day of rest to better prepare for the crit and time trial.

Saturday morning, I got out for a nice ride again to prepare for that evening’s crit. I felt good that morning, but was not expecting what was to come. At 5:30, I lined up with some of the best riders in the nation: Chris Wherry, Todd Wells and Burke Swindlehurst. I was just hoping to make an attack or two and see what I could do. The race started fast as usual, and I just sat in and watched the “important wheels.”

Early on, I followed an attack by Troy Wells, and when he ran out of gas I countered. This separated me from the field and just a little bit later I was joined by Todd Wells. I was very happy he came up to join me, but when he went to the front, it was about all I could do to stay on his wheel. I hung with Todd for about 5 laps, but soon I just had to fade back to the peloton. Once I rejoined the group I sat on the back and tried to recover as much as possible. With around ten minutes to go in the race, I felt decent enough to attack.

This time when I went the field did not respond immediately. However, another lap or so later, Burke Swindlehurst bridged up to me. I just hung on to him as we started to bring back Chris Wherry and Todd. In the final lap, Burke and I were joined by a few others. Coming into the sprint and knowing that I was not the best sprinter, I knew I had to give it everything to just hold my spot. I put on the gas, but I was nipped by two riders at the line to finish 6th.

Although it wasn’t a win, the race was still a great success for me. I found out that I can hold my own in a field with that much talent. After the race, I was getting a bunch of congrats from random Durango-ites thanks to excellent announcing by Dave Towle! Plus I got a little mention in the local newspaper!

Monday morning was the time trial course that I had ridden twice already prior to the race. I was feeling good and focused. With a one-way time trial and a good tail wind, the 14-mile race flew by. I passed my minute man and Troy Wells, my 30 sec man, so I knew I was doing well. I ended up finishing 7th and that put me in 6th for the overall in the omnium. That weekend was what I had been hoping for since the beginning of the season. Knowing I have the potential to do well, hopefully I will be able to produce some even better results later this season!

Thanks for reading.

Popularity: 1% [?]

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 4th, 2008 at 4:40 am and is filed under Home Page and tagged with 5280 juniors, Andrew Barker. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.