B2U/WoB Boys, Kevin Tempel and Brian West Lay Down Power in Kansas
Perry Circuit Race Recap - Kevin's Perspective
When my weekend plans got canceled,
and after seeing snow on the weather forecast, I decided to get the hell out of
Iowa and see what kind of racing could be done in the greener pastures of
Perry, Kansas. Teammate Brian West had recently moved to Kansas City, so it
worked out perfectly for the two of us to race the 35 mile road race on Sunday.
We
packed our things in Brian’s car, and departed from Kansas City with high hopes
that we would have a small field with legs smaller than our own. As we got
closer to Perry, we were surprised to see someone riding out to the race with
40mph head winds. When we passed this lone rider, Brian said four words that
made both of our stomachs drop; “Dude, that’s Brian Jensen.” We knew it was
going to be a hard ride with him there.
After
getting lost a few times, we finally found the race venue, and soon found that
the wind was much stronger than anticipated. I think we can all appreciate how
frustrating race preparations are when you can’t lean your bike up against
anything without it being blown over. Eventually we started our race, and
weren’t surprised to see an attack thrown out from the start line.
The
route was really interesting, consisting of a dam, crazy cross and head winds,
and one steep climb with the start/finish at the top. I think I’ll spare you
the gory details, though, and get to the nitty gritty. I think I hit a breaking
point on the third or fourth time up the climb when I saw that we weren’t
bringing the Jensen/other guy duo back from one of their attacks. I found the
“F*** it” button in my head, and decided to push it, telling the guy behind me
to go ahead. I finished the race, rolling in with Jordan Haffener from
Rasmussen’s Bike shop team. I told him he could have 6th place if he
promised to come back next week and kick ass for the second race in the series.
He politely accepted.
Brian
(West) said when he saw the attack from Jensen that stuck, he kept telling
himself that he needed to go now, but his legs and his mind were not
cooperating. West was looking very strong in the rotations that were trying to
bring Jensen/other guy back, but the duo was not going to let that happen. On
the last lap, Brian said he was working way too hard on the stretch before the
finishing climb, and just didn’t have the legs to finish the way he wanted to.
It was
a very well organized race, and I’d like to give a shout out to Jack Mason for
doing a great job. He was very happy to see a good turnout for the cat 1,2
race. Apparently people don’t believe in upgrading past cat 3 in Kansas. There
were huge fields for the other races! Hopefully there will continue to be a
good showing.
Love
and Bicycles,
Kevin
Brian West following Midwest Legend, Brian Jensen
