Lake Perry Road Race 1 - March 4

The Perry Road Race Series began with a victory for the Santa Fe Trails racing team in the CAT 5’s.  The CAT 5 race was 4 laps on a 5 mile circuit with an 800 meter uphill finish. Spencer Wallace raced with one teammate, Will Hunt, a UK Army Officer training at Fort Leavenworth for a couple of weeks. The race began with a very fast tempo on the downhill leading to the road over the dam as the riders unleashed the fury in their legs and rode the tailwind across the scenic route. The pace slowed, however, as the riders settled in to an easy pace fearing climbing the Perry mountain 4 times.

With the “mountain” looming in the distance and a tailwind at their backs, it was easy going for the field for the first 3.5 miles of the race.  Spencer had enough of the conversational pace and attacked the field with 1.5km to go on lap #1 creating a sizeable gap on the field.  Will was the only one to follow and this newly formed international coalition held the break and crossed the hill #1 and #2 just as the chase caught up.  Mission accomplished as the field was hurting from the chase and climb and several riders were dropped off the back.

The group reformed on the downhill and then slowed as the teams reorganized on the flat road of the Dam.  Will then took his turn on the field and attacked on lap 2.  The peloton was confused and had no idea who this International Man of Mystery could be.  The Manx missile himself would have been proud of Sir Hunt, and it was clear to the riders that his acceleration was too hard to follow. As Will moved further up the road, Spencer stayed in the pack to block and refused to contribute to the chase as the field slowly organized to try and reel in the lone Brit with the wind blowing hard in their faces. 

Will was strong enough to stay clear for a lap and a half and easily claimed 1^st in the King of the Mountain points on top of the climb of lap 3. The Peloton finally caught Will on the flats of the final lap, but not before putting all of the teams in the hurt locker.  The hard chase and headwind took its toll on the entire Peloton and all of the teams were scattered and unorganized as the final lap began.   With 2km remaining, Will and Spencer moved to the front to pick up the tempo prior to the hill. Still suffering from the effort of the chase, the 3^rd lap climb, and now the increased pace, the entire field splintered except for 12 remaining riders. As the Peloton entered the gravelly roads with the pace very high, Will reached deep and again attacked the field.  No one could follow the acceleration  and Will crossed the line by two bike lengths ahead of the 2^nd and 3^rd place riders and Spencer followed closely behind the Podium contenders for a 4^th place finish.  This was Will’s first victory of the season, and a memorable one here on U.S. soil.