Tour De Frankenmouth

Greetings Team Active race fans.

It was a cold and rainy start to the 2009 edition of das Tour de Frankenmuth, a 47-mile race for Cat 4 riders through the outskirts of this lovely village situated in Michigan's upper East Side. The course was very flat with only 2 rollers and a valley in the last mile of the race. The rce was 3 laps of a 15.5 mile course.
There were 60 riders in Cat 4, and 2 would not finish (more on that later). The Masters 45+ class started 3 minutes prior to our start, and that would come into play as well.
The first lap was fairly fast, and I stayed in the top 10-15 the entire time. There were three attempts to break, but none of them successful. Midway through the first lap, we caught and passed the Masters 45+ group. They caught us just after the first lap, and that is when I had my "false flat." We had just gone over some rogh road, and I felt my rear tire flatting, so I pulled off. The group pulled by and after I checked my tire, it was OK; thus the "false flat." I spent the next 10 minutes chasing back on and then working my way up through the field to my original posistion.
The second lap was fairly uneventful; just pushing the pace and trying to sort out the field.
The third lap got interesting about a mile from the finish when I was moving up on the right side and heard a sound to my left. I looked over just in time to see two wheels facing the sky and a racer fully laid out in mid air. I found out after the race that wheels crossed and two racers went down; one with a broken left collarbone. I was lucky, and finished the race in 18th position, with a time of 1 hr. 57 min, with an average speed of 23.6 mph.
By the time the race finished, the sun was shining, and I headed up to Sebewaing to an open house for a couple of nephews graduating high school.
With this experience, I look forward to next year's Tour de Frankenemuth.