Jass and Knox Win Iowa Games Gold

MOBsters Travis Jass and Eric Knox took on the 26 mile Iowa Games Road Race last weekend, and both brought home gold medals in their respective age groups. They also finished 1st (Jass), and 2nd (Knox) overall. Congratulations Travis and Eric!

Their individual race reports follow:

Contributed by Travis Jass

I Met up with Eric and Ben Acree before the race. We really had no strategy going in. After the short roll out, the pack just kinda stuck together for the longest time. As we came into the first big hill near Pilot Mound, I knew Eric was in the pack so I planned to attack at the top of the hill and told Ben just to sit in and let others pull them up trying to break up the pack.

I took off halfway up and got a good solo gap on the field. I was away for awhile and looked back to see the entire field coming. I decided instead of dangling off the front trying to ride the pack apart, I sat up and let them catch me.

We kept going along and nobody really attacked or fell out of the pack. It was just a big clump rolling along. Side note: on our weekly rides I have learned that Ben and Eric can dust me in any sprint. So as we came up on the water plant hill I thought I'd try it again and there would be a long enough stretch afterwards that either they could get pulled along and out sprint everyone else or it would be short enough that I could hold on long enough myself.

After a near miss with a stray tandem, I took off again and climbed with everything I had. As I got to the top I heard another bike behind me and swore under my breath that I couldn't break it up enough. Without turning around I yelled back "how many are we" and I get a familiar voice saying "It's just you and me now". It was Eric!

We went around a couple curves I was recovering on his wheel to look back and see a chase coming for us. I pulled through and was feeling pretty good so I just kept going and checking the shadow to make sure he was still with me. Just inside the 1k to go sign, I heard Eric say we had it. So we rolled through the finish line 1-2, and we are different age groups so we both brought home gold.

Contributed by Eric Knox

Mobsters Travis Jass and I competed in the 26mile road race in Boone on Sunday. We began with a rolling start with fellow Fort Dodger and training partner Ben Acree. The field stayed together most of the race. With approximately 2 miles to go, we started up a long painful climb,

Travis jumped out for the attack and I followed, riding his wheel to the top. When we got to the top, we realized we had created quite a gap. Travis and I worked together on the final kilometer, with Travis setting a blistering pace that held our lead to the end. We took home 1st and 2nd, with both of us taking gold in our age respective groups. Ben took 4th in the 30-39 age group.

All together a great day for racing, and dream breakaway in the final climb to made it oh so sweet.