The Victory Criterium held at the World War II Victory Museum and Kruse Auction Facility up in Auburn, Ind. (just north of Fort Wayne), this past Sunday, April 13, was the first event of the seven-race NUVO/Cultural Trail Race Series.

The Category I-II-III race started promptly at the posted 3 p.m. time, which was a pleasant surprise, considering the weather conditions that day. Unfortunately, racers were welcomed with temperatures in the 30s, strong winds out of the north and a not-so-pleasant mix of rain and occasional sleet. Most of the (smart?) Midwest cyclists went back to bed after waking up to the abysmal conditions that were guaranteed to stick around throughout the day, as there were only about two dozen to start our race.

This race was a bit unique in ways other than having the worst conditions I have personally raced in. Racers left the start line and headed directly through a dark tunnel beneath I-69 that led to the 1-plus-mile loop on the other side of the highway. From there, we did roughly 75 minutes of racing around the mostly flat course, and at the end we headed back on the original leg of pavement, through the tunnel again, back to the finish line.

The race commenced with most of the group willing to just warm up their legs a bit and to get a feel for the weather and the course on the first lap. When the real racing began, the pace picked up a bit on the ensuing laps. Various attacks went off the front, generally with one or two of the NUVO/Cultural Trail squad represented in the move — which was a good thing since we made up 25 percent of the field. The decisive move, that ultimately stuck, was made somewhere around 20-30 minutes into the race. We had our designated sprinter, Ben Weaver, in that group of four or five escapees, so we were more than happy to let that one go. A second chase group formed, which eventually included Declan Doyle and Ryan Myers. Again we had decent representation in the move, so the rest of us settled in with the remainder of the field that hadn’t thrown in the towel.

Not long after the two groups had established decent time gaps, we spotted Ben gingerly riding alone, on a flat tire, back to the start/finish line! With our sprinter out of the lead due to a flat tire, we were now forced back on the offensive. Ideally, we would have wanted the chase group to catch leaders now. However, that front group included some pretty strong riders, including eventual race winner, 17-year-old (!) Adam Leibovitz — and it just wasn’t coming back regardless of how much work Declan and Ryan were willing to put forth in the chase. Andrzej and I really couldn’t work to catch the chase group and help in their chase of the leaders, as we would have brought along a slew of other riders that would have done nothing more than water down their finish, so we were content to cruise home for whatever places we could sweep up at the line.

When it was all said and done, and 75 minutes of racing in deplorable conditions had passed, we ended up with ninth, 10th, 13th and 14th place. Not as good as we had hoped, but we did collect some important points to lead off our race series with. I don’t think any one team monopolized many more points than we did, so we should be in pretty decent shape for the next race in our series: the Zionsville Grand Pix on June 29.