ASU Race Recap

A race recap and preview all in one post?? I guess there’s a first time for everything. Also it must mean we are in the midst of a great stretch of racing.

So this past weekend Marshall and I competed at ASU’s race weekend in my hometown of Wilkesboro, NC. As I mentioned Saturday was the road race that included laps of ten miles which incorporated over 1000 feet of climbing per lap with grades exceeding 12.5% in places. What more can you expect from the APP folks. We were the last race to go off and were delayed because the lap times from the A and B riders were much longer than expected. This should have been some type of foreshadowing. As we lined up there were only 18 people in our race which was a byproduct of people upgrading at the midway point of the season, people on spring break, and im guessing people smart enough to know this was going to hurt. We were informed as we were about to start that our race would only be one lap instead of the scheduled two because of the time and difficulty. I was kinda bummed because my one semi strength is more endurance oriented and so now I knew it would be a sprint full out.

We rolled out a a nice easy neutral start pace of 25mph and continued to push it hard over the two miles leading up to the start of the climb. I was riding second as we started up the first section of the climb and held my position over the top of the rise to a false flat before the road really turned skyward. The pace was relentless and it was all I could do to hold my spot as we hit the steep road. Marshall had held on for the first two miles but lost the field over the first climb. He then worked his way back to the tail of the pack over the false flat just to get dropped again as the climb started. Within a 100 yards of the start of the hill I dropped to the back of the lead group and then I was on my own. Im not really sure what happened but it was like my legs just couldn’t push any harder so I struggled up the inline. There were points where I thought about just turning around and rolling back down the hill. The riders we had dropped on the first hill had caught me by this point and I settled in to a group of about 4 riders for the rest of the race. It was without a doubt the hardest race I have ever done and I was happy to just finish. If there wouldn’t have been witnesses standing on the 12.5 grade hill I may have got off my bike and walked. In this group of four I would leave the two behind me for a while and they would work back up to me then I would leave them again. I finally though I saw the top and I glanced down at my computer to confirm the mileage, just at this time I saw the app state rider closing back in on my tail so I sat in and just as he had closed the gap about 100 yards from the top I stood up and attacked. I opened up 30 seconds on him easily as he had nothing left.

I am pretty confident in my descending ability and know in the last three miles were all downhill I was confident with the gap I had opened I would be fine. Never the less I pushed it as hard as I could and opened the gap to over a minute. At the bottom of the mountain there was one last right turn onto the last half mile of road before the finish. I saw people at the intersection signaling the turn but I wanted to wait till the last possible second before hitting my brakes. Less than 100 yard from the turn I grabbed my brakes but it was to late. I could slow down from my 45+ mph decent and went right across the road into the woods on the other side. Luckily I didn’t hit anything but by the time I got back to the road the APP rider was going by me. As I got back up to speed he had a 100 yard gap on me and though I pushed as hard as I could I didn’t have enough time to bring him back before the finish.

I ended up finishing 14^th and Marshall finished 16^th. Not the day we were looking for. It was kindof disappointing coming off what I felt like were solid results at Duke but it just wasn’t my day.

Sunday morning brought the crit and my chance to redeem myself from the day before. There were only 15 riders for this race but I was excited none the less about racing around the speedway and my family seeing why I spend so much time preparing for this sport.

As we stood on the line I was chating and messing with my computer as the start whistle blew. I had neither foot clipped in and by the time I got clipped in the field was gone and all I heard was Kevin Long the conference director yell “go on Brandon catch up with them”. So I used my finishing sprint to catch the back of the pack and tried to settle in the draft to recover. Within a few laps I felt ready to go again. Marshall was riding about third wheel and I was beginning to think about the fact that if a break went I was not going to make it back here. So I decided to go ahead and move up to the front with marshall. I pulled to the outside and started moving forward and as I did I started hearing riders yelling “on the right, hes going on the right, watch em, watch em,”. I wanted to tell them I wasn’t going anywhere but riders started to pull out behind me in prep for a break. I moved up to second wheel and pulled back in line. The other riders then jumped in front and raised the pace.

I saw people getting jumpy and trying to find the right time to go. Just then two duke riders went off the front and Marshall said go with them, so I did. Looking back I shouldn’t have because I knew those duke riders weren’t strong enough to stay away but in the moment you don’t want to miss the move. We were pulled back in within a lap and then the real move came. West Virginia came to the front and took off. I was sitting about seventh and the rider in 6^th from NC state couldn’t hold the pace. I was kinda spent from trying to go with the duke riders so instead of pulling out and going I sat in and hoped he would get back up to them. By the time I knew the rider wasn’t going to bridge up I had let him pull me off the back and the lead five riders had a pretty good gap. I jumped out and tried to lift the pace and chase. I put my head down and pushed hard and closed the gap down but I needed help to finish the chase. When looked back I had dropped the rest of the field and then only Marshall and three other riders could close the gap back up to me. So there was a lead group of five and a chase group of five then five more riders off the back. I pulled for another lap then Marshall jumped on the front and pulled for a couple laps. Finally when we saw none of the other riders were going to pull we yelled for them to come to the front. No dice. They were happy just sitting in. I was starting to see that our race for the win was over and so I told marshall to just slow down and see if the other riders would come to the front. Well they did but they decided to attack us. Marshall was spent and so I had to jump in front of him and pull him back to their wheel. There were a few attacks and then we all settled in together and somehow Marshall and I found ourselves on the front yet again. We had done way to much work but my legs felt great the whole race and I knew I should be in the front group. As we came across the line for the last lap I was sitting forth in our group and around turn one I got a run and decided to go with it. I put my head down and buried it. I was leading going into turn three but out of no where the group flew by me. I didn’t have time to react because I was hoping to hold them off till the end and ended up crossing the line 10^th.

I was disappointed at having felt like one of the strongest in our group and finishing in the back. I did way to much work through the whole race but it was fun and another great learning experience.

This weekend we will be at wake forest but only on Sunday for the crit. We are trying to save as much money as possible for conference finals at Virginia tech. The crit is .81 miles with some really tough 120 degree turns. It should be fun and hopefully offer some redemption from last week.