First, though was the UNCW road race which was a pancake flat 12 mile loop which we did two laps around. This was their first time promoting and they did a great job. To be honest I almost didn’t get up for this race. Marshall wasn’t going because he had some last minute details to work out for our race, further I was going to have to get up at 5:30am to drive almost two hours to the race and finally I was going to have to head down to Campbell later that day to help set up the course for our race. After only a few seconds of hesitation though, I was up, in the shower and on the road to Watha, NC where the race was to be held. I was really looking forward to the chance to trying out my sprinting legs after being crashed out in the sprint last week. Honestly I know that Im no pure power sprinter that’s going to win a big field sprint, but I have a decent kick and I was on a mission this weekend to see just what I was working with this year.
As we stood on the start line I tried to scope out the strongest guys in the field to kind of keep my eye on. I knew for sure that Jordan from UNCW (the guy I had helped out after the crash on Sunday last week) was the one to keep my eye on. I was also looking out for a GW guy, who I mistakenly thought was the same one from last weekend that had placed well, but instead it was a different strong GW rider, so it worked out any way. As we stood on the line we jokingly made a pact to keep the pace friendly the first lap and race the second lap as we do all the time. Turns out today though, we made good on the pact.
We cruised along for the first lap at 18-19 mph on this flat course just chatting and getting to know some more of the riders in the field like Kevin from Duke who turned out to be a strong rider who was in the break with me both days. Just before the stat finish there was a 90 degree turn to the right, then a little less than 100 yards straight, followed by another 90 degree right turn before hitting the 200m sprint to the finish. Going through this tricky section after the first lap the UNCW rider I was suppose to be watching sneakily eased up the road and then attacked. The GW rider and a state guy realized this the same time I did and so we attacked hard to bridge the gap. I though this looked like a good opportunity to get a breakaway up the road with some of the stronger riders in the field so when we caught UNCW I looked back and yelled “we got a gap” then proceeded to lower my head and drive on the front. About a minute later I looked back to see if I had helped our gap only to see that I had in fact opened up about 500 yards on the field but that there was no one on my wheel. I sat up and let the field come back to me and asked what happened. They didn’t have the same break away ambitions I did quite yet.
So we set in with a few surges to just drop a few riders off the back over the next half a lap, but no one wanted to take the responsibility to take a pull at the front. At one point a state rider yelled “lets pick it up a bit!!”. So I turned to him and said ‘if you want to lift the pace go up there and do it”. That was the problem sure we all wanted it to start getting a little strung out as we approached the finish but no one was willing to do it. Suddenly though, as if it was planned, the front four guys who had constitly been frustrated about the pace attacked and caught the rest of us off guard. Luckily I was sitting on UNCW’s wheel and he quickly closed the gap and we formed a seven man break which included all the strongest guys in the field. We easily opened up a gap and once I was convinced we weren’t going to be brought back I sat at the back andbegan to build some reserves for the finish. As we neared the finish I moved up and made sure to stay about 3rd or 4th wheel. I knew with that two tricky turns before ht efinsih it was important to be at the front even more than normal.
So as we hit the first turn I was 3rd wheel and in perfect position with GW on the front, then duke, then me, and then UNCW on my wheel. Unfortunately coming out of the turn GW accelerated and the duke guy in front if me was unable to hold his wheel. I quickly decided to go around the duke rider but by this point GW had a gap. We hit the final turn and then as soon as I was on the straight I started to sprint and slowly started to gain on the GW rider. At about the 100m togo mark though Jordan from UNCW came around me pretty effortlessly and then flew by the GW rider. I glanced back to see what the situation was and realized we I had opened up a 150m gap on the rest of the field so I sat down and coasted across the line for third.
Congrats to Jordan on the win though he definitely deserved it. He did a lot of work on the front including bridging to the break and was clearly the strongest rider in the field. I was really happy though with my finish and my sprint for my best finish ever.
Ill save you from hearing all the promoting issues but suffice it to say I was up at 6am Sunday in the rain getting the course set up before my race which started at 9am. Unlucky for us it had decided to rain on our race day so the field sizes where significantly reduced and the “sweet” brick section turned into a treacherous brick section. Everyone kept commenting about how great of a venue it was though main campus though and I think most folks after taking a few laps across the bricks started to see how different and fun it was.
The middle portion of the race was pretty monotonous just sitting in the break drilling it lap after lap and getting more and more confident though the turns. With three laps to go we got the bell for the last prime and duke was still on the front. As we came back to the start finish the duke rider sprinted for the line taking the prime. We then started up the hill on the back side and the gw rider and myself caught the duke rider who was slumped over breathing heavy. I quickly determined he had went to hard and this was a good time to get rid of an obviously strong rider who just wasn’t riding smart. So I looked to the Gw rider and said “ he went to hard lets leave him”. He quickly nodded and I put my head down and drilled it. I was surprised at how strong I felt and how fast I could push it through the turns.
As we approached the start finish and got the bell for one lap to go I glanced back and saw we had a fair gap on the duke rider so as we started up the hill I pulled off for the GW rider to take a pull which would hopefully set me up to be on his wheel at the finish. I quickly realized that he didn’t have enough left and the duke rider started to close the gap so I went back to the front and pushed it hard through the turns and the bricks taking the duke rider out of the picture for good. As we approached the finish with 500m to go I started to soft pedal and turned to watch the GW riders every move like a track sprinter just waiting to go. He never jumped and neither did I we just watched one anotherwaiting to see who would go first. Finally when I was sure I was close enough I abruptly jumped as hard as I could smashing the pedals. At one point I recall seeing his wheel start to creep up so I had to kick it into the next gear with a bit of a warrior scream and somehow managed to end up winning by about a bike length.
Post race Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fD_t68JESPs&feature=player_embedded Right now I sit third overall in the conference, but seeing as Ill only be racing the first half of the season due to law school it doesn’t really matter. Next weekend is Duke which looks like fun not sure how much Ill race though. Im certainly not burnt out on racing, but I am a bit burned out on waking up at 6am to drive an hour or two to race both days of my weekend and honestly it is starting to wear on my ability to get stuff done during the week leaving me continuously tired. Chances are though that Ill be there both days. It’s a sickness.
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