Wrona Racing: Race Report: Historic Downtown Wake Forest Crit

Yesterday was the 2nd annual Downtown Wake Forest Crit, my team-sponsored event for the last 2 years. I raced in the Juniors 15-18 (15-16) and cat. 4 categories, at 9:35 and 11:35, respectively. I was excited to race, especially because there was a hill on the course. It wasn't long and could always be taken in the big ring, but it was steep and tired out the field. After the crest of the hill there was about 200 meters downhill to the finish.

Once I had warmed up, I got to the start line of yet another monsoon like race (15-18 race) and saw about 8 or 10 riders, including 2 of my teammates, Micheal and Craig, and a strong looking rider I had never seen before. The race started fast in the first 2 circuits and I was just hanging on. After that it slowed down a bit, and there was a preme. The one unidentified rider took it by a lot. Craig and Micheal put in some very strong attacks, with the other teammate and myself blocking, but every time the mystery rider chased it down with little help. Then there was another preme, and once again the unknown rider took it. After some hard chasing, the 4 of us were all together.

On the last lap, knowing I'd lose to the unidentified guy in a sprint, I attacked on the courses hill. Although the hill was short, its steep grade yielded me a bike length gap with 200 meters to go. I attempted to sprint the last part to the finish, but he came around me in the last 20 feet, and then beat me by 12 inches, so I got 2nd (1st 15-16). I was disappointed at first, but felt better when I learned the guy was a cat. 2, as well as the fact that I got 50 dollars!

Congratulations to all of my team, especially to my younger brother, Cooper, in the 10-12 race, to Timothy Dean for being competitive in the cat. 5's, to William and Louis Guillen for their excellent rides in the 10-14 group, to Barny Baxter and Alan Hart in the very hard masters race, to Micheal for a great solo breakaway and strong finish in the 15-18's, and to Craig, who really sacrificed himself for Micheal and I in the older Jrs. category. He must have attacked 10 times!

Next (1.5 hrs later) was the 4 race. A field of about 20 people were there, and the race started fast like the Jrs. race, with Micheal, Justin, a junior on C4, and other riders tearing apart the field. I felt kind of bad at first, but eventually felt stronger. After that, there was a preme, followed by numerous attacks and counter-attacks.

When the race was halfway thru, I started feeling good and looked around. At the time we were going hard from chasing some attacks, and by peoples faces and gasping for air I could tell they were tired.

The next time we went over the hill, the group was going slow and I attacked near the top. I accelerated over the crest and noticed the field wasn't responding. A lap later my gap was still healthy, but a strong headwind on the backside cut my advantage in half and I was caught right where I had attacked 2 laps ago.

After that, a rider from the Virginia Tech team attacked. Nobody responded to this accelaration either, and I was feeling strong so I hopped on his wheel. He pulled for at least half a lap, but when it was my turn I couldn't pull thru. We were caught, once again, just after the hill at the start finish line.

I took some time to recover after that, and almost lost the race when I found myself in the back group of a field split. Thankfully the pack regouped pretty quickly and I found myself in contention again, with 3 laps to go.

At 2 to go there was a flurry of attacks, and although I don't quite remember my exact position, I think I was in 5th to 8th. At one to go there were still splits in the strung out pack. Around the 2nd to last corner, right before the start of the hill, I was in 3rd or 4th, or maybe even 5th. I sprinted up the hill on the inside, and moved into 2nd. The rider in the lead, the one from Virginia Tech, had a decent gap on me that remained from the 2nd corner, and in the next 7 seconds to the line he just increased it, but I held on for 2nd, my best finish in an official cat. 4 race ever! I also got 80 dollars (130 for the day), a great race experience, and some points! I am starting to think that my goal of catting up is within reach!

Once again, good job to my whole team for racing great and putting on this race. Next weekend, Lord-willing I'll be going to the Tour of Atlanta, close to Atlanta, Georgia, were I can do 9 races in 3 days, including a road race with a 500 foot climb. Hopefully I'll only get closer to or even get enough points to upgrade there.

Here are some Historic Downtown Wake Forest Crit photos. (Double click on them to see them larger.)

Juniors 10-14 race