NC Road Race Championships

Last Sunday I did the NC RR championships. I raced in the cat. 4's--my last cat. 4 race. I have managed to get enough points to cat. up to a 3! I have 25 points now, half of which I got at the Tour of Atlanta about 2 weeks ago. Since this was my last category 4 race, I really wanted to be aggressive, race good and just have fun.

The cat. 4's lined up at 8:40 a.m. to complete 3 laps of a roughly 16 mile loop, for 50 miles total. The course this year was slightly different from the last 2 years, with a short section added on to the loop that included what people said was a mile-long climb.

I started the neutral section out to the main loop in the top 10, but slipped back pretty soon in the huge field of at least 60 people. We got to the hill, but it was less than half a mile long followed by an easy false flat. Not what I was expecting, but oh well.

With 1 lap to go I was still boxed into the huge field, but with half a lap to go I finally saw an opening on the right side of the road. One rider had attacked and another rider had just went up the road chasing. I saw an opportunity and went off the front. I bridged up to the 2nd rider and let him pull me up to the first. We shared pulls for a while and were really cruising, even passing the category 3 breakaway (we passed the field earlier). Were were going over 30 pretty frequently, but were all getting more tired. With a mile to go the hard charging field appeared to be almost up to us, but we tried to keep the break going.

We rounded the left hand corner leading back to the Start/Finish line, and had about a mile to go. With 1 k to go the field was just hanging back a couple of bike lengths, prolonging the catch, and I decided to go. I tried to attack, and thought for a while I had a chance, but was caught and swarmed with 400 or 500 meters to go. I crossed the line near the back of the pack.

After the race I was hardly disappointed, because I had almost held off an 60+ rider peloton for 5 miles, which is the longest break I've ever been in in a category race. I raced aggressively too, and am really looking forward to the 3's.

Lord willing, my next races are the Fitchburg Longsjo Classic, July 2nd-5th, and the French Broad Ominum, July 17th, 18th, and 19th, where I'll race the 3's for the first time. I am really hoping to do well in both races; in MA with the Juniors and in Asheville with the mountaintop finish Road Race.