Yesterday my family and I went to my 2nd race this season, the Fork shoals Road Race, in Greenville, South Carolina. My goal for this race was to race very aggressively, get into breakaways, and make the race, rather than just stay anonymously in the pack and get a top 5, or higher finish. We got to the race a little over an hour before the start, giving me plenty of time to get my number and warm up. I was feeling pretty good before the race and was really looking forward to racing aggressively.
The race started fairly slowly, and about halfway through the first lap I was in a good position, maybe too good, in anywhere from 2nd to 5th position. The bad thing about that was that people were expecting me to pull through a lot to catch a break that had formed. After that I fell back in the pack, and was boxed in for a while. During the first couple of laps I was just saying hi to people I hadn't seen since the previous season. It was great to say hi to everyone I haven't seen since last season, including the Carolina cyclones junior team. I chased some breakaways and attempted to bridge up to others, but nothing was very successful. With 2 laps to go (the race was 4 laps on a 15 mile circuit) I could barely wait for a break that would stick, but I felt like I was getting a little tired--usually I just sit in for the first half of a road race.
I got what I was hoping for when 2 strong riders, one each from the powerful Hincapie and Carolina cyclones junior development teams, formed. We held them at a relatively small gap for a while. 2 more people joined them as the field began to sit up. We began heading down a gradual downhill that gets faster as it goes on, but nonetheless I could see the break easily and thought that it was within reach. I sprinted away from the pack and quickly got into a TT like position on my road bike. I caught the break in about a minute or a minute and a half, but as I remember it, it seemed like 10 seconds. So now the breakaway was 5 people strong and I thought we might stay away. 2 more people joined the break after me. I started pulling after I felt recovered enough, and soon all 7 of us were taking part in the paceline. We reached the start of the final hill (of the lap, coming up on 1 to go) with a decent gap on the field, and went up the hill pretty hard. Soon before the last corner with 1 K to go, I tried to attack the break, thinking my breakaway companions would block the field for me. Once I got a small, less than 5 second gap I settled down into a threshold pace, thinking that if I went harder I would only blow up--there was still another 15 miles to go. I was feeling good however, and about 5 people caught me coming up to the finish line. I'm not sure if they were a different set of riders than the ones in the original break or not, but either way they didn't seem too eager to pull, so once they got on my wheel I pulled for a few moments longer, but I was going slower and slower, and no one passed me right away. Because of this we were pretty much caught by a stretched out field about 50 meters before the line . I wished I had pulled harder and then veered out of the way faster, but I had just put in a hard effort so I was tired, and nothing was preventing the people behind me from passing me right away. We were all together at the start/finish line, when a hincapie rider attacked. I think it was the same person who started the breakaway, and also the same rider who was extremely aggressive throughout the race. Unfortunately I don't know their name, but they really made the race and I have to say congratulations to them.
Anyways, the junior from Hincapie was caught maybe a mile or so later. In the first half of the last lap I didn't do much--I was tired from all that attacking I did and was just thinking that a pack finish would be OK. In the final half of the last lap, I recovered and was getting desperate to move up. The final of the race was hard, and consistently fast, which I was very happy about because I thought it would tire out people for the sprint. With maybe 4 miles to go a 2 person break got away. Had I not been boxed in at that moment I would have tried to go with them, and there was one time when I could have attempted to bridge, but chose not to. Now I'm wishing I had at least tried because it turned out they stayed away, but oh well.
We went really hard on the last 2 hills before the "k to go" corner, so much that we were all pretty much attacking up it, but not getting anywhere. I moved up to about 1oth here, and wasn't in a position to try a late attack, nor do I think it would've had any chance to stick. I got stuck behind a rider going backwards with 200 meters to go and lost some of my momentum, but sprinted up to the finish for 6th place.
I was really happy about how I did in this race, not just the end result but also how aggressive I was--I've never been that aggressive in any category(other than juniors). After the race I rode around for a while cooling down. I want to thank God for how I did and give him the glory for any result I might get, and also keeping me and everyone else safe.
I got 20 dollars and 4 points from 6th place, so now I have 14 points, 11 until I can cat up. I cannot wait to be racing the pro 1/2 races! I'll post some picture tomorrow, and you'll get to see my new bike then too.
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