This is just finishing up my post from yesterday. Well, the Tour De Moore road race is 3 laps on a 27 mile loop, for 81 miles. I did the pro 1/2/3 race, and was really looking forward to racing since I live about 15 minutes away from the start line, and ride on the roads the course featured on the course a lot on group rides. This year was the first time I did this race, since in previous years it was a masters only race. Thankfully, this year it included categories too.
Like I said in the last post, I thought I could get a top ten finish if I stayed in the pack for most of the time. The race finishes at the top of a 250-300 foot climb, besides that, the course is downhill or rolling. I have done intervals up that hill countless times, so I know the climb pretty well.
I lined up for the race in the middle part of the pack of about 60, not the front because for the 1st lap I just tried to conserve energy. That is just what I did, and the race started really slowly, until there were some attacks after about 4 miles. A 3 person break got away a little later.
The first time up the hill I felt really good and went over the top of the hill on the back of a 6 to 8 person group, that just had a bike length or 2 gap of the rest of the pack. Going through southern pines, a breakaway got away, and I resumed my position in about 20th. There were some more breakaway attempts on that lap, but I wasn't involved in any of them.
The second time up the hill was much easier, and I stayed in a good position over the top. There were a lot more break attempts on the last lap, especially in the last half of the lap, which was hillier. I was involved in about 3 of the moves, one which involved bridging to a bigger breakaway that had got a small gap on the field. It was really fun, and really hard, to attack with the cat. 1's and 2's. The last break I was in got caught with about 3 miles to go, and when we got caught a rider just rolled off the front, and nobody chased.
After that I was pretty tired, but still feeling pretty good. The 1st half of the climb up to the finish was controlled an not too hard. At the base of the final, steeper section of the hill, I jumped onto somebody's wheel, and was in 3rd with about 500 meters to go. Right after that though, a person sprinted past me, then another, then another, and I realized my legs just couldn't respond. I went hard until the finish line and got 17th.
After the finish, I was pretty pleased of how I did. I raced pretty aggressively and was in the action a little bit. I expected a little more at the finish, but I guess that would have to come at the expense of going with any attacks during the race. I was the best cat. 3 finisher in the race (actually I think only about 4 other 3's finished), and it was so fun to be in a higher level race. Next time, I will try to be a little smarter in a race like this, but now I know that I can be competitive. I just have to give the glory to God for how I did, too. After the race, I rode back home, so I rode about 95 miles total that day.
Sanford Criterium, April 25th:
I only did one race sunday because I was a little tired from the day before. I chose to do the 3/4 race. The race was 50 minutes on a short course, with a hill up to the finish line, small enough to just sprint over.
I started the race at the front of the pack, and got in a break with Mike Ventola and 1 or 2 others when he accelerated and I was on his wheel. He was nice enough to pull for a while, then I pulled thru, but we were caught after about 2 laps, I think. After that, I conserved energy in the pack, was in a couple of moves, but tried not to exert that much energy. I was feeling kind of strange, it was pretty hot out, and I would feel good, then feel bad, then feel good again. With about 8 to 10 laps to go, a big, 8 plus person breakaway formed that I was in. However we were not working together very efficiently, and soon before we were caught 3 riders from the break attacked. At the time I wasn't feeling great, although I could have went with them, but didn't, thinking they would be caught. We sat up after they were up the road, so they got a big gap quickly, and with about 5 to go it was obvious they were going to stay away the whole time.
With 2 to go, I was wondering what I was going to do for the remainder of the race. Unfortunately we were racing for 4th at that point. Going around the 2nd corner, I was moving up on the inside of the field to about 1oth. We weren't going that hard at that point so I felt it was a good time to attack, so I did, using my momentum to get a gap. I swung to the right edge of the road so nobody could get in my draft, and went around the last 2 corners going as fast as I could. With 1 to go I had a decent lead, but the pack was starting to really go hard. They were close to catching me around the 1st corner, but instead a solo rider flew by me so fast that I could not get on his wheel. When I looked back I thought he was the head of the field, so I eased up a little bit thinking I had been caught, but I don't think I could have got on his wheel anyways. However, I was still focused on staying ahead of the field, and went as hard as I could on the backstretch, and held off the field to get 5th.
After the race I was happy with how I finished, but if only I had went with that break. If there hadn't been anyone up the road, that would have been second, but I was really happy with being able to stay away from a charging field in the last 1 and a half laps.
Now I have 20 points, I only need 5 more until I can cat. up! Next week, I will probably, Lord willing, the Dilworth Criterium in Charlotte.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
Tour of the Battenkill 2010, Tyson's corner circuit race, Tour De Moore RR, Sanford crit
It's been almost 2 months since my last post. Since then I've done a lot of racing, but I only have time to go over my last 4 races-Tour of the Battenkill, Tyson's Corner, Tour De Moore RR, and the Sanford Crit.
Tour of the Battenkill, JRs 15-18, April 1oth:
This was one of my main goals of the early season. Before the race, my preparation wasn't quite perfect, but I was expecting to be competitive for the win, atleast in the 15-16 race.
Some of the other strong juniors in the 15-16's were Alexey Vermeulen, Marcus smith, Rudy Peterson, and Curtis White. Unfortunately Alexey broke his wrist before the race, so he couldn't come, so that left a couple of people I was watching. Of all the juniors, I thought Paul Lynch, a 17 yr. old, was the strongest.
We got to New York after a 13 hour drive from North Carolina, the day before the race, so I could ride the last half of the 62 mile course. There were some incredibly steep dirt sections; the race flyer said the grades went up to 25%.
Fast forward to the day of the race. I got in a short warmup, and went to the line. It was pretty cold at the start, so I was at the front during the neutral warmup to warmup. During the 1st dirt climb, I went over the top at the back of the first group, of maybe 15-20, but realized I wasn't feeling great. I just stayed in the pack for most of the race, until a climb near the halfway point split maybe 12 people off the front. I wasn't in this group and chased for what seemed like forever after them, but actually it was more like 5 to 8 miles. At that point, only 2 15-16 yr. olds were in the front group, Marcus Smith and I.
By the start of the last climb Marcus was in the 2nd break on the road, while I was in the next group, the chase group. It was obvious by this point that I was feeling terrible, and on the 2nd half of the climb my legs seemed to give out. I rode the last 6 miles to the finish by myself going about 18 miles per hour.
Still, I got 13th and 2nd of the 15-16's. Marcus won, and got 5th of all the juniors . Curtis white got 3rd, and Rudy got 4th. I think I felt bad for a couple of reasons, I don't think I ate enough, and as I said my training before the race wasn't great. Even if I was feeling good though, Marcus was really strong. Congratulations, and also congrats to Paul Lynch, who won the race, also to Rudy and Curtis, and to all the other juniors who raced.
So despite feeling really bad, I just tried to get over it, thank God regardless of how I had done, and get ready for the Tyson's Corner LAJRS race the next day.
Almost immediately after my finish and the podium presentation we left for a 7 hour drive to Tyson's corner, which is close to Washington DC.
Tyson's corner Circuit Race, Jr 15-18, April 11th :
My main rivals for this race were Steven Kendall, a 17 yr. old cat. 2 who did good at nationals and fitchburg last year, and Wyatt Briggs, who also is a cat. 2. I know Wyatt pretty well since he lives in North Carolina too, and earlier this season he was a 3, so I've raced with him quite a bit.
There were about 30 juniors signed up for the race, but Wyatt couldn't make it to the race, so my main rival was Steven Kendall. There were also some decently strong juniors there that I didn't recognize.
There were some attacks and some easier parts during the race. There was mainly only 1 dangerous break that got away, Steven Kendall and another rider. However, there were a lot of people who seemed like they were content to pull forever, so they were brought back.
With 6 laps to go I attacked, but it wasn't at the right time and I was brought back a little less than a lap(about 1.2 miles) later. After that I recovered for a while, until there were some hard attacks that really strung out the field. With 3 to go we were still going hard, but soon after the 1st corner we eased up some. I was in 3rd at that time, and noticed that there were maybe 4 or 5 of us that had a 2 bike length's, and shrinking, lead.
Right after I saw that I attacked, hard, and extended my lead on the middle downhill section of the course while the field didn't seem to be going that hard. From there on out I was usually extending my lead, until it was maybe 15 seconds going around the last corner. This was my 1st race win since last august, when I won the SC state championships 3 race.
After that was the cat. 3 race, about 1 1/2 hrs. later. The field had about 100 riders in it, the biggest group I've ever raced in. I conserved energy for most of the race, and was in a couple of short lived moves, as well as a breakaway of 6 to 8 that probably had the best chance as any of succeeding. The field just had a lot of strong guys in it, who were also willing to pull. After those attacks I was pretty tired, and got 28th at the finish.
Tour De Moore Road Race, Pro 1/2/3, April 24th:
This was my 2nd p123 race, and although the competitors in this one seemed to be quite a bit stronger, I thought I was capable of a top 10 finish if I conserved my energy throughout the 81 miles road race. I don't have time to finish this race report right now, I will try to finish it tomorrow and post some pictures from all 4 races.
Tour of the Battenkill, JRs 15-18, April 1oth:
This was one of my main goals of the early season. Before the race, my preparation wasn't quite perfect, but I was expecting to be competitive for the win, atleast in the 15-16 race.
Some of the other strong juniors in the 15-16's were Alexey Vermeulen, Marcus smith, Rudy Peterson, and Curtis White. Unfortunately Alexey broke his wrist before the race, so he couldn't come, so that left a couple of people I was watching. Of all the juniors, I thought Paul Lynch, a 17 yr. old, was the strongest.
We got to New York after a 13 hour drive from North Carolina, the day before the race, so I could ride the last half of the 62 mile course. There were some incredibly steep dirt sections; the race flyer said the grades went up to 25%.
Fast forward to the day of the race. I got in a short warmup, and went to the line. It was pretty cold at the start, so I was at the front during the neutral warmup to warmup. During the 1st dirt climb, I went over the top at the back of the first group, of maybe 15-20, but realized I wasn't feeling great. I just stayed in the pack for most of the race, until a climb near the halfway point split maybe 12 people off the front. I wasn't in this group and chased for what seemed like forever after them, but actually it was more like 5 to 8 miles. At that point, only 2 15-16 yr. olds were in the front group, Marcus Smith and I.
By the start of the last climb Marcus was in the 2nd break on the road, while I was in the next group, the chase group. It was obvious by this point that I was feeling terrible, and on the 2nd half of the climb my legs seemed to give out. I rode the last 6 miles to the finish by myself going about 18 miles per hour.
Still, I got 13th and 2nd of the 15-16's. Marcus won, and got 5th of all the juniors . Curtis white got 3rd, and Rudy got 4th. I think I felt bad for a couple of reasons, I don't think I ate enough, and as I said my training before the race wasn't great. Even if I was feeling good though, Marcus was really strong. Congratulations, and also congrats to Paul Lynch, who won the race, also to Rudy and Curtis, and to all the other juniors who raced.
So despite feeling really bad, I just tried to get over it, thank God regardless of how I had done, and get ready for the Tyson's Corner LAJRS race the next day.
Almost immediately after my finish and the podium presentation we left for a 7 hour drive to Tyson's corner, which is close to Washington DC.
Tyson's corner Circuit Race, Jr 15-18, April 11th :
My main rivals for this race were Steven Kendall, a 17 yr. old cat. 2 who did good at nationals and fitchburg last year, and Wyatt Briggs, who also is a cat. 2. I know Wyatt pretty well since he lives in North Carolina too, and earlier this season he was a 3, so I've raced with him quite a bit.
There were about 30 juniors signed up for the race, but Wyatt couldn't make it to the race, so my main rival was Steven Kendall. There were also some decently strong juniors there that I didn't recognize.
There were some attacks and some easier parts during the race. There was mainly only 1 dangerous break that got away, Steven Kendall and another rider. However, there were a lot of people who seemed like they were content to pull forever, so they were brought back.
With 6 laps to go I attacked, but it wasn't at the right time and I was brought back a little less than a lap(about 1.2 miles) later. After that I recovered for a while, until there were some hard attacks that really strung out the field. With 3 to go we were still going hard, but soon after the 1st corner we eased up some. I was in 3rd at that time, and noticed that there were maybe 4 or 5 of us that had a 2 bike length's, and shrinking, lead.
Right after I saw that I attacked, hard, and extended my lead on the middle downhill section of the course while the field didn't seem to be going that hard. From there on out I was usually extending my lead, until it was maybe 15 seconds going around the last corner. This was my 1st race win since last august, when I won the SC state championships 3 race.
After that was the cat. 3 race, about 1 1/2 hrs. later. The field had about 100 riders in it, the biggest group I've ever raced in. I conserved energy for most of the race, and was in a couple of short lived moves, as well as a breakaway of 6 to 8 that probably had the best chance as any of succeeding. The field just had a lot of strong guys in it, who were also willing to pull. After those attacks I was pretty tired, and got 28th at the finish.
Tour De Moore Road Race, Pro 1/2/3, April 24th:
This was my 2nd p123 race, and although the competitors in this one seemed to be quite a bit stronger, I thought I was capable of a top 10 finish if I conserved my energy throughout the 81 miles road race. I don't have time to finish this race report right now, I will try to finish it tomorrow and post some pictures from all 4 races.
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