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.
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