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.
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