roadcx.net

Road race…. Haven’t done this in a long, long time (2002 or 2003, I think). Anyway, that was back when travel made me uncompetitive, so I was looking forward to a better experience this year.

Race started out with an attack up the first moderate hill that had 5-6 clear for a 1-2 miles. After pulling them back, there might have been some other short lived attacks, but they weren’t memorable. Probably 10 miles in, Barrett Krei attacked up one of the hills and I felt obliged to follow. I never really could close down the gap and I was caught and he wasn’t. A few miles later, a Jittery Joe’s rider bridged up and then built up a lead… The chase was sort of disorganized and frustrating.. Two different times, I sort of rolled off the front and decided to make a go of it… I think each one only last about a mile or so before the field pulled me back… and then shutdown again. Really the chase was not about teams it was all about apathy. 1:30 turned to 0:50 (when I was up) and then back out to 1:15… after a while it grew to 3:00 plus and the collective resolved to race for 3rd.

By this time we were winnowed down to about 15 or so…. We lost a bunch in the early hills. With maybe 6-7 miles to go (need to check my garmin, but forgot my cord this weekend), we went up the longest hill and the climbers took advantage… I crested 20-30′ off the past and soon the gap widened somewhat to 500′ with 7 working together. I decided that I needed to get to them and so I worked… All the while I was expected to get caught by the 2nd chase group, but it never happened. I ended up making the catch with about 3 miles to go.

This photo from 1 mile to go was lifted off Dustin Greer’s Facebook. How is that for a photo credit?

Unfortunately, it wasn’t much time to rest, and the finish was uphill. I managed to beat one of the chase group up the hill and got 9th.

After the RR, I hung around in Gainesboro (glad I decided *not* to leave my TT stuff back in Cookeville). I hit the drugstore (I needed fresh deodorant) and then headed to Subway. I went in alone but ran into a bunch of people I know and ended up staying there for quite a while in the A/C…..

The TT was in the evening. My start time was 4:52pm which meant I had plenty of time, but ended up using most of it productively on bike setup and then starting a short warmup riding up and down the hwy. It was still pretty hot, but at least we had a small tailwind pushing us somewhat on parts of the course. Unfortunately, we had a few decent hills to deal with on the 9 mile course. After starting out as I normally do for the shorter time trials, I ended up settling in on a more moderate pace up to the hill. Long story short, the hill was hard and I slowed down excessively going up it (I remember seeing 8 mph for part of it). At this pont, I am not sure of my place, only pretty sure of my time (self timed at 22:35). Looking at last year’s results, it pretty much means I am racing at a Cat 4 level, but maybe all the rest are hurting as well (I was told the race last year went easier in the Cat 3 field.)

Tomorrow is the crit in downtown Cookeville.