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I felt a little sleepy this morning, but otherwise good. I wasn’t sure how this course would race as a Category 3 only of 30 or so (last year it was combined with the P/1/2 field due to small field size. So we (Matt and I) started off on our 66 mile Tennessee State Road Race in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

With only two of us, I thought it better to let the team-vs-team dynamic play out on this rolling course. And it did, with all breaks coming back during the first two laps.

On the start of the 3rd and final lap, there was a small group of 4 riders up the road, but in sight. Barrett Krei (Cumberland Transit) was sort of caught out in no-mans land in between. At the front, Brent Mahan (Nashville Cyclist) was trying to pull back in Barrett at least, but all were sort of stuck. I moved up from about 4-5 wheel and took over for Brent and pulled back in Barrett. I think Carr (maybe another?) countered … I pulled part of way up and I am pretty sure Brent finished it off. Groupo compacto. Two more started pushing a gap soon thereafter and stayed just out in front of the field.

On one of the larger rollers in the lead-in to the big hill, one of the two riders fell off leaving just one up the road. I pushed hard up the hill and reached him. When I looked back, we now had a gap and so we went. I honestly thought that it would just get us over the hills leaving us to get caught on the relatively wide open highway.

Starting at 20 miles to go, we traded pulls. We worked well together, he paced up the hills and I drove the pace on the flats and downhills. We stayed away those final miles to end maintaining a minute gap whenever we heard time checks (which stopped in the final miles for some reason). At the end he stuck on my rear wheel and with the pack closing I didn’t want to play too many games. He came around me before the finish, so I got 2nd. However, he was an out of stater so I am the 2009 Tennessee Cat 3 road race champion.

It has been a long time since my previous state win (2001 Maryland Cat 4 road race). It would have been better to win the race, but I will take the jersey. We rode hard for it.