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Lined up with about 30 others for the Category 3 River Gorge RR. For the first time, the Cat 3′s were split out from the P/1/2 so we had race that we could be competitive in. The course is a 60 mile loop featuring two marquee climbs of several miles plus a handful of other smaller hills spread out over the distance.

Even during the neutral roll-out, the attacks started (although that one wasn’t too serious). On the first part of the course, the races heads down US Hwy 11. A few miles into the race a break was established with 8 in it and they started to build up a lead. Seeing this develop, I decided to try to bridge up to this break a few miles before the first hill. I rolled out pretty hard and quickly started to make progress towards catching the break. A mile or so after it, I was joined by another coming up from the field and we worked together to the short hill leading to the first KOM spot (no prize in our race, but it was marked just the same). I continued to push hard up the hill and soon after that I was alone. By the time I got to the KOM spot, I was within 15-20 seconds of the catch (according to the time check) After the KOM, the course heads downward down a twisty road. Even though I rode this section hard, I lost time to the break (time check was 20 seconds+ at the turn near Whiteside). At this point, the going got tougher for a lone rider trying to catch since it was lightly rolling and into a head wind. By the time I got down to Nickajack Lake, the moto told me 1:20…. I didn’t get a time check to the field, but they looked to be about 1:30-2 minutes back when I looked across the lake as I went over I-24 hwy.

Up and over Ladd mtn and down the other side to the wide open part (again into a head wind) meant that I was bleeding time all the way to New Hope. At the turn towards Sand Mtn, I heard over 2 minutes and I suspected that the field was also closer than before, so I figured that I could at least get up Sand a bit before the field passed me.

About a 1/3 of the way up, the front of the field passed me (Barrett first)… I tried to stay with him and the others I dropped back, but ended up falling back to about mid-field. Over the top, I got into a good working group over the top and down the descent. We picked up a rider falling off the leaders over Ladd and continued the chase back to the Lake. As we approached US41-64-72, the leaders (by this time consolidated) were just ahead. At the base of the US41 stair steps, I jumped ahead since our group had slowed a bit and the lead group was just ahead (in distance, not in time). When I was about 2/3 of the way to the group, a portion of our chase group came by and we reintegrated just before the top. Going over the top, I was pretty gassed, but managed to hold on and planned to rest as much as I could before the final climb.

Down in the low parts of the road (along the river), Barrett (Cumberland Transit) jumped up the road and quickly built a lead. Everyone must have been as tired as I because we never mounted a serious chase (and we never caught him). I started the Raccoon Mountain finishing climb with the group but couldn’t stay with the lead 6 (2nd-7th on the road). Matt was just ahead of me and by halfway up I closed to him and we worked together for a while pacing each other. By the final part, I felt like I could maybe catch the back of the splintered group and I rode away from Matt at the end. I didn’t catch anyone unfortunately and we finished 8th and 9th I am pretty happy with the result, of course, I wanted it to be a top 5. Given our lack of hill work in Memphis, we did alright.

During my solo work and on both of the climbs, I demonstrated an average power in line with my FTP. I finished the 3 hour race with a normalized power right at my FTP. Confirmation of what I already knew…. I worked hard today.