roadcx.net

Today was our club’s race (Smith & Nephew / Marx & Bensdorf Gran Prix). As usual, I raced Cat 3, but today was joined by the entire contigent of Cat 3’s for Memphis Velo (Aaron, Bryan, David, Jarrett, and John). The road race had a better turn out that in years past…with about 30 starting the race. During the course of the race, there we a few attacks during the first and part of the second lap, but none stuck. I attacked the corner-hill on the long-course connector and got a good sized gap for a 2 miles or so… a group of 6 caught me, but I had overdone it so I couldn’t hang. I had to drop back to the pack and everyone was collected after a mile or so. The effort put me in the back to rest for a while, so I missed the key break which occurred not too long after.

Initially we didn’t chase very hard (or at all), which in retrospect we should have done that work to pull back the break. Later on the third lap, we did do some pulls on the front, but the damage was done, we were now racing for 5th. About 1/2 mile from the finish we were moving along at pretty good clip jammed across the road 4-5 wide when there was some commotion on the right side of the field…. the chain reaction took out about 8 riders including David and Aaron. Bryan and I managed to get through on the left side and finished up probably 11th & 13th in the road race. I know it was a bit of a shock to both Bryan and I when we saw (and in his case felt) riders go down and our placings reflect this break in concentration.

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In the afternoon, the CD Smith Rd time trial was held. The forecast rain stayed away, which was good given the narrow two-lane road turn-around that is part of the course. I self-timed an 8:40-8:42 (official time was 8:40) which is somewhat better than the 9:18 that I ran last year. My TT placing was 10th of the 28 cat3’s.

Here are some photos Mark Allen took of me:

[at about 100 feet]                      [and after 3.7 miles]