roadcx.net

What a good race. I didn’t count heads but I would guess there was approximately 30 Cat 3’s lining up for the 5 loop road race (~50 miles). The course was rolling with a few decent little hills (Polar said ~460 feet climbing per lap). David Jones, Jarrett Kinder, and myself lined up for Memphis Velo. The other Memphis team, Marx & Bensdorf cycling had at least 4 as well.

Almost out of the parking lot the attacks started. Bryant from M&B was on the attack early on several times. We covered a few of those early attacks. I took off after one, David another, and then I did another… There were some other attacks mostly surround the two marquee hills of the course (one about a 1mile into the lap another ~2 miles from the end of the lap). There was someone up the road about 75%+ of the time it seemed, but they would always come back…

On the long hill to the finish, I made sure I was near the front and often would push the pace somewhat to try to be well positioned to cover the attacks to the start/finish (and to conserve some energy by sliding back in the field on the false flat at the top). Usually, the field would come together … the last attack (the one that worked), started off on the 4th time up the hill. I wasn’t in a position to cover it (tired) and it was gone. The break had a good mix of guys from the teams (M&B rider, VeloCity rider, Tria rider, a Krystal/SCV rider, and the eventual winner). Sam Linhoss from SCV flatted out of the break at about 3 miles to go, so it was down to 4 left. They finished about a minute up on the field.

In the sprint for 5th, I was pretty cooked and ended up 17th overall. Jarret came in just behind me at 19th. There was some commotion in the final sprint when two riders rubbed wheels, but everyone stayed upright. I felt good and trained through this race weekend… My goal was try to get up the road. I did that, but just didn’t get into the right break. I am looking forward to some more racing back in Chattanooga (4/12-13) and Brookhaven (4/19-20).