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Quick Race Recap: 5th place!

The "country roads" road race today was definitely out in the country, and some of the roads were not in great shape, but like yesterday it was well planned (except for the start times...) and went smoothly!  In Men's C, we did 3 12-mile loops.

Lap 1

Nick S and I started at the back of the group, with the Women's B field haha, and chatted for the first fews miles.  After turn 1, there was a small acceleration though, and they were OTB (off the back) haha.  There were two climbs on the course, the first being gradual and longer, and the second very steep, with gravel at the top, but short.  As we hit the climbs, Nick and I moved up through the field, nearer to the front, and on the steep gravel section at the top of the second hill, 5 guys took off.  I was pretty far behind them, Nick was with them for a little, but I decided to go for it and accelerated over the top of the climb and put it into TT mode to catch the break, passing Nick in the process.  There were 5 guys up, going as hard as they could to get the gap, and I was really in no man's land a half mile behind them... I biked harder than I ever have before in my like, literally going 40MPH on the flats, trying to catch, and after 3 grueling miles caught them! I had nothing left in the tank...and pretty much sat on.  We had a group of 6, with only 24 miles standing between us and top 6 finishes haha.

Lap 2

Again the action took place on the hills, I fought hard to stick with the group on the first hill, and did.  On the second hill as we hit the gravel, myself and the guy from GW popped off, pushing as hard as we could over the top.  We worked together really well to catch again, after a few miles, but it wasn't anything like the first effort.  We were both cooked by the time we caught, and again pretty much sat on the back.  I took some pulls though, when I felt like I could.  Somewhere on the flat-ish (it was all pretty rolling) we lost the GW guy and I was looking at 5th if I could hang on.

Lap 3

I was so tired that I had no real intentions of sticking over the hills, but hoped to get far enough away from anyone else to secure that 5th spot.  Near the top of the first hill, I'd had enough, and told the other four I'd see them at the finish haha! I worked up the next steep hill, and after coming over the top without being able to see anyone coming up the climb, I gave everything else that I had left in a TT-like effort over the last few miles, and rode painfully through the line for 5th!

Pretty pleased with the result.

It was one of the toughest races I've done....never again do I really want to chase down a strong break when I'm out of shape, but it was a fun day and I'm definitely pleased with the result.

I'm really glad my parents came down, I can barely move in my dorm room it's so full of stuff haha! Planning on a light ride tomorrow and preparing for conference championships, it's gonna be a tough week! Time for bed.

Clarksburg Criterium

There is no way to hide a lack of training in a city block criterium, and I certainly wasn't able to.

I didn't have high expectations, but it's still really hard not being able to get on the break, and suffering on the wheel of the "chase" group, when weeks ago I would've been crushing it in the break.  Not sure where I finished, don't really care at moment, not point-worthy for sure (15th maybe?).  I'm blaming it on myself here, but I did get 23.5MPH for my average speed, which is crushing with the tight turns and small hills, above my TT pace haha.  Having cadence was nice, I noticed that I liked to go at about 110 the whole race! Missed Brett at the race this weekend too!

On a positive note, Jean and Don and my parents came down for the race!! And the weather and race were awesome, it was right in the downtown, set up awesome, and I got four free hamburgers lol, as well as a few free ones for my dad and mom! It was great to see them again after so long

The cycling team's hotel was pretty sketchy, (6 people per small, smelly-ish room), and I opted to stay with my parents tonight after having Zach cuddle with me and snore like a freight train 6 inches from my face haha, got one of the worst nights sleep in a long time haha.  Much improved haha in a Hilton that is HUGE and my own bed.  We got dinner tonight, and it was really good, and we caught up on all that we've been up to.

With my evident lack of training and/or fitness, I'm just going to relax in the road race tomorrow and not try anything crazy (other than to finish!).  Congrats to Reid, Matt Dockins, and Ben Rice for strong finishes in the A, B and C fields respectively!

Pix:

Nick S and James hittin it

Sittin up after the race, I was doneski...

Jacob Aber doin work for Matt Dockins!

I set those captions outside of the caption so that the links to Nick and Jacob's blogs worked haha, maybe a post to come on Friday's trip to the wastewater treatment and recycling facilities! That's all for now though, thanks for reading.

WVU Preview

So this weekend I will be travelling to West Virginia University to race bikes.  Last year, they were two of my most successful races, despite being the longest and hilliest road race of the season.

This year there is no time trial, just a criterium on Saturday and road race on Sunday! Here is a link to their flyer.

I'm super excited for this weekend, I haven't raced in well over a month.

Worried...

Well, since William and Mary and the crash, I wasn't able to ride my bike very well for like 3 weeks.  I have been doing some training, but Wednesday I went out and bonked hard on a ride that wasn't super hard.  I don't think I'm in great shape...and so it's gonna hurt haha.  I'm still optimistic, but am lowering my expectations of winning haha.

But still excited, because

even though I don't expect to ride very fast (or place) my parents and Jean are going to be there! My parents are coming to see me race and to switch cars...I'll be driving the Subaru out there but driving my good ol' Accord back.  I missed the stickshift.  They're also bringing a lot of stuff down, which should be good....I wish my speakers would fit in the dorm room but I don't think they're going to.

Other exciting news!

I've failed to update the blog every day already for the month (7/9 days now haha)...that's really hard to do though, BUT as of yesterday morning the VT CYCLING CLOTHES WERE DONE! It'll take them a week to ship, and all 17 crates are coming to the 7th floor of Lee Hall via UPS! Poor delivery guy haha....the only thing I'm worried about is that they may need customs payment to deliver the order, which is 12% of the invoice total ($22k).

I'm sure there's more, but that's all you get for now haha. Thanks for reading.