I wanted to take a few minutes to say thank you to…
Blacksheep Cycles for making all of my racing possible this season!
Daniel Bizzell for supplying an awesome bike to race on!
David Robb and Necodo for supporting the BSCartel and making our trips up and down the east coast possible!
And I want to extend a special thanks to my coach Chad Andrews (Pres. of Per4mance Training/www.totalcyclist.com)! I wouldn’t be the athlete I am today without his coaching!
Thank you all for your help and support!
The Sunday crit in Ashville turned out to be quite a scorcher. It had to have been at least 90+ degrees outside and a portion of the front stretch of the course had recently been repaved. So that in itself made it feel hotter than ever.
This crit seemed to start out much more aggressive than Saturday. After winning the previous day it took me from 12th overall to 3rd. I knew right away i was a marked man, so for the first 10-15 min. of the race i just followed moves. I was toward the front probably more than i should have been, especially since i only felt about 85% of what i did the day before. It came down to the point where i knew that i wasn’t going to be able to make the winning break so i told Thad that he needed to go when he got the chance. I said it because i know my body and i knew how i felt at that point in the race.
Not long after Thad went Dirk from Texas Roadhouse Cycling countered and i had to follow if i was going to hold on to my third place overall. Dirk went, i went, Boyd Johnson went, and Diego went. We chased for pretty much the whole race and it almost seemed to me like everyone in the chase was expecting me to do all of the work. I was surprised whenever Dirk was on the front of the chase it didn’t seem like we were really making up any time on Thad. As one of Thad’s teammates Boyd obviously wasn’t going to do any work. And when i was on the front i only felt about 85% so i wasn’t really doing as much as the guys in the break thought. So we basically just rotated very unorganized for the rest of the race. On the last lap i was on the front again and all of us were looking around at each other and i figured the only way i was going to take 5th for the sprint was to go early into the tightest corner of the course, and faster than usual simply because i knew i could take that corner faster than the other guys. I guess i can settle for 5th but i would have preferred a top 3 instead. You can’t always get what you want…
Whew! At approx. 2:30pm this afternoon we finally arrived at Fitchburg, MA. Spencer, Max, Eric, and I were all eager to get on our bikes after sitting in a car for 11hrs. yesterday and 5hrs. today! Once we had moved all of our stuff into our rooms we kitted up and headed out to the TT course. It starts out with a slight grade and levels off for a little bit and it is a continuous, but light, grade until about just past the half way point, then its mostly flat and downhill to the finish (which was my favorite part). The only thing i didn’t like so much about the course was the fact that it had to be the most UNsmooth TT course i’ve ridden in my life. There’s been so much patching work done on about 70% of the 6.55 mile course, that you literally have to find the fastest line as you would on a technical mtn. bike trail. But i guess that’ll just have to be something i have to get used to for this week. On a more positive note though, i am
On behalf of the BSC cycling team I want to thank the Fitchburg East Rotary Club for helping us find a killer deal on accommodations for this week! Especially a team on such a tight budget.
This past weekend was quite a warm up for the Crossroads. I thought since my somewhat mediocre performance in the TT on friday (12th place), I was going to be out of the overall GC for the weekend. However, i had no idea that i was going to feel as good as i did the next day in the Brevard Crit.
When we (BSC) arrived at the venue i noticed a lot of horsepower had shown up including, DLP, Hincapie/Coca-Cola, Industry Nine, Texas Roadhouse Cycling. After observing this before the pro 1/2 race i decided i would be a little more patient than usual and sit in for a while before initiating any attacks or following. The announcer had been calling out 10$ primes (lol) and it was obvious that no one was going for anything that weak. But, we came around for another lap and i heard “35$ prime on the next lap..” and with that said i decided to go for it just so i could come out of the weekend with something. Little did i realize how great my legs were feeling. I jumped straight out of the last corner to go for the prime and from what i understand, nobody came with me. As soon as i came across the line i glanced back and saw i had a sizable gap and people on the sides of the course were yelling at me to KEEP GOING, KEEP GOING! So i came around the first two corners, looked back and the only person who bridged was Diego Eutierrez from Aero Cat. (Sorry if thats not your last name Diego) I let up for just a moment to let him on my wheel so i had someone to work with. For the bulk of the race Diego and i were taking whole lap pulls. I couldn’t believe how great i felt! I could have sworn i had tunnel vision. It was one of those races where even when you know you are going hard you feel like you aren’t even going hard enough. Even though the gap we had was slowly building with each lap, it was almost like i had convinced myself that the field was going to chase me down like every other time. I think my mind was reverting back to when i raced mtn. bikes a few years ago, when you know you are in the lead, but every time you hear someone else’s chain slapping their bike you think they’re right behind you and you just keep going harder.
Eventually i heard the announcer say we were 28 sec. off the back of the field! I couldn’t believe it! For the first time in my time racing road i actually had a chance at lapping the field! It was like throwing gasoline on the fire when i heard this. So every time Diego and i came up the hill on the front stretch i pinned it. I can’t remember exactly how long it took but i would say it was about 6-7 laps that we closed that gap.
The next thing i heard was Thad Dulin was off the front solo for 3rd place. I felt so good i didn’t want to let up for even a second, much less let Thad come back around. Simply because i know that he is capable of doing this. More gasoline baby! Diego and i weren’t in the group for much more than 2 or 3 laps and i went back to the front and just continued truckin. By this point there were about 7 laps or so to go and i was feeling just good enough to see if i had a chance at taking the field sprint just to put icing on the cake. Once we came through with one to go, i wanted to pull a ‘Fabian Cancellara’ and just absolutely scorch the last 1K. I did what i could but when we came around the last corner i stood up to accelerate and ended up leading out an Industry Nine rider. I didn’t mind i knew i had the win so i rolled across the line with my hands up to take my first win as a Cat 2!
Well, unfortunately after finding out that i had the 23rd spot in the overall standings on Sunday, the race didn’t exactly turn out as planned. The field, to me, seemed very disorganized and kind of unsure of how the race was supposed to go. I was, however, fortunate enough to feel like a million$$ for this crit. I told myself, “well, i haven’t been so pleased with my results this weekend so lets come out of this with something..” The race started out pretty aggressive and continued to be for the majority of it. I like being aggressive so it seemed to suit my riding style. I launched an attack about 1/3 of the way through the race to see how i was feeling and it turned out i felt a hell of a lot better than i thought. I decided to go ahead and just sit in the top 15 riders or so i could go with any moves and still have some in the end. Ha..well, the unfortunate thing was when we came into the 90 degree third corner on the FINAL LAP, four riders wide, i was moved too far to the outside, clipped a hay bail at 31mph and that was it…game over. I had moved myself into the top 6 riders by that point and knew i had a perfect set up for the sprint and it all ended in about .00028483 seconds..lol. I was soooooo pissed especially since the race had been so easy all day and i was set up for a great sprint. All i can say now is…Sh@# happens and there’s always next year.
