A good weekend...

So this weekend was the “Union City Stage Race” with the road race yesterday being the Georgia State Championship. Might as well start off with the TT and go through the weekend…

The time trial was a first for me, in that I was the first 2/3 racer to go off. This means I had no one to chase, which I guess could be a bad thing. I feel it was also a good thing, though, in that I had no one to chase in vain and risk blowing up and screwing myself for the GC. I headed off on my merry way, for the 10 mile mind game. I guess the hardest part of the whole TT was not looking over my shoulder to see if I was being caught, but concentrating on keeping my head in that magical aero position as much as possible. I hit the turn in less than 10 minutes, and THOUGHT I had it in the bag. What I didn’t realize was that there was more climbing on the way back, and my effort was a bit too hard on the way out, potentially toasting me on the way back. After the first “big” rollers I hit some 250-270 watt recoveries to regain what I could, and then busted myself going up the 1k-ish climb to the finish coming in at 22:30. Power was 326avg., 336norm., and avg. speed was about 26.6mph. Good enough for 8th place in a large field of good time trialists!

The team then loaded up and headed over to the criterium course where we would spend the rest of our day laying around, fellowshipping, and racing. I was the first to go out with the 2/3’s, and had a good race. I got my best 2/3 finish to date, which was 6th, and held my position in the GC, which, of course, was 8th. The younger guys represented with Reilly Mahon getting a solid pack finish. Star took a firm grasp of his MAR jersey in the 35+ race, and definitely is going to make it as hard as he can for someone to take it from him. The older guys are always interesting to watch, as they work together so well in throwing guy after guy off the front to wear down the pack and get the right person in place for the MAR points and pack sprint at the end. My power for the crit was 254avg., 301norm., and avg. speed was 25.3mph.

The road race yesterday was a first for me in a few ways. For starters, I think it was the first road race I’ve done which was over 60 miles (66.5). Second, it was the first road race I’ve done without a teammate to help out. My strategy today was spelled out by the ever-so-wise Matt Schectman, which was “Don’t do any work and don’t cramp”. Pretty simple, yet powerful, words, lol. The sitting in part was easy, as I stayed up in the top 20 for the entire race minus when I dropped to the back in the feed zone to attempt to get a bottle, which failed miserably. No biggie, as I had the “emergency” bottle in pocket, and drank some good ole nast..I mean tasty Union City water. I quickly moved back up to the front 20 of the pack in the next few miles, and continued to watch the break add one here and there to reach a total of 8 in all, which we never caught. I rolled in with the pack, giving as hard a leadout as possible in the final 1/2k to string out the pack what little I could to minimize a crash chance for that 9th place sprint. I ended up 19th on the day, 7th overall, and had a pretty dang good weekend! The numbers for the road race were 202avg. power, 279norm. power, and 24.6mph avg. speed.

All in all, the weekend was good, and I'm glad I didn't crap out like I've been known to do, lol. The rest of the team did really well, with everyone having a good showing and good overall finishes. Next up is Lagrange!