French Broad Cycling Classic

This past weekend I raced the three day French Broad Cycling Classic.  To start things off I was feeling a little but bellow the weather.  On Friday there was a 20k time trial.  I came in seventh in the Juniors category.

On Saturday we had a tight rectangular .5 mile criterium course.  The Juniors did 35 minutes.  The first 15 were relatively slow with minimum attacks.  The raced picked up pace when a Cat 2 Junior decided to take a flyer.  All of the juniors left in the pack worked hard to bring him back.  With 5 laps to go our newest Cartel member Brent Nixon launched an attack.  He could not hold off the pack but settled for 5th in the sprint.

Juniors the next morning started off similarly.  Then the same Cat 2 attacked and no one could follow.  Instead brining him back we let Brent and another junior go off the front.  I spent the rest of the race blocking.  Brent got third.

Cat 4′s that afternoon was a fast race with a 7 man break went off the front early and lapped the field with about 4 laps to go.  I did not make the break so I sat in and waited for them to lap us.

Fitchburg

This past 4th of July weekend the team went to Fitchburg Massachussetts for a big stage race.  For most of the junior squad this was our first stage race.

All of the best juniors in the country were there so I found myself racing for time cuts.  I made every time cut but due to my lack of attention to detail I did not know I needed to finish at least half of the final criterium to get an overall GC placement.  So thinking I had made it to the end I was much more reluctant to throw in the towel and call it a weekend.

On a happier not I would like to give thanks to Rick and Nancy Hoffarth for looking out for the team this weekend.  I know it was a thankless job but they did a great job of making sure we had clean clothes and food in our stomach.  I really appreciate them for that.