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.

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.

On Saturday Eric and I “rode” (it’s a race) Blood, Sweat, and Gears.  We got a relativly good position on the line.  We sprinted off the line to get towards the front.  Eric and I were weaving in and out of people when Eric decided it was an excellent time to get out of his big ring.  He dropped his chain and had to get off his bike to fix it.

I attacked the first climb which was Shoals Mill.  When the fifty and the hundred split off I looked around and there was only one other fifty rider around.  We knew there had to be at least one other fifty rider ahead of us because we could not see the motorcycle escort.  We got first place in sight two or three times but he was riding to strong.  Second place got away from me on the final descent and I ended up third.  I also cut over an hour off my time from three years ago and half an hour off last years.

Minutes before the category 4 race there was a heavy thinder shower which made the course extra dangerous.  As the race started i knew this race was going to be very dangerous.   I stayed very close to the fron the whole race while doing my best to stay out of the wind.  With 2 laps to go I was sitting 7th wheel and someone in front of me forgot how to turn and use the breaks.  He wrecked and some how his front wheel managed to fall off and stay in the middle of the road.  I had to slow way down and then I had to ride over his wheel (I am 90% sure I ruined it).  When I accelerated back up my rear wheel lost traction which scared me half to death.  That threw off any rhythm I had remaining.  I was not able to regain my composure and then proceeded to finish about 30 seconds behind the pack.  A very upsetting finish for a great start.

02/24/2008

Another big field with racers from all over, including the current national champion in TT and crits riding for Hincapie out of Mississippi. The race spread out after a 3 or 4 laps with Hincapie, the Storm, me and a few others in the lead group. The two strongest riders for Hincapie and two Storm made a break about fifteen minutes in to the race. The for of them kept it going for a couple of laps and then the Hincapie guys pulled away setting up a two man break and a two man chase. I had to take it upon myself to bring in the Storm as the peleton was full of their teammates trying to slow down the field to let them get away. We caught them with 6 or so laps top go and it became a race for third from the peleton of approximately 15. On the second to last curve, the sprint began and two riders went down hard in an all out dash for the finish. The riders left recollected in the straightaway. I finished in the field sprint, but probably somewhere around 10th place.

BMW Test Center, Cat 4

02/24/2008

This was an enormous field, once again, of perhaps 100 or more riders. I got a good start and lead out the pack on the first half lap in hopes of spreading out the field. That never happened. The entire field raced together the whole race. Every attempt at a break lasted less than 100 meters. With 5 to go, I moved from near the middle of the peleton to third to bring in the last break. We caught them and I settled back near the front, sitting perhaps in 15th position. The last laps got increasingly fast and it became a mad dash by last half lap. I would guess that I came in somewhere around 20th to 25th, but with everyone crossing the line pretty much at the same time, it will be interesting how they score it.

02/23/2008

I raced in my first cat 4 of my career on Saturday.  It was a large field.  I lost one of my two water bottles as it bounced out of the bottle cage on the railroad tracks on the first lap, so it was a thirsty 35 miles as the temp approached 70 degrees.  There were a number of attempts at breaks, but they were all reeled in pretty quickly.  Much of the field fell by the wayside as the pace was fast for a cat 4 – we averaged over 24 mph.  There were a lot of guys dropping out and the field pared down considerable by the end.  I tried to move with about 500 meters to go, but junior gearing isn’t designed for a field sprint.  I ended up 45th of the 57 completing the race. When I race this again next week, I’ll make a move much earlier.