This was a fun race.  I missed it last year due to a friend’s wedding, but would not miss it this year.  Celerity Cycling would be headed down two deep, myself and Dan Netzer.  We would be meeting up with Joe Altamore of Hilton Cycling and Mickey Turner of Careytown Bike Shop to form somewhat of a Virginia Composite team for the Cat 3/4 race.  It was displayed as a 62 mile RR, but after google mapping the course we saw it to be 64.  this is important for later.  The course was described as a “lollipop” style course.  A twelve mile stretch out to a 10 mile loop where we would do 4 laps, and then back down the 12 mile stretch to the finish; simple math of 12*2+10*4=64 miles.  Not that hard.  We went out there with a plan.  We would start with a high pace, and maintain it for a decent amount of time, and then lull the field.  At that point Dan and Mickey would attack and Joe and I would stay on the front to pace the field.  the plan went perfect.  We had a pace line of 5 or 6 VA faces on the front including our composite team, and joining us was Mitch Hunt of Fat Frog’s and a guy from Southside cycle and Tri (I forget your name, and apologize).  We were on a slight down slope out to the loop, but kept the pace between 28 and 30.  About 20 minute (or 7 miles) we slowed down, and Dan and Mickey went.  It was perfect; they walked away from us while Joe and I sat on the front.  The centerline rule was in effect, and we used this to our advantage.  Going to wide gave us just enough room to go slow, and not let anyone past, but to also try and keep a moderate pace so no one would want to.  A couple attacks tried to go early, but were smothered quickly.  I sat on the front of that field for almost 35 miles, before i was overtaken, and everybody got tired of letting me bask in the sun and wind.

I think it is important to point out at this moment that had it not been for the lsat minute volunteering of Mike and Brenna Hosang to give us bottle feeds throughout the race, that we would have been a lot deeper in the hurt locker than we were.  It ended up being a bit warmer than we planned on, and their help is greatly appreciated.  Thank you guys.

Dan and Mickey were caught about the half way point, and we then just kept the pace up, and moseyed on.  Nothing went off the front successfully until close to the return leg when a solo flier went off the front and Mickey bridged up to him.  This is where I don’t get people.  Dan and I decided to do no work as we were all racing as a team, but Mickey and the other guy stayed no farther than 30-45 seconds at most, and at one point were only 15 seconds up the road, and the field was wall to wall sitting up with nobody working.  It was a giant group ride taking up the entire road.  In my not to vast experience in the last 5 -10 miles usually the pace should be crazy fast single file, but not here.  I looked down and saw 65 miles click over on the Garmin.  I asked how much farther, and someone said 2 miles or so.  HMMMMMMMMM okay.  So much for 64 miles.  But again if we were only two miles with two guys insight off the front why wasn’t the pace higher….. I throw it up to laziness or the fact that everyone was happy with a field sprint for 3rd vice working to try for first.  Oh well.  We came into the final uphill 200m, and I was third wheel.  I gave it everything I had, but working so much that day had taken its toll on me, and as my legs cramped, and I rode through I drifted backwards to finish in 13th.   Mickey won that race, and Dan finished around 21st I believe.  IT was now time to check into the hotel, and rest up before the Sanford Crit the next day.

I know that this is so late that it is kind of a moot point, but its more for my records now.  I’ll keep it short.  The day started off gloomy; low 50′s and a little rain.  It had cleared up by the time we lined up for the Cat 3 race, and the course was drying up.  We did embro up the legs, and that made it nice.  The officials blew he whistle,a nd instantly I was in the back half of the field of 50+ people.  I spent the first two or three laps trying to move up while pondering how this had happened.  Meanwhile, team el capitan, Dan Netzer, was on the front setting a blistering pace.  After five or six laps I made it up to the front ten or so, and took my place.  I attacked once or twice, but to no avail.  Then Dan went and three or four went with him.  I took my place on the front seeing that 3 sports, Wholefoods, and HPC (all the big teams/ teams with #’s) were in the break, but then for some reason their teammates started to chase.  As shown in Dan Gibson’s video, this puzzled me, and I continued to pace while staying towards the front of our group and then it happened. one of the HPC guys who was chasing his teammate down lost his wheel in the 90 degree turn at the base of the hill and went down.  I might have accidentally kicked him trying to avoid running him over as i went up into the grass to avoid him, and sow my amatuer cross skills.  I jumped back on course and hauled myself up the hill.

The field was now split, with a group of 15 off the front, and the rest about a half lap back myself included.  I was now at a conundrum; do i chase to catch the group that contains all the BAR points and my teammate or do i pace the field and let Dan do his thing.  I decided the teammate thing to do would be to sit on the front and pace.  This lasted for a lap until I looked over at the front group, and saw Dan attack and take three guys with him.  As soon as I saw a decent gap between him, and what was now the chase group I kicked it into high gear and started to bring the field to the chase group.  It took a bit of work among a few of us over about half the race to catch the chase group, but we did, and with 6 laps to go.  This gave me a chance to recover a bit before the finish.  Dan and them were now a good minute or so away, and we would not be catching them so I sat in and waited.  As we came around for the bell lap the pace picked up, and the real race began.  We meandered up the hill, around the sweeping left turn, through a chicane, and down the hill for the final sweeping left, a small straight, and then another chicane before the 250m stretch to the finish.  A few of us knew that the real race was to the chicane, and that whoever was in the lead there would most likely cross the finish first.  As we went down the hill the front of th field sat up in the head wind, and I used this chance to attack.  I went off the front, and gave it everything i had.  Mickey Turner and someone else caught me at the chicane and passed me.  I crossed the finish third in the sprint and 7th overall, and found out my teammate, Dan, had won.  It was a good day.

I think I’m setting a record here of some sort.  That’s correct its the first race report that contains no racing.  Let me explain:

For the past two months or so everyone has been going back and forth and trying to coerce each other into what race to do the weekend of April 16th, The newly developed Roanoke Twilight Crit or the established Chantilly Crit.  There were pros and cons to both.  The Roanoke Crit had a prize purse somewhere in the publisher’s clearing house neighborhood along with a pro race that was expected to put out lap speeds somewhere around that comparative of Jimmy Johnson’s from Talladega yesterday, as well as a post-race party to embarrass Mardi Gras.  The downsides were that it was 4-5 hours away, and it wasn’t a VA BAR race.  The Chantilly Crit was a BAR race, as well as a Gam Jams Cat 3 Khaki Cup race, and it was only 3 hours away.  In the end Dan Netzer and myself picked Chantilly.  It should have been easy BAR points with everybody being drawn to Roanoke like ants to sugar.

This is where it gets “fun”.  Dan signed up to do the Master’s 35+ race at 11:15am.  Something about having to impress his family and friends, I’m not really sure, but I tagged along with him even though the Cat 3 race wasn’t until 5pm.  He met me at my house where I was waiting with freshly made Nutella and Banana Crepes, courtesy of Old Dominion University’s F.O.R.E.I.G.N.E.R.S. Club, which I am proud to be a part of.  We were raising money for Relay for Life.  We reached the race 45 minutes before Dan’s race, and I instantly decided that I would not be doing the 1/2/3 race which took place immediately after the Master’s race.  As much as I wanted to get a kit on and go in really fast circles for 30 miles in 50 degree temps with rain and winds gusting to 40mph I decided to save my legs for our main event at 5pm.  After Dan’s race we got lunch at IHOP with some delicious banana pancakes, not the Jack Johnson kind,  and a omelete; not too worried about the calories as I was sure that they would be worked off later that day.

Around 3pm Mickey Turner showed up with his mobile base/ trailer and we hung out in it until about an hour before.  With 30 minutes to our race I put on my kit, lathered up my legs with embro (which is awesome stuff by the way), and jumped on the bike for a warm-up.  The weather was not improving, and by the looks of the radar would prove for epic race conditions.  Then it happened; as Dan rubbed in the embro on his legs one of the promoters came over to tell us that the officials decided to cancel the last race due to some sort of “Tornado Warning”.  There was a storm cell fast approaching carrying with it, rain, hail, 80mph winds, dogs, cats, Dorothy, and the Yellow brick road.  We, being the die-hard cyclists we are, quickly read the rules, and referenced #5 and #9, smiled and beckoned for them to let us race.  They did not, and we packed up and drove home through the storm. On a side note, the rain was so bad that with my powertap hub strapped to the roof it actually got water in it, and subsequently did not work for my training ride on Sunday.  It instead got to be taken apart and sit in the garage drying out.  Not happy. On another note, I received ample phone calls, text messages, pictures, carrier pigeons, and one pony express telling me that the weather in Roanoke had gone rom frightful to extremely delightful, and that it was an amazing night.  Thanks for that salt in the wound.

In the end I wasn’t mad at anyone, but myself.  I took several gambles that weekend, and they all ended up being losing bets.  At least it’s just bike racing, and I won’t end up with my legs broken or anything of that sort.  I hope to see all of your shining faces as I pull a move you will only see in “The Illusionist”, and race the Dismal Dash #2 in Chesapeake, VA only to follow it up with a showing at the Meadows Crit just north of Richmond in the 1/2/3 race.

I know its been awhile since i posted.  I’ve only raced once since my last post, and that was the Walton Park Crit.  It was crazy fast.  With there being no cat 3 field, and only a 1/2/3 coupled with Jeff Cup being postponed it hurt  .  A large amount of the field of 50 riders were Cat 1′s.  To sum it up, a rider went down in the third turn on the first lap, and i got caught up behind him. I lost contact w/ the field, did not take a free lap, and instead tried to fight back on.  I lasted 12 minutes before calling it quits.  By the end of the race over half of the field had joined me. Battley rocked that race w/ two guys lapping the field.

Now on to Conquer the Canal.  This should be quick, since the race was.  It was a simple out and back 12.1 mile TT; not that bad right?  The weather that morning was in the low 50s and there was a drizzle here and there.  The winds were 5-10mph from the north/ northeast.  This resulted in a tail wind almost the entire first leg, and an ungodly head wind on the way back.  To put it in perspective I averaged 2.6 mph slower on the return loop while putting out an average of 21 more watts.  I finished with a 27:21 according to the results sheet.  Taking 6th out of 10.  Not too shabby for a kid on a road bike with some clamp on aero bars.  After talking with some people at the “not-so-young-anymore” Kevin Horvath’s birthday party , and looking at the data from the race, we are starting to think that all the times for all the categories before the 1/2/3 were exactly a minute off.  This makes since when you look at times from last year, and you compare the times with the 1/2/3, but no one challenged.  Dan Netzer took the Cat 3 gold, and you can check out his race report here.  Celerity Cycling also swept the first and second place spots in the cat 5s with Kirk Cizerle taking first and Andrew Vann taking 2nd.  Can we please upgrade them now?

Next weekend I hope you get to go race as there are not one, but two options to choose; those that are a slave to the BAR, or live up north you have the RGS Chantilly Crit, I’ll be there.  Or if you’re looking for some real fun, and real big prize money Stratton Delaney will be hosting the first ever Roanoke twillight Crit.  It should be a fun race to do, and a fun one to watch as that 1/2 field looks stacked.

There’s nothing quite like racing on a Speedway.  This would be my second time racing here at Richmond International Raceway, the first being last year as a Cat 5, or 4, I don’t really remember.  It would be a pretty decent day for it high of 60, and mostly sunny.  The day started out with a head wind in the finishing straight and cross wind in turns 1 and 2.  This would make for a fast back stretch.  I was now going on the second weekend of having no computer do to my Garmin dying on me, and waiting for the warranty one to arrive.  I don’t like flying blind.  The original plan was to go out and do the 3/4 race as hard as possible.  If i did well then I would go out and do the 1,2,3 race.  This didn’t happen at all.  The 3/4 race was big, 93 people lining up, and 75 finishing; 60 minutes of circles.  I knew to have a chance at anything I would have to stay near the front.  I did this successfully for most of the race.  covering a break here and there.  The field was not letting anything get away, but then something happened.  With about 10 to go the field became very rambunctious.  Pushing each other, and elbows and handlebars connecting.  I knew, just knew, there would be a crash coming around towards the end.  So I stayed to the outside of the group, and decided I would take this route for the sprint.  Well, that crash never came, and I ended up sitting up for 36th crossing.  Most of the 3s agreed that the race was sketch to say the least.  Oh well. Nobody went down, and that’s a good thing.  The average speed of that race was 26.9mph.

Dan was already back at the car when I showed up tinkering with a malfunctioning powertap wheel.  I asked if he planned on doing the 1/2/3 race, and he did, so I went ahead and signed up.  I’m not going to hang out and watch a race I could be in.  This race was a little smaller, I think 40-50 ended up lining up.  i didn’t plan on doing much in this race, more or less I felt that I had just paid $20 to get 80 minutes of “race pace” riding in.  Some of the teams had some big numbers showing up CRC with 6 or 7, NCVC with 6, 3sports had 6, and Whole Foods had 3 or 4.  The race started off fast, and to my surprise I felt really good out there.  Attack after attack after attack was how the race went.  Our speed according to Dan, on the back stretch regularly broke the 30mph mark.  Breaks would get off the front hang for a few laps, and then be pulled back in.  I bridged to three of them, and went off the front once.  I would be dismayed when I got up to the break and didn’t see a CRC kit in it.  I knew Dan King and his cronies wouldn’t let a break walk away with none of his riders in it.  So when a haymarket rider went off the front and I went with I wasn’t too sure how it would go.  There was still 36 laps left, but I happened to look back and see about a quarter of a lap gap.  We swapped back and forth, but they slowly gained on us.  Then Bill Scanlon showed up with another rider.  We had four now, including a CRC rider….. awesome, or not.  We were caught the next lap.  Dan also made a couple breaks himself, including the one that looked the most promising, but as we came around for the two to go someone said let’s do it, and ramped it up.  It was the fastest two laps I have ever done. Shifting down to my 53/12 and then my 53/11 I have no idea what are speeds were for those 2 minutes or less.  I had a glimmer of hope.  i was sitting around 7th wheel, and was staying with the field, but as we came around the last turn my legs just didn’t have anymore, covering attack after attack did its number and I sat up crossing the finish as I drank from my water bottle.  Dan sat up as well, and came in right behind me.  I didn’t even take the time to look at the results.  We were so hungry that we finished, changed, and left on our long journey home, and by long I mean about an hour and a half.  Our avg speed for that race I think Dan said was around 27.2mph

Thanks to 3sports for putting this race on again.  It was a lot of fun.  Hope to see everyone next week as we travel to Charlottesville for the Waldon Park Crit on Saturday, and Jeff Cup on Sunday.

I know its late, but its a time trial, what should I write, “It was fast and it hurt.” end of story.  But no, I will add more.  The Dismal Dash is a 25.4 mile course that is flat like a table top.  The winds are usually pretty random, and this was proven true in this case.  I due to the unfortunate status of part-time employed, and full-time student, coupled with the new info that I have recently been chosen for an internship in DC this summer, but will have to pay for my own housing, do not have the funds for a TT bike.  So I did what was necessary, and showed up on the madone, equipped with clamp-ons, skinsuit, wheel cover (for the rear), aero front wheel, one less bottle cage, shoe covers, and aero helmet.  Everything I could possibly do short of the bike itself.  Did I mention I don’t like time trials.  It helps that Dan is obsessed with them.  this motivates me to at least go out there and run myself ragged to attempt to approach his times.  We got to the course two hours early.  Enough time, to get our numbers, set up the bikes, and trainers, check over everything, and talk with some people.  Andrew decided to up inter-team relations with Hilton Cycling’s Joe Altamore during warm ups as shown.

To make it short and sweet, I went off with the two people in front of me being Dan Netzer and Dan King.  i didn’t expect to ever see them again. The person to my rear was Dan Craft, nobody right behind him, and then Marc Warner four minutes behind me.  It took Dan Craft a little over 13 miles to catch me, and I started to catch him back until at the 22 miles mark Marc Warner passed completely demoralizing me.  I finished with a time of 1:00:06.  Pretty happy with that taking 5th in the Cat 3s out of nine, but ding the only person on a road bike.

Hopefully at some point down the road I can snag me a TT bike, hopefully soon.

The first VA state BAR race of the season would be a fun one.  The weatherman was calling for it to be sunny with a high around 68…. awesome.  I checked the start list when I woke up that morning; at least 25 people would be starting the Cat 3 race.  Andrew would be racing in the Cat 5 race earlier in the morning so I went out with him to take pictures and mingle while he did circles.  We thought his race was at 8:30, so we woke up ate breakfast stopped by 7-Eleven, and got coffee, and made it out to the course about 7:40.  To our surprise Dan Netzer was already there, and much more to our surprise Andrew’s race was actually at a 8, not 8:30.  We rushed him into his kit, prepped his bike and pushed him off.

Andrew is not pleased about being a cat 5.  Having placed in the top 5 the last two weeks he was looking for a win, but he was also not pleased about having to wake up at the crack of dawn to drive 30 minutes one way to race for 30 minutes.  In his words, “I was doing the price per lap in my head.”  At the start he jumped, and went flying off the front where he stayed about 10 seconds out for close to half of his race.He eventually was swallowed up by the peloton, and sprinted out for 3rd.  Anthony Bream was out there also doing work in the peloton, and finishing the race, getting faster with each pedal stroke.

The cat 3 race would be enjoyable.  Putting my HED Stinger 6s on I became more and more excited.  I love these wheels, and I haven’t rode them since the end of last season, besides an occasional ride around town.  Celerity Cycling also had new kits, and we couldn’t wait to show them off, bc they look badass.  We had about thirty people on the start line when the official gave the go, including all the regulars to watch for, Josh Goyet (VBW), John Grey (VBW), Tim Pope (Fat Frog’s), Mickey Turner (HPC racing), and a new guy named Steve that seemed to be the Bell of the Ball (3sports). This was his first Cat 3 race, and everybody was talking about the tall guy on 3 sports with the yellow bike.  we soon found out why.

In the brief by the officials they told us that our laptime needed to be faster than the Womens 1/2/3 race, so Dan immediatly jumped on the front and made sure of this, pulling the peloton around at 27-28ish mph for the first lap.  I just happened to miss my clip in, and went from in front of the group on the start line to almost off the back on the start line before attempt #2 was successful.  Early in, the third or fourth lap, the yellow bike, took off with a kid from William & Mary in tow.  Not being in the proper position nobody could respond.  Dan eventually attempted to bridge the gap to Steve working with John grey.  The rest of 3 sports, VBW, and myself sat on the front of the field watching their attempt in admiration, and hoped they could make it.  Then next thing we know here comes John back to the group, and that’s when everything went downhill.  VBW decided to get on the front, and do some work since they didn’t hav eanyone up the road anymore.  Dan, despite his effort would not stay away.  When Dan came back I went for my turn off the front…… nobody would help me, and I spent three laps in no man’s land pedaling away, but not making any distance.  I would get a prime though, so I got that going for me.  Steve lapped the field dragging W&M with him.  Hopefully that guy doesn’t stay in the 3s very long.  The sprint would be for second, and a lot of people wanted it.  I did not place myself well, with the help of another team via putting me in the grass as we came around for one to go causing me to slide back.  Dan however did get a decent position and would finish 5th, I would finish 12th.

The 1/2/3 race was short lived.  I spent the first half of the race working to stay mid-pack, and quickly realized that I wouldn’t be able to do anything and that I had a TT the next day went ahead and pulled out of the race.  Dan stayed a little longer, before trying to pull out of the race, and we convinced him to finish it, albeit a lap down.  Fun times were had, and the weather was great.

Thank you to the Virginia Beach Wheelman for hosting a great event.

Pics are here

For Dan’s thoughts go here

We all knew how it was going to be that day, but we kept lying to ourselves to make each other feel better; “Oh its not going to rain,” or ” By the radar it looks like there will be a hole in the rain, and we’ll get lucky.”  To be honest I actually started to believe it.  Vice the 90% chance of rain, and promise of 20+mph winds the women’s, juniors, Cat 5, and maybe half of the 3/4 race were completed relatively dry.

This was the last race in the training series as the “real” season kicks off this coming weekend.  The turn-out numbers were low due to the above mentioned weather forecast.  The women’s race promised to be (and please don’t hate me for saying this) a lot more exciting than usual with 6 Cat 1′s and a couple Cat 2′s in it as well as others; 11 to be exact.  It went off without a hitch with Tradewinds Racing taking first and our friends over at Team Traveller in second.

The Juniors race had a monster turnout of three.  It looked like David vs. Goliath out there with two kids who looked to be twelve, and one who looked 16.  On kid was dropped instantly while a Fat Frogs cyclist (the other “twelve” yr old) sucked wheel of the bigger kid for the majority of the 25 minute crit.  On the last lap he pulled through and put the hammer down, and with everyone cheering him on he pulled his heart out trying to stick it, but to no avail.  Better luck next week.

The Cat 5 race had 23 people in it, including Celerity Cycling’s very own, Andrew Vann and Anthony Bream.  It had started to lightly rain during this race, and this caused mayhem out there with I believe 5 people going down in turns.  Andrew stayed in the front group for the entirety of the race, and against the advice of his teamates went too early on the last lap beign nosed out for the checkered, and taking home 2nd.  Anthony worked his heart out, and finished the race, unlike much of the exploded field.

The Cat 3/4 race would be the first race of the day for Dan Netzer, Wick Smith, and I.  Somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 people lined up for this event.  From the gun Wick went off the front while Dan and I sat on it and watched him ride away, and then after two laps start to come back toward us.  At that momment Tim Pope, of Fat Frogs and John (I don’t know your last name) from VB Wheelman countered.  On the third lap for some unknown reason, bc he jumped in his car very quickly and left, a rider from a team out of Richmond decided as we were entering a turn that he didn’t want to do that and hit his brakes and continued to go straight off the course.  Luckily, he happend to be just inside me, and I got to hold myself up from hitting him by pushing off him.  One of the Fat Frogs riders was not as fortunate, and went down.  I was not pleased.  I went off the course, made a u-turn, and tried to high-tale it back to the group who was just going through the next turn.  For 20 minutesI tried to chase down the group pushing as hard as I coud, but i was losing time in the head wind every lap.  I eventually sat up, and waited for the front group to come around which just so happened to be that early breakaway of Fat Frogs and VBW.  I hung on to their wheels for the last 6 laps and finished as the first rider a lap down, but I think may still have been top ten.  Dan finished in the “chase” group of five or six picking up two or three primes along the way.  Complaining that nobody would work to chase the break down.  Wick pulled out of the race early killing himself on that early attempt.

The last race of the day was the 1/2/3 race, and it started just as the sky opened up.  The vast field of nine players included Matt L. from NCVC, Bill Collins and Jeff Parker from VB Velo, Andres DeMarchenas and Tim Pope from Fat Frogs, Marc Warner, and Dan, Wick, and I from Celerity….. yup that’s it.  Prior to the start we all agreed on shortening the race from one hour to 45 minutes, being that a training crit wasn’t worth pnuemonia.  From the gun Marc attacked, and attacked, and attacked some more trying to widdle down the field.  The rain was torrential, and the corners were like ice.  You went through every single one with your rear wheel skipping out a little making you tense up a bit.  Wick went off the back, but stayed in for the 45 minutes eventually grabbing on to the main group.  Jeff Parker slid out of one of the turns and had to sit-up, and wait for a lap.  Andres took the cautionary route, and pulled early, while Dan Netzer thought everyoen had left for the day, and pulled himself.  That left Tim, Bill, Matt L., Marc, and I.  Marc attacked….. again, and Matt L. and Bill went with.  I did not have it, and neither did Tim, so we rode our own race picking up Wick and Jeff, and riding out the last laps.  I got one prime, and Tim sneaked by me for another, and then I held him off at the line for fourth.  I was happy, and we all joked that although the race was miserable, it was also a whole lot of fun.

Courtesy of Spike Call

Thank you to Bill and Jeff of Virginia Beach Velo for once again putting on a successful crit series, and as always look forward to seeing everyone next weekend as we hit up Suffolk, VA for the beginning of the 2011 VA BAR racing series with the Sleepy Hole Smackdown p/b VB Wheelmen, and the Dismal Dash #1 TT.

At the demand of some people, I won’t mention names Kevin & Brian….oops; I went ahead and took a break from studying for my midterms to write this up.  So it might be a little concise, as I really want to do well on these exams, and for this week to be over.

Anyway, the day started great.  Woke up early grabbed the freshly cleaned bike and packed my bag, and headed over to Dan’s house.  There would be four of Celerity Cycling cramming into the “team car” aka Dan’s Subaru, with three bikes on the roof, and one on the rear heading to Richmond for what would be installment two of the Snow Cone training crit series.  Two of the folks heading up with us were Kirk Cizerle and Andrew Vann, the “newbies” if you will.  This would be both of their second race. (That doesn’t sound right, grammatically, but I don’t know how else to write it.)  We got to the course about an hour before their race, the Cat 4/5, and again no bathrooms.  That’s okay.  We got them dressed and sent them out to warm-up, and journeyed to the gas station.  We arrived back just as their race was starting.  Dan and myself watched a couple laps, and then proceded to get ready for our race, the Cat 1/2/3/4.  I guess we missed it, but during this time Andrew went down in the 180 degree turn after clipping a pedal.  No injuries and the bike was okay.  He got back in it and finished.  Kirk finished somewhere around 5th place.  We’re not sure as the judges were only scoring the top 3.

Andrew posing for the masses

Our race had a few more people in it than last time, and it was a bit longer.  It would be 90 minutes plus 5 laps.  This would work out to about 115  minutes-ish.  We lined up, got the usual speech and were off.  The race was fast from the get go.  With the wind no where near what it was the last time we figured the field would stay together a little bit better.  Of course a three man break went off the front, and was gone.  I played it a little better this time also, staying in the upper half of the peloton for the majority of the race, and just riding along with the field.  Dan dissapeared for a little bit, and when he returned I asked where he had been.  Come to find out he had flatted his tubular, went to the car to swap wheels and use the bathroom, and jumped back in.  Since there were no free laps he wasn’t allowed to do any work, and instead hung onto the back heckling who ever popped off the group or struggled to hang on.  With about 20 minutes to go another group of three went off the front, and pinned down a gap of about 15 seconds that would stick for the remainder of the race despite the peloton’s best effort to close it.  With the five laps to go I heard Dan yell for me to stop “dilly-dallying” and move up; so I did.  I got to the front five or so, and eventually the very front, and did what work I could to try to reel in the closest threesome ahead of us.  I then coasted back into the top 15 or so, and that is where I finished as come to find out nobody wants to sprint for 10th when they only score the top 3.  I was happy with my result with my goal being to stay in the top half of the field.  The race was fast w/ an average pace somewhere in the neighborhood of 26mph for a total of 1hr and 39minutes.  Good times with great people.  Looking forward to the upcoming season.

Water is important on those longer races

 

Once again thank you to Team Whole Foods and Tim Mullins for hosting a great training event.  Unfortunately I will not be attending #3 in the series for several reasons including the 2hr length of the race, $3.30/ gallon gas prices, and racing two races at the infamous Snowball #2 the following day where I hope to see all of you out there.

This race marks one year from the time I started racing for Celerity Cycling w/ Dan and Wick, and more so racing period.  I had only done two training crits before this a year ago, and the last time I raced this course was mid-season last year in the Cause for Paws crit p/b Vanderkitten, in which I went down on the last lap.  So needless to say there is a lot of history here in a short period of time for me.

We showed up early that morning to support Virginia Beach Velo in putting on the race, which translates to sweeping turns, and walking the course….. fun stuff.  i would be doing two races this day, as well as Dan Netzer, our fearless leader.  Those races being the Cat3/4 & Cat 1/2/3.  Taryn, our solo female cyclist, also raced in the women’s race taking 5th overall, and first in the Cat 4 women’s field, i think.  Please don’t quote me on that.  We also had Anthony Bream making his racing debut in the Cat 5 field.  He unfortunately has been fighting a cold, and had to pull out early.

Our first race that day, the 3/4, started off the same as every race.  saying hi to people, and going.  Dan and i realized very quickly that neither of us would be going off the front, not b/c we weren’t strong enough, but b/c everytime one of us tried the field immediatly responded by chasing us down.  We stayed together until the 2nd to last lap.  As we came around the last turn for towards the start/ finish for one to go two people got tangeled up and went down.  I don’t remember who they were or what happened, but it caused several of us to have to slow down, and opened a gap resulting in Dan and myself as well as a few others chasing the field down.  We didn’t get to them in time, and I coasted across for a cool 20th place…… awesome.  It was my fault though, as I should have been closer to the front that late in the race.

The 1/2/3 race would be a lot of fun.  as we lined up I looked around and again, a lot of fast people.  some jokes were thrown back and forth, and Mike Hosang from Tripower tried to get the field to agree to the first half of the race being nuetral.  This of course is not how it went down.  The field stayed together for the first few minutes of the race.  With a few people getting on the front and driving up the pace.  A breakaway went up the road consisting of Paul Ward, Elliott Craddock, Mike Hosang, and Cam (I can’t remember your last name).  I attempted to bridge up, but unfortunately i could not, and was left in no-man’s land for almost three laps.  I got back to the field, and Dan said that it was a good attempt.  i told him i was dead, and he replied with something along the lines of, “you were out there for a while.”  I sat back in the field, and finished the race in the group; coming across in 16th.  Cam won the race with Elliot getting second, and Paul 3rd.  We all celebrated by heading over to Tortilla West for my birthday.  enjoying good beers and great food.

Thanks to Bill and Jeff for putting on the race, and look forward to the second installment this weekend.

Thanks to Team Traveler for all of the great pics that can be found here.