Friday was the prologue time trial. This was my first TT, so I went into it with no idea of what to expect. After some good advice from Sean I went into it excited to give it a go.
It went well. Similar amount of suffering to a mountain bike race, but no trees and stuff to crash me. Sweet.
Ended up posting a time of 20:35 on the 9.6 mile course, which was good enough for 4th. It was strangely addicting, so perhaps I'll get into the TT thing more.
Day two was the Columbiana road race. It was a 33 mile loop with a KOM 8 miles in (contrary to what the race info said!), good for some bonus points for the GC. I was feeling good about my chances, as hills and I get along.
The race started off slow, and really didn't ramp up until the KOM, which was 8 miles in, not 22. I missed the sign going up, and didn't realize it was the climb until I was about half way up. I then ramped it up a little, and in spite of this, two guys took off and got me to the KOM line. Oh well.
After that, the field was pretty much decimated. Our starting 60 was down to about 12 riders. The race then got boring, as Cat 4's are pretty good at chasing down anyone who tries to get away. I attacked a bunch, was brought back by a field that promptly sat up. Repeat ad nauseam.
It was time for the field sprint, and my skills in that respect suck. So I tried to get a good wheel to jump on and take off as early as possible. Ended up seventh which I wish was a few places higher, but oh well.
I was now sitting in 4th in the GC, so the crit on Sunday would be the deciding factor.
What do you know... I fucked up the crit.
Thanks to Julie for the snap.
After riding myself into the ground during the road race, I figured I'd sit in for the crit and jump late to save myself. Bad idea. There was all sorts of sketchy business going on in the turns, and when I went to position myself for the last sprint, I got chopped in a turn. Damnit. Mostly my fault because I waited too long to move up and got caught in the shit.
An abysmal 9th place, which left me stuck in 4th overall in the GC.
Fun weekend though. The team killed it. Julie, Robert, Rudy, Nate, Pete, THE GARTMAC™, Phil, Dick, Chris, and anyone else I forgot. Rad job everyone.
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