Friday Night Fun

    Friday was day 4 at Crossroads and it brought another morning spin under sunny skies on the High Rock Road Race course. This time we rode the other route that had been listed online so that way we covered all options. Both routes were very similar with neither being very difficult. We noticed a peach farm along the route and went back after the ride to get us a big box full of North Carolina peaches. Man were they good!

Out for the morning spin in Salisbury

John Deere house?

     Friday's race was the last night event, taking place in nearby Statesville, NC. Statesville has a really nice downtown area. Google Maps showed a yogurt place along the course so we went early in hopes of grabbing a snack before the race. Well, Google was not quite up to date with their mapping. The yogurt place is no more. It was disappointing, but that would turn out to be the only disappointment of the evening.

      The course was a fast L-shape. It began with a flat stretch to turn 1 and then a fast descent through turn 2. It was then uphill to turn 3, which was the only right-hand turn on the course. Another flat stretch awaited before turns 4 and 5, which came close together. It was then a long uphill drag to the final turn and one final hump in the road coming out of the last turn before a flat sprint to the line. The course was narrow in most places so I was expecting yet another fast race in a long, single-file line.

Downtown Statesville Criterium race course

Women on course

A tubular disaster ended this chica's day

Two riders in turn 6

Women rolling by some nice Statesville landscaping

     My hamstring was feeling better today, yet I still babied it during my warm-up. I started right smack in the middle of the 85+ riders for the 60-minute event. Again, the start was fast and furious and we were single-file pretty quick. Gaps were forming on lap 3, but I did well to close them down and stay with the group. I was especially fast through turn 2 as I found a little dip on the inside of the corner that sort of catapulted you if you hit it right. The extra momentum rocketed me up the hill and allowed me to close gaps with ease. The toughest part of the course was the long uphill out of turn 5. We bottlenecked every lap at turn 6 and that made for a hard sprint off that last corner over the small hump on the finish straight.

     I made it 15 minutes before I I blew up. I was again running at 188 heart rate lap after lap. The legs were good, but the heart couldn't hold it and off the back I came just over 15 minutes into the race. We had a 27.9 mph average speed when I was ejected, which was stupid fast on such a narrow, technical course. This place was hard, but I loved it! I did a lot of riding by myself and still had a good time out there turning laps. Many guys quit, but I kept going, pushing myself as hard as I could hoping to get in the full race. I'll never get better if I drop out after 15 minutes.

     I got lapped by the group and hitched onto the rear, hanging on for another 10 minutes before getting shelled again when the group split. Once the group settles down 20-30 minutes into the race, I can hold their pace until the gaps open. Then I'm gone. My legs just aren't strong enough to close a gap when we are running 32-33 mph on the straightaways.

Cat. 4/5 Men

Cat. 4/5s rolling through the Start/Finish line

      I got into some small groups over the rest of the race, usually for a few laps at a time, then I would drop the people with me or they would quit. The officials left me in the race until two laps to go. I hated being pulled that close to the end, but they did not want to take a chance on me interfering with the finish, so I completely understand. I made 57 minutes tonight and finished 47th, my best placing of the week thus far. That just shows you that you should never give up! I was lapped five times, but I stayed out there and gave it my all. I could've quit and taken a DNF or finished 70th, but I hung in there and cracked the top 50. My rear wheel had a slight wobble to it after the race. I guess railing the dip in turn 2 over and over was a little hard on the rim.

    Alexander Ray took the sprint win again today, making him even with Frank Pipp as both have now won two races. A-Ray seems to be good on these tight technical courses that end with a fast sprint.

   Our race video is posted below.

Statesville Crit. video

     Before the race we saw a guy that looked like someone I used to ride with in Clarksville 12 years ago when I first started racing. I told Shannon that he was Dan Underwood's twin. After the race, I saw the Cat. 3 results and sure enough it was Dan! I hate it that I did not go talk to him. I haven't seen the guy in years since he moved up to the Washington, D.C. area.

     Tomorrow we put the road race course knowledge to work for the High Rock Road Race in Salisbury. Four days down, still two to go!