Speed Week: Sandy Springs

     The final race of the 2011 Speed Week Series took place on Sunday in Sandy Springs, GA, just north of Atlanta. We again spent the night in Spartanburg and then managed to catch church sacrament services in Anderson, SC on our way down to Georgia. The Sandy Springs Cycling Challenge featured a tough course. There was a large climb to the finish line and the rest of the course was basically downhill. The descent was twisty with 6 turns along the way. I had driven the course a few weeks before when we had come down to tour the Atlanta LDS temple and knew it was definitely going to be a tough day.

My Garmin 305's view of the course in Sandy Springs

     I made some changes to my equipment today, going with the lighter Reynolds Attack Carbon wheels to save weight. The last few days were disappointing, but I was fired up today. I wanted to make a good 30 minutes before getting dropped. Though I knew that was a tall order on a course as hard and fast as this one with United Healthcare riding like they were. It was really complete domination by United Healthcare all week long. The hill looked super painful during the early races. Made for some good spectating!

Pro Women

Pro Women on the hill

Robin Farina on the attack. She took the Most Aggressive Rider award for Speed Week.

Two riders off the front with one lap to go

Jen Wheeler wins for Team TIBCO

Pro Women's finish

     It was a 50 lap race for us on a 1 km course. It was another large field, sporting around 150 starters. Again, I got placed at the back. Actually, on the very back row today. I had a decent start though and at least picked up 10 spots the first lap. It was stupid fast up the hill. Basically you had to stand and sprint all-out all the way up the hill and a few meters past the crest just to hang onto the wheel ahead of you. The twisty decent was very fast and kept things single-file around the entire course. I was fairly comfortable with the pace, but found it impossible to move up. Gaps started opening on lap 2 as guys were popping from the pace up the climb. There were gaps everywhere and it seemed way to early for me to be covering gap after gap.

Pro/1/2 riders in turn 1

Sprint up the hill!

It was the same scene every lap on the climb...single-file sprinting.

    I lasted only 8 laps before becoming unhitched on the climb. That was just 11 minutes of racing. They pulled me off the course on the backstretch so I didn't even get to complete lap 9. Our average was 26.4 mph. That's moving along on a course like this one. United Healthcare laid the smack down once again and swept the top 2 spots and overall series title after a break lapped the field.Their speed obliterated over half the field, leaving a small pack to sprint at the end.

United Healthcare swarming the front

Riders flow through turn 6 which was just before the start of the climb

United Healthcare controlling the group with a few laps to go

Karl Menzies wins in a sprint finish after lapping the field in a break

     It was another disappointing day, but again, I am not at all regretting moving into the Pro/1. It was a great experience and lets me know just what I need to do in training to be able to finish these big races. I just need a little more speed to be able to move farther up and stay ahead of the gaps. I'm very grateful for the chance I got to race with some of the best crit. riders in the world and I hope I get to do it again next year.