Sweat It Out

    It was another morning of sleeping in on Thursday after the late night race in Concord. Today the weather cooperated and we were able to go pre-ride the High Rock Road Race course. We slept in a little too long and got out in the hotter part of the day. We downloaded two different maps off the race website and were unsure which one the race would be following. We decided to ride one route today and do the other route tomorrow. It was a nice course, very fast with some small rolling hills on the way back to the finish. It was a great loop for a morning spin to loosen up the legs. My hamstring was still a bit aggravated from overstretching last night during my warm-up, so I got in the pool when we returned to the hotel and then Shannon hit me with a quick massage to help it relax.

Following Shannon down one of the faster portions of the road race course

High Rock Lake

Shannon taking a break and looking at High Rock Lake. You pass by the lake about halfway around the race course.

     The crit. course for Thursday night was in downtown Salisbury, just 4 minutes from the hotel. Again, rain was a threat. A passing shower soaked the course during the Cat. 4/5 Men's race. The course was damp for the Masters, but by the time the Cat. 3s got on course, it was dry and fast again. It was a hot night on yet another fast, narrow course. This course was longer at 0.9 miles in length. It was a figure-8 layout with a one block square on each end. It began on a flat straightaway on Main Street followed by a gradual descent through three 90-degree left turns. After turn 3, the course climbed up to a 90-degree right turn that put you back on Main St. The course ran each side of Main St. here Luckily, this road is very wide so going both ways did nothing to narrow the course. At the end of Main came another set of three lefts, with a slight uphill out of turn 5 and turn 7. A right turn 8 took you back onto Main for the flat sprint to the line.

Downtown Salisbury Course Map

The leading break of two in the Women's race

The pack chases out of turn 3

The Women pass a water tower on the backside of the course

Aftermath of a crash in turn 7

Cat. 4/5 Men on course

A passing rain shower wet down the course during the Cat. 4/5 race

      I had another good warm-up. I know I had not raced long each night, but I was surprised that my legs felt so good. It was dark by the time we took to the course, but the temp and humidity were still high. The start was stupid fast right from the gun. That seems to be the theme of the week. We were already single-file halfway through the first lap. On lap 2, guys were already blowing up and gaps were opening everywhere. I didn't get the best start tonight in a group of over 80 riders, so I was suffering through the gaps.

Over 80 riders on the start line again tonight for the Pro/1/2 event

     I hung on a few laps, but began to pop off at eight minutes. I railed the group of left turns at the far end of the course to get back onto the group. The rider in front of me was dangling five bike lengths off the back of the group as we approached Main St. The moto official decided to cut across the course and not do the back loop. He turned across the course right in front of our group! I have no idea what he was thinking. It was nowhere near dark enough to not see us. I locked up the breaks and missed him, but he ran into the guy in front of me. The guy didn't go down. He was instantly in the face of the official and they had a nice yelling match. We were off the back immediately and our race was over. That was very irritating. The official is supposed to be the last guy you would expect to cause an incident. Too bad I did not have the handlebar cam on tonight. I always miss the good stuff...

     We formed a chase group quickly, but they never gave us a free lap for the incident. I'm not sure why, but they did not pull us either. Maybe it was because of the bigger size of the course, or maybe because of the incident. Either way, I got to stay in and finish the full race. There was a crash right after the official incident, so I guess I'm grateful to have missed out on the carnage. Our group got lapped and we were allowed to rejoin the back of the main group. I was able to hang about 15 minutes before I got dropped. The guys I had been with in the chase group also got dropped, so we reformed our group and kept ticking away the laps.

     We were hammering as if we were racing for the win. I had a huge stitch in my ribs that hurt, but I was able to push through it. I was pumped just to be out there for the full distance. I ended up getting lapped three times before the finish. There was lightning in the distance the last 10 minutes, but the rain held off. A breakaway stuck tonight with Frank Pipp winning for the second night in a row after outsprinting Chris Monteleone. I wound up 51st with a 23.6 mph average speed even with doing so much outside of the peloton and being three laps behind. My hamstring was sore, but held up through the full race. I could not believe the weight of my skinsuit after the race. It was the most soaked with sweat any piece of my clothing has ever been after a race.

Video: Downtown Salisbury Crit.

      Shannon and I always joke around about how you could steal any car you want at a bike race because people leave their keys in the most obvious places while they are racing. The guy parked next to us topped the cake. He didn't even try to hide them.

     Next up is another night crit., this time in the town of Statesville, NC.