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| Overlook off of a gravel road. |
Oh the adventures we had at this race! Hunter, Forrest, and I left for the mountains of North Carolina Friday afternoon. It was about a four and a half hour drive up there, and we stopped to eat Mexican about halfway. We pulled into our little motel at about 11:00 local time. I was supposed to do the time trial the next morning at 8:30, buuuuut with us getting in late and the forecast being rain and cold, I decided I would sleep a little later and skip it.
My road race started at 12:10. The forecast was calling for rain and cold. Thank the Lord the rain held off. By the end of the race, it was actually sunny and I was warm! We had probably 30 guys start the B race, the most we've had all year. We all knew that the climb (1 mile at 7%) that came about halfway through the 15.5 mile laps would make or break the race. So we rode pretty easy to the base, and then Christian from GA Tech accelerated about halfway up. Coming over the top, him, me, and about 10 other guys had a sizable lead on the rest of the guys. So we worked together on the long, twisty descent. We didn't work hard enough, though, as a group caught up with us right before we started climbing the climb on the second lap. But, once again, we dropped lots of guys and we had a group of about 20. We worked again up until we climbed it the third and final climb, where I came over the top with 10 others guys in the lead. We knew the winner was going to come out of this group.
In addition to the real climb, there was a short, steep hill about a mile from the finish. I knew that something would go down on this hill. I positioned myself close to the front (second position), waiting for someone to make a move. My legs felt absolutely amazing. Sure enough, a kid from Kennesaw State attacked, and I jumped too. A guy from King College jumped with me, and we worked to bridge up to the KSU kid pretty quickly. We all three worked together, pushing as hard as we could. We had a pretty good gap, and I was taking longer pulls than the other guys because I was the strongest and they were obviously spent. But, it was not meant to be; we were caught within sight of the finish line, maybe 200 meters out. It was so disappointing. But, I had a blast, it was a great course, and I felt good.
Hunter and Forrest raced at 3:15. They were doing two laps, and of course, the climb splintered up the field. Our guys rode hard, but the climb was just too much. It's hard to get some training on climbs when you live in Auburn!
The forecast for the criteriums Sunday was the same as for Saturday, but the forecast was actually true. Which means a cold and wet crit. Cold. Wet. Crit. Those three words really shouldn't go together. Oh well, we were there and we paid for it, so we did it.
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| Taken from my truck before my race. |
Hunter and Forrest raced at 9:00. It actually wasn't raining at the start, but that was just false hope. It began misting, then sprinkling, then really raining. It was a darn shame. The C race was fast, and the rain and cold didn't help for the guys. The finished the race, though, and I'm proud of them for that.
I raced at 10:35, and by that time, the temperature was 35 degrees and it was really raining. Perfect conditions for a crit, right? Right. We had a significantly smaller field than the day before (bunch of wimps skipping out). Lees McRae had eight guys, almost half of the field. I knew that they would keep attacking and making people chase until someone got away. After the first couple of times, where they attacked and I chased them down because no one else wanted to race hard, I was tired of doing all the work. They had a kid up the road, and no one was riding hard. So, I attacked through a corner and got away with one other Lees McRae guy. We bridged up to the leader, and another one of their teammates bridged up to us. So, it was me and three Lees McRae guys up front. We quickly dropped one, so it was down to three, with about 30 minutes left in the race.
We worked really well together, and at one point had a 90 second lead on the field. In the last few laps, they began attacking me, and I continued to chase them down. We were all together on the last lap, with me in second wheel. I started my sprint just before the last turn and kicked up the hill to the finish, to win by a bike length or so!
All in all, it was a great weekend. If anything, it was great because of the beauty of the mountains and the area. See the bottom for more pics of the views.
On our way back, we took a detour on a windy gravel road that proved to have some amazing views, and it was well worth the two and a half hour setback (as you can see from the pics, even if the true beauty was not completely captured in them).
Also, we stopped at the Varsity in Atlanta on the way back, because Hunter and Forrest had never been there.
I cannot wait to go back to this race next year. It was a blast! Next up, the SECCC conference championships at Clemson April 13-14.
Nathan Spence
Pics from the RR course (click to enlarge):
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| Waterfall on the side of the RR course |
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| The last half of the course followed this river |
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| Awesome rope bridge right off of the course |
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| View of some mountains in the mist on the way to the RR start |
Pics from the gravel road (click to enlarge):
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| We couldn't figure out where we were supposed to jump off.... |
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| Cool waterfall |
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| And this is where we had to turn around, to our dismay. |
