Brevard College Recap

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.

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):

Waterfall on the side of the RR course

The last half of the course followed this river

Awesome rope bridge right off of the course

View of some mountains in the mist on the way to the RR start

Pics from the gravel road (click to enlarge): 

We couldn't figure out where we were supposed to jump off....

Cool waterfall

And this is where we had to turn around, to our dismay.

Georgia Tech Recap

Chris and I went exploring on Friday. A one hour ride turned into two, those are the best!

Finally, we had good weather! The weather was beautiful for Saturday's Road Race and Time Trial in Palmetto, GA. I went up early before the other guys because I was doing the time trial and my road race was at 11:15, and their road race wasn't until 2:00. I wanted to do the time trial just to get points for the overall Category B standings. I honestly didn't feel great about my race at all, but I was okay with it and just came back to the truck to relax for about two hours until my road race.

I found out Sunday that I actually won the Category B Time Trial! I guess I did better than I felt!



Before my road race, I deduced (because he was wearing a different number) that Nathaniel Rowe, the guy from Georgia Tech who was beating me in the Cat B Overall, had moved up to Category A. Honestly, I wish he would've stayed down so that I could see how I did against him for the rest of the season. But, now that he moved up, the title was mine for the taking.

This gave me confidence for the road race, probably too much in hindsight. The course was 20 miles and we were doing two laps. Each lap climbed 1200 feet (by far the most climbing we had done all year up until this point). I was on the front too much, burning too many matches. For the last 10 miles, my legs were tight and I could feel them cramping when I stood up. So, I sat in the group and just tried to save as much energy as I could for the bunch sprint.

The last 200 meters were slightly uphill into a headwind. So I knew I couldn't launch my sprint too early because I would fade. No one wanted to pull at the end, so we were just spinning, three abreast waiting for someone to do something. Finally, a guy from Western Carolina jumped to my left (I was on the far left, right next to the yellow line, which we were not allowed to cross since the roads were open. Fortunately, as you will see, he went over that line.) and I jumped right after him, and it was a long sprint to the line. I was closing on him, but I was too late and he beat me. My legs were screaming at me, and I screamed back (literally). He just had more in his (mainly because he sat in the field while I was close to the front, trying to make things happen).

I was still happy with 2nd, because the guy who beat me hadn't done any races before this one, so he wasn't a threat for the overall title. But, the next day, the president of the Georgia Tech cycling team told me that he had been DQ'd because he went over the yellow line, and that I had gotten 1st! Woohoo! Not the way I would've liked it, but hey, a win is win.


We had four guys race the Cat C this weekend! It was really cool! They unfortunately only got to do one lap, so it was going to be hard and fast. They actually had a higher average speed than I did in my race. The guys told me it was super hard. There were two crashes, one in the last 300 meters or so (causing some mothers to scream and curse loudly). But, amidst the carnage of bikes and limbs, Frank the Dutch-man emerged from the pack, sprinting and challenging for the win! I was videoing, but it was terrible because i just starting screaming "GO FRANK!!!!!" at the top of my lungs and you can't see anything. But, he ended up second (or so we thought...). What made his ride so amazing was because, apparently, he was caught behind the first crash and he had to time trial himself back the group. Then he still had enough energy to sprint for second (or so we thought...).

As you can see in the picture, he is across that darn yellow line, just ever so slightly. So, on the results sheet they sent us, they had him in last. He emailed them, but I don't think they responded. Really sucks for him, because it was a heck of a ride. Kudos to him.


It was rough getting up Sunday for the criterium because of the time change. We lost an hour because of the time change, plus an hour for being in Eastern time zone, so it felt two hours earlier. Oh well. It was another beautiful day for bike racing!

The other guys raced two races before me, and they had a fairly large field like on Saturday. They were cruising in the pack, looking good. 

Then, some guy from King College stood up to attack, and went right over his bars. It was the freakiest crash I've ever seen. He went down. Hard. He laid there for 10 or 15 minutes while the race was still going on, then an ambulance finally arrived and they were forced to stop the race. Our guys didn't like this, they felt that their legs got cold. But, they resumed the race. They looked good as they came through with one more lap to go, but they faded outside the top 20. They still had a blast and they learned a lot. Can't wait for the next races!

My race had a small field, again. At the beginning of the race, my legs felt heavy. So, I just told myself I would sit in the field and wait for the bunch sprint. One of the guys from GA Tech had attacked and was out front solo, with a pretty good lead. No one wanted to race, and the other GA Tech guys were just sitting on the front, not pulling. So, I moved up to the front, not really attacking, but just trying to get people to go. But, I had opened a small gap, so I turned it into an attack. Another guy from GA Tech came, along with a guy from UCF and two guys from King College. We caught up to the leader in a couple of laps and built our lead up to 25-30 seconds.

This is the group.

We kept working up till the end though. I knew that I would need to be on one of the King guys' wheel for the sprint. Sure enough, one of the guys got on the front and drilled it coming out of the last turn, his teammate in second, and me on his wheel. A guy from GA Tech moved up on the left with about 200 meters to, and the King guy whose wheel i had jumped over to his wheel. I moved to the left and launched my sprint, and passed the two guys right before the line to take the win!

Video of the finish (courtesy of Carter Spence):

It was a great race, and a great ending to a great weekend! Now we're getting ready for Brevard College in North Carolina this weekend. Can't wait!


Nate - (pictures from the crit courtesy of the lovely Michaela Charles)