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)