So far we've raced in the time trial and the road race. Rob, Billy, Craig and I did the TT. I rode the course on Saturday and Sunday while Craig and Billy arrived on Sunday and rode the course then. Rob also arrived on Sunday from Canadian road nationals (where he won a bronze medal in both the TT and the road race). Unfortunately his bikes did not arrive with him! He was able to drive the course to check it out and luckily his bikes arrived late that evening. The down side was that he was up until 1:30am putting his bike together.
The TT course was a nice course. It was very "lumpy" with a lot of small little rollers. Nothing really of significance except that there were a lot of them. Even still it was a pretty fast course.
Working on four hours of sleep Rob was able to manage a 7th place finish. Craig finished 7th in the 40-44 group which turned out to be the most competitive group of the day. Billy and I rounded the day out with two bronze medals in the 35-39 (Billy) and 45-49 (Me). As usual in my age group Thurlow slayed all and in fact was only beaten by the 30-34 winner and only by about 10-15 seconds.
On to the road race where Rob was off first.
The road course was a short loop of just under 5 miles. It had a number of small hills. The longest probably only took around 45 seconds to climb, but the course slowly wore on you. There were also a number of sharp, technical turns. This was very much a course where you wanted to ride near the front.
Rob rode a very aggressive race. In short order he was off the front with another rider. We arrived just before he came to the line with two to go. He had already been out there a while with another rider, but it didn't look good as his gap was only around 15 seconds. But, the next time around he had dropped the other rider and opened the gap up to 30 seconds. We were all very excited hoping that he could hold on for the win. Unfortunately though, the pack sped up and closed part of the gap towards the end. Close enough so that one rider was able to jump away and passed Rob 200 meters from the line. A tough way to not win a race!
Thursday was a busy day with the 35-39, 40-44, and 45-49 road race. The 35's were off first with Billy, Wyatt and Dean. Billy bridged up to the break that included last years winner with a few laps to go. In the end though he was unable to come around Paul Martin who won for the second year in a row. Billy finished second.
In the 40-44 race the break went off without Craig and he wasn't able to close the gap and finished in the pack.
In the 45-59 race Thurlow was again the rider to beat. He also had two strong team mates with him so it was going to be tough. About four laps into our ten lap race, the rain that had been threatening finally arrived. It was a light sprinkle, but enough to make the road wet. AND SLIPPERY. I watched a number of riders dive into wet corners only to slide out and crash. I have no idea what made them think that they could safely navigate those wet corners at that speed... As for myself, even being careful my back wheel was sliding all over the place. I didn't go down, but had a few exciting moments!
With about four to go Thurlow made his move and got away alone. We tried to close the gap, but with his team patrolling the front it wasn't meant to be. With less than two laps to go, and group of four meandered off the front. I was being marked by Thurlows team mates and chose to play a little game of chicken, hoping that somebody would speed things up to bring them back or at least close. When we got to the biggest hill on the course I was able to attack and with two other riders and get away clear, but unfortunately the gap had grown too large. Another attack on the last lap brought our group down to me and another rider who ended up beating me in the sprint for 6th.
I'm on my way home, but Wyatt, Billy and Dean will be racing in the criterium at Churchill Downs on Sunday. The criterium course is inside the horse racing track and there will be horse races that day with thousands of spectators. How cool is that?
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