Fayetteville Stage race
Heading to Fayetteville for the third time in my racing career with on of my ex teammates Paul Wellen. The first time I did this race I won the GC as a Jr in the Jr open back in 08. The second time a raced hear 10th in the GC in the cat 3s and I was looking to improve that standing. Me and Paul made it to Fayetteville and got our packets and numbers before I met with Teammate Will Rader in Lagrange. The plan was that I was going to stay with Will for the weekend and then come home with Paul once the racing was done.
Stage 1 67 miles 3 laps
After waking up very early to make the 7:30 start time me and Will both glanced at our phones and saw that the weather said it was going to get wet by the time the race ends, and we figured it would be a mostly dry and warm day of racing (to those of you that survived that weekend you know what was about to come) The race had several starters with around 75-80, and the sky was a little cloudy but nothing too bad. As the race rolled by the neutral start it started off really slow and I was having some difficulty moving to the front of the pack because of it. I wasn’t able to get to the front of the pack till before the feed zone on the first lap. Shortly after I got to the front Will attacked and was off the front with one rider from Wooly Mammoth. The two of them got a small gap on the field but the pack seems to have a No Jr off the front policy and started to real them back in. By the time we hit the hot Spot hill the pack was about to catch my teammate and I was getting ready to launch the counter attack that is when the entire world around the race had changed. The storm was over hour early and the winds started to pick up. I looked to the West and saw a wall of lighting come down. Once the hail started pummeling the field we caught the break and I launched a hard attack into the cross winds. I looked back to see the field was strung out from the confusion of the weather and cross winds. After about a minute of hard effort I was off the front with teammate Will and another Wooly rider. This was exactly what me and Will wanted, we wanted to both get into a small group off the front of the pack.The three of us where making some good time on the field. I was kinda getting some second thoughts thinking it might still be a little too early for a 3 man break with still over 30 miles to the finish. We soon hit the right hand turn onto the country road. The Three of us were going steady until I felt the too familiar feeling of riding a flat tire. I looked down to see to my horror that I had gotten a front flat in the most crucial part of the road race. I quickly yell as loud as I can at Will to let him know that I’m going back for a wheel change. I pulled into the ditch on the left side of the road and took off my front wheel and started waving it in the air like a mad man to get the wheel car to notice me in the middle of all the rain, hail, and lighting. They luckily see me after the pack rolls by and give me a front wheel. I changed the wheel as fast as I could and started my solo ride to the pack. At this point the pack was well out of sight and had over 2 minutes on me. Once I got into a rhythm chasing I was pissed. I was thinking about the several months of training I had and how it could all mean nothing with a simple puncture. I was thinking of giving up right there and then and possible save my self the pain from chasing a gap that looked nearly impossible. By the time I made it to the feed zone I saw that Club member Todd had flatted and was getting his wheels changed. I made a “U” turn to pick him up thinking riding back with another rider will help me catch the pack. After picking up Todd 4 more riders that had flatted or got dropped caught on and we had a 6 man rotation chasing to get back to the pack. We were working pretty good together but I was thinking that there was no way a group of 5 chasers can get to the back of a pack of over 50 racers trying to win the race as we were working to get to the pack we were passing well over a dozen riders who had gotten a puncture out on the course and were waiting for the wheel truck to come and help them. The 5 of us started dwindling as the chase progressed and by the time we hit the Tail Cross wind section at the beginning of the final lap the chase group was down to just Me and Lee Eldridge. The two of us were working smoothly together until we saw the best thing in the world. We saw the back of the pack just cresting the hotspot hill. This gave us an extra boost cause we got a glimpse of what seemed impossible 20 miles earlier. The two of us the hammered up that hotspot hill knowing the pack was now reachable and maybe just 90 seconds in front. Once we got onto the country road (where I flatted just 1 lap earlier) we had brought the pack close enough so that they were now permanently in front of us and we where almost tasting a pack finish. the two of us then caught some riders that were just dropped and used them to the best of our ability to get them to work as hard as they can to catch back on. I then saw that they were way too weak to help me catch the back of the pack so I launched a solo attack from the chase group to try to bridge the final 25 seconds on my own. After several hard minutes of a solo bridge I tagged on to the back of the pack at the start of the feed zone.I looked back and saw that Lee was the only one that followed be across the gap. nobody else in the chase group was able to make it across.After catching my breath I shot up to front of the pack and found Will and got a status report on what was going on. Turned out that the pack had still together and no one was off the front. Heading into the final 4 kilometers Danny Parks of GS Tenzing attacked a wet corner and was flying solo. Will shot across the gap to Danny as well as a third rider from the pack. Quickly a second devastation occurred when Will touched wheels and crashed from the break. All I can do was look in fright and anger as my last teammate went down in the middle of the road as we started the final approach to the line. In the final sprint for the line I was able to get a 9th place. I knew I could do better than that but after chasing on for over a lap my legs where feeling it and couldn’t sprint at all. On the ride back to the parking lot I started going hypothermic and shivering like crazy. Not only did it rain, and get windier but now the temp dropped from 55 to a bone chilling 41. At the lot I found Will and we headed back to the hotel to assess the race and look at possible damages.
Post RR Assessment
At the hotel I found out that Will’s crash tore up his elbows and hands enough so that he couldn’t ride his TT bike that afternoon. I was feeling that every hardship Fayetteville through my was affecting me more each time. First the flat, then Will’s crash, and now Will can’t start the TT effectively taking him out of the entire race.
Stage 2 6 mile iTT
After making several phone calls I was able to get a ride to the time trial with fellow Jr racer Ethan Moorhead. By the time the Time trials started the rain had stopped and the Temperature was sticking to around 43 degrees. However the winds had picked up quite drastically and were blowing at 25 with gusts into the 30s as I was getting ready for the TT I was looking at others riders warm up seeing them getting blow all over the road in their aero gear and all I was saying to myself was that I don’t care what the weather was. I kept telling my self that this was a time trial, an event where only the strongest and most pain numb racers win. I looked at my TT set up and I had all my aero gear on, thinking that there is no way the wind was going to cause me not to give it 100% effort.I wanted to take a vengeance on the course. After a short warmup I was being held in the start line waiting for my start. When the clock hit my time I let off the start line in a strong sprint and quickly got into my aero tuck and started turning the pedals as hard as I could. Almost the entire tail wind section I was going any where from 28-38 MPH just cruising along. I could feel the wind grabbing my front wheel and helmet and trying to knock me down throughout the course but I just kept going all the way through all the way to the finish line. When I finished I looked at my time and saw 14:34:00 that is a blistering time for this course especially in that wind strong.
Post TT & day 1 assessment
After the getting the TT results I couldn’t believe my eyes. I had the second fasted time in the Cat 3s which was good enough to put me in the GC lead in the race. I didn’t know what to feel all I know is that I turned me and Will’s misfortune and bad luck into a chance to pull off something truly amazing. I was to head into stage 3 with about a 29 second lead over Lee Eldridge and a 32 second lead over Danny Parks
Stage 3 62 miles 4 laps
After getting to the parking lot for the start of stage 3 the temperature was 36. When I got to the Eventually of the race I was truly alone, my entire team was out of the race. I had 29 seconds over second and was surrounded by over 30 men who knew exactly who I was and what I had to do to win the race. It was time for me to use every skill I learned from the past, race smart and use my strength and race experience to best I could. It was time to truly grow up and turn the worst race start ever to the biggest win of my career. The race started out very aggressive with several attacks from Wooly Mammoth. Eventually Wooly got one man solo off the front. I was able to relax a little finding out that the rider was over 10 minutes back from a flat on Saturday. After the first lap the wind was starting to pick up. At the start of the second lap two of my friends Brian Darby and Andrew Ennis attacked and started pulling away from the pack. Luckily I was talking to them earlier and found out that they were both over 10 minutes back from me due to flats in stage 1. Now there where 3 riders off the front and I was being isolated at the front of the pack. It wasn’t until the Cross wind section that 2 more riders attacked and got off the front. I had to be very careful when letting someone get off the front cause I knew that several riders were several minutes back from flats on stage 1. After the 5 riders where off the front I didn’t allow any one else go and started putting my foot down as the GC leader. In the final two laps the wind was the highest it was going to be all day and I was getting angry at the field for not being cooperative and making me pull back everything that went off on the attack.I started putting in some attacking of my own to try to hurt the field and try to nullify any more attacks. The pack was coming apart quite nicely and was shrinking in size. I did the same on the same section on the final lap as well and at one point got a gap and started going solo, but the pack didn’t want to let the GC leader just ride away and they caught me quickly. I knew that the pack was too tired to attack me anymore and I was now just trying to limit the time loss on the break in the final miles by just putting out some tempo from the front. The pack stayed together and finished in a pack sprint. I was able to get 5 in the sprint getting a 10th on the stage. The break didn’t finish even more than a minute and didn’t affect the GC and I was able to hold onto first, pulling off the biggest win of my racing career.I couldn’t have been able to pull of the result if it wasn’t for Paul Wellen for getting me to and from the race, as well as Will Rader for giving me a place to sleep for the first day of racing as well as Ethan Moorhead for giving me rides to the races after Will went home from his crash after the first stage. I would also like to thank my Team Metro VW, as well as my coach David Wenger for getting me strong enough to be able to do what I did. This race has given me an idea what can do out on the road and I’ll never forget this weekend of racing.
