Fayetteville stage race cat 2 2011

Stage one 63 miles

3rd Cat 2 iTT

the stage started off at a slow reasonable pace with a lot of chitchat going on amongst the racers. Everybody seemed content to stay in the pack and save energy for the later stages. As the race progressed things seemed to stay calm for the most part. I was enjoying the pace and the fresh country air as I sat in the middle of the group talking to my teammate Jake Boone and other racers I don't normally have time to talk to. Heading into the sprint I was about half way back from the front of the pack and had no chance on moving up for a top ten. I made sure there were no time gaps and finished safely in the middle.


Stage 2 iTT
For the time trial I started off above what I would normally do for a TT of this length. However with a strong head wind start I knew that the most time would be made by going off full gas and slowly tapering off as I neared the finish. My TT strategy paid off in the end. I ended up getting third on the stage 4 second off of first and moving third in GC.


Stage three 96 Miles

Finishing Stage 3

Stage started off calm with one attack coming from Chris Tricky (Wooly Mammoth) straight off the neutral start. He ended up rolling off the front solo while the rest of the field was getting ready for a long day. As the race continued to progress team 787 was controlling the front for the beginning of the race preventing any large groups that could hurt Biard's GC lead. I stayed near the front with my one teammate Jake trying to make sure 787 didn't sneak any of their other GC guys into any early breaks. As the race progressed things stayed together for the most part, with Tricky now solo off the front with a 2.5 minute lead. As we entered the single lane road on the 3rd lap there was a small split at the front of the pack that contained about 6 riders. This split had riders from a lot of different teams in it. the gap to this break got up to 15-20 seconds but looked like it wasn't going to get away. As I told Jake to jump across to the group, I heard a whistle being blown by the ref, singling for the group to go neutral. The reason for this neutralization was because the cat 3s were catching us from behind and we had to make room for them. This normally doesn't mean much for me, except the Officials didn't stop the break, and Jake couldn't get across in time. As we sat there spinning our small chain rings waiting for the 3s to pass us I could see the insignificant break that was just up the road start motoring away with no one allowed to bring it back. Once we were allowed to race the break had a lead of 2.5 minuts and was out of sight on the other side of the cat 3s. As the raced progressed a few teams that missed the break went towards the front  to try to bring it back to a reasonable time. We ended up re-catching the cat 3s. The break of 6 that were up the road were only up two minutes now. That is when disaster struck for a second time. The cat 3s caught the my field for a second time as they started singling out for their sprint finish. As I waited for the single file peloton of racers to go around us. the break of six went up to a daunting 5.5 minute gap. Once we were allowed to race again the pack had a different mentality and started slow down knowing that the break was just too far up the road to do anything about. With about 2 laps to go I started doing a few attacks off the front of the pack in the harder cross wind sections to try to form a chase group to get away from all the sprinters that have been sitting in all race. After several failed attempts of trying to get away, I was able to form a small group of 4 at that start of the final lap. the four of us (Anthony White, Jeremy Thompson, and Rusty Stover) were able to get a smooth rotation going at the top of the course and kept things pretty smooth for the rest of the lap.


I finished 8th on the stage and went back to 7th in GC. We were able to bring the break down from a 7 minute lead to a 2-2.5 minute lead.


as a recap of the race weekend- I believe the best thing about Fayetteville was how great I felt starting that final lap of a near 100 mile road race. This is a good sign my form is coming along great and things are still going to be going up with Nationals coming in June.