The Tennessee State Championship Road Race was this Saturday in Gainesboro. The course was about 55 miles with 5 climbs and then another large roller about 5 miles from the finish. My plan was to stay with the strong climbers and see what happened to the field. It seemed most of the field stayed together on the first climb and on the second a couple juniors and another racer took off. Since there was still over 40 miles left in the race I didn't respond. We ended up catching them shortly after but after the first three climbs all the strong guys were still together. We seemed to have a group of 15 or 20. The race favorite, who is a sprinter that no cat 4 is going to beat, was still with is. I was hoping he would have gotten dropped on the first three climbs but no such luck. On the fourth climb the pace picked up and the group got smaller, but still the race favorite was still there. A mile or two after the climb (about mile 33) one guy went off the front. I saw him go but I'm not sure many other did. I knew him and made the decision that he couldn't stay away solo the entire race and didn't give chase. I did make sure to tell a couple of the other guys in case they wanted to chase, but no one did. The pace was pretty slow at that point. Occasionally someone would go to the front and ramp it up but it would then slow back down. When we came to the 5th climb I knew that was our last best chance to drop the sprinters, so I quickly went to the front and picked up the pace. I crested the hill with two others and we had a small gap on the rest of the field. We worked together on the short flat before we went back downhill. By the time we got to the bottom of the descent the field was back together (probably 14 or 15). The pace was still pretty slow and the solo guy wasn't in sight. I knew there was that last large roller and it would be the last shot at getting a smaller break. One of the juniors was feeling good at about 8 miles to go and took off and I jumped on his wheel. After his pull I looked back and we had a good gap on the field. Another guy bridged up and this move finally energized everyone. We rejoined the field but at this point we were finally on the gas. We made the left turn onto the highway where the finish was and immediately started the large roller. We could see the solo guy halfway up it so we knew he was caught. Another guy attacked and I got on his wheel. This seemed like a promising move that would at the very least whittle the field down even more. A few seconds later the moto ref rode by and said he was neutralizing the field. We all stopped at the top of the roller (5 miles to the finish) and found out there was a bad crash at the finish and all the races on the course were being stopped. We sat for about 20 minutes while they cleared the finish and got the guys that crashed help. One guy had to be life flighted away but he is luckily ok. But the stop killed the momentum we were creating and it gave everyone a chance to recover. We finally started again and the gas was on from the beginning. I tried to get in a good position for the sprint but only managed 11th. Once I lost the wheel of the race favorite at 200 meters my incentive to continue to go all out also went away since I was there to race for the win.
Sunday was the Cookeville Crit. It was a great course was some fast turns you could hit full gas and some good uphill sections, which suited me. The downside was it was a downhill sprint finish, and I knew there was no chance I could beat the race favorite in a sprint (he had won the state road race the day before). I also knew there was at least one other guy there that I didn't want to take to the line. So I could either conserve and sit in the entire time and race for 3rd, or I could be aggressive the entire race and try to pull off a win. Anyone that knows how I've been racing this year knows I picked the aggressive route. I sat in until the first $20 prime which was pretty early on. I put in a huge attack on the backside of the race and got a big gap. I took the prime and kept pushing to see what would happen. Another guy bridged up and we worked together for a few laps but were caught by the field. They announced another $20 prime later on and again on the back stretch the field was going slow, so I attacked again. In the last turn I realized there was someone behind me but didn't know how. I put in an all out sprint to the line but realized as he nipped me to take the prime that it was the race favorite. I think he beat me sitting down, but I've also heard he has almost a 2000 watt sprint so it's not surprising. He gaped me because I was toast but after I recovered for a few seconds I sprinted up to get on his wheel hoping he would pull me into a break. I had seen him win a crit earlier in the year by going solo after winning a prime. By the time I got to him he could see that the field was also coming so he sat up. I tried a couple more attacks/went with attacks but nothing stuck. Going into two laps to go the field was still together. After the downhill finish there was a tight left 90 degree turn followed by another tight left 90 degree turn. The main part of the field was slowing down here most of the race so I thought this would be the best place to attack and see what happened. As I said I didn't want this to come down to a sprint so in a last ditch effort I attacked on the downhill going into 1 lap to go and had a gap coming out of the two turns. I buried myself going up the uphill but the field blew past me close to the top. I was toast and pushed with what I had left back to the finish line. I was able to pass one guy in the sprint to take 11th. I played all my cards with the last attack knowing that I was either going to win or finish back in the pack. It didn't work out but I earned some great experience. Also I was happy that I was able to move around the field and get in the position I wanted which is something I haven't been able to do on a consistent basis in the past, so that was also a plus.
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