The night before the last stage, I was sitting in 2nd on the GC, 50 seconds behind the leader, and 4 seconds ahead of two riders, 17 seconds in front of another. The course has 2 climbs - one small, 60 second climb and a larger, 2-3 mile climb with a hilltop finish. I didn't think I could take 50 seconds off of the leader, but I knew I definitely could lose 4 seconds from time bonuses or the final climb.
Unfortunately, the night before the race didn't go so well. Couldn't keep any food in, and my back was pretty worked over in general (I've been having problems in races with this). I was thinking I was 50-50 to even finish the stage, let alone keep my place on the GC, especially over a 75 mile road race. I decided to try and start anyway, and downed about 1/2 bottle of Pepto Bismol before the start. Hadn't ever had Pepto before - seemed to work pretty well, surprisingly.
The race started simply enough - with headwinds, and 75 miles, no one was really interested in putting the hammer down, and a group of 3 rolled away. Everything was slow, slow, slow, except the descents, where everyone feels like Superman and wants to go fast.
I had quite a bit of trouble moving up on the descents (lost a lot of places descending), but there was a spot about 3/4 of the way through the lap where the highway opened up, and there was a 3 foot shoulder. I was feeling strong, so I shot up the side to the front of the field and put myself at the front for the first time up the climb. Not sure why the field never got swarmed there, as it was super easy to move up. Perhaps the wind was strong-ish?
First time up the climb was awesome - we had AJ, Andrew Howell, and Adam K (I think - I may have gotten one of those wrong) on the front, and 3 leaders out taking up the time bonuses. It felt pretty awesome to have the team really controlling the race, and to be sitting right in back of a controlling train. Fun. About 20% from the top of the climb, people started coming around, but the goal was just to get over the top in the front, and let the breakaway take the time bonuses away.
I did a better job of keeping places on the descent. Managed to reach out and snatch a Starbucks bottle away from someone thinking it was neutral water in the feed zone. Whoops. Got shuffled back a bit too far again, and moved up in the exact same position. I was able to stay at the front again, and Adam K, Nick Adsero, and AJ kept me in the very front, as Fanatik came to the front to drive up the pace. I kept thinking we were going to get swarmed, and kept myself 4th wheel (right behind Nick Adsero). Nick managed to put me in perfect position going into the climb (3rd wheel), and led out for a bit before pulling off. I had about 70% of the climb left, and I was right where I wanted to be, feeling okay. A few people drove a pretty hard pace until about 500m to go, when the real attacks started. I was able to keep myself at the front, but so did 3rd and 4th on the overall (who started 4s back from me, with 10, 6, and 4 seconds available as time bonuses at the line). Finally, at 150m to go, 3rd on the GC put in a big attack, and 4th went with him. I realized a bit too late that I had messed up, and should've attacked earlier, rather than trying to accelerate with guys who weigh 30 lbs less than me.
I sprinted as best I could, and managed to beat one of them, but not the other (he had a great uphill sprint - super fast finish for him), for third on the stage (someone else had gone early on the climb, and I missed catching him by a 1/2 second. That meant I fell to 3rd on the general classification, but given my last week of sickness (lost 11 lbs in 1 week - ouch), and being sick the night before, I've got to be happy with that. The team did fantastic - they got me right where I needed to be when I need to be there. Best teamwork I saw from any team all weekend.
After the race, I waited around for the results, and had to file my first USCF protest to get them corrected (someone accidentally added a few guys on the GC ahead of me in the results). They got sorted eventually, and I headed home.
I was pretty happy with the weekend as a whole - had a decent time trial and road race, but I'm still feeling apprehensive about P/1/2 crits.
I did, however, earn my mandatory upgrade to 1/2's (I have 44 pts now, 40 pts is a mandatory upgrade), so it's sink or swim time.
Here's a photo of the sprint finish. Looks like I put myself in bad position. I missed catching the guy in orange by about 1/2 second, and didn't quite catch the Hagens Berman rider.
Race file here.
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