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Race Reports for 14-15 June
Florida State Road Race
Florida
Who raced: Sean
Carlisle 40km TT
Pennsylvania
Who raced: George
Shippensburg South Mountain Hill Climb
Pennsylvania
Who raced: George
Tres Piedras to Tierra Amarilla Road Race
New Mexico
Who raced: Bill
Sean’s Race Report from the Florida State Road Race
Date: June 15th, 2008
Place: 3rd
Location: Ocala, Florida
Course: 77 Miles (15 laps of a 5+mile circuit) Hot 90+, humid, slight wind, rolling hills.
Starters: 100
The race: A break went up the road right from the start and I missed it. The break contained about ten riders representing most of the larger area teams, however one large team missed the break as well. The peleton chased on and off for the next two hours getting the break down to 2 minutes then letting the gap open to 5 minutes again. On lap 10, the break hovered at about 2 minutes and I went to the front and helped in the chase and soon we closed the gap down to :15 seconds. At this time we approached a good size hill and I made an effort to catch the breakaway.
I was just about done at this point as two riders immediately went off the front and gained more than a minute. One of the larger team’s committed to the chase and I just sat back and watched. Soon the chase group started to dwindle and on the last lap everyone in the field sat up and I took one last ditch effort and charged down the left side at about 35mph and caught them all off guard. Initially there was no reaction so I just kept the hammer down in my 53X11 but the field took up the chase but I was able to enough of a gap to take 3rd in a drag race to the finish. The break finished :30 ahead but I was still very happy with the way I rode today.
George’s Race Report from the Carlisle TT 40km Series Race #3
Date: June 15th, 2008
Place: 1st in 51:44 (28.8 mph avg) 40km
Location: Carlisle, PA
Course: 40km, Warm, humid, no wind, rolling out and back.
Starters: 35
The race: I am usually pretty critical about my races and myself, but I have to say, I was pretty happy with this one. Its been awhile since I won anything so that was nice, but I was happier with the time which is personal best for 40k for me, I was 2 minutes faster then the last time I did this course, it was the fastest time of the year for this course and the 3rd fastest time ever on the course against some fairly well regarded regional and national TT guys that I haven’t been close to in awhile. I was also happy (believe it or not) that I didn’t really feel that good and my power meter showed there is still some room for improvement on the engine side so hopefully this is just another step in the progression I have seen so far this season. Clearly the combo of my new 3T Ventus TT bars and Cervelo P3C frame were a huge help, I am much more comfortable in my aero position and I am just amazed how much less effort is required to hold those kind of speeds on the new equipment.
George’s Race Report Shippensburg South Mountain Mass Start Hill Climb Series Race #3
Date: June 15th, 2008
Place: 4th
Location: Shippensburg, PA
Course: Hot, humid, no wind, 7.5 mile. 3 miles of false flat followed by 4 miles of climbing, fairly tame climb but lots of grade changes.
Starters: 35
The race: This race started 3:00 after the TT, some folks with screws loose like me do both, but generally a smaller and lighter crowd are at this then the TT. I have never done a mass start hill climb before so it was a new experience. I was expecting it to be time trial like, but it was more like a really short road race with guys using tactics and such. Basically it stayed together through the false flat although there were a few attacks, and then started to break up on the climb, at one of the steeper sections, a couple of the little scrawny dudes attacked and got a gap. I knew I would blow if I tried to follow so I tried to “diesel” it back to them and got a group of 4 away from everyone else in a chase, we were down to 2 with about a mile to go, but then a slight decent allowed the other 2 to catch back on, so we were 4 again going into the finale, we were gaining on second, but ran out of road and sprinted for 3rd and I ended up 4th.
Bill’s Race Report form Tres Piedras to Tierra Amarilla Road Race
Date: June 14th, 2008
Place: 7th
Location: Taos, NM
Course: 100k with 7500' of climbing, averaging around 9000' elevation, shifting winds 10-15 mph
The race: This course profile usually calls out the climbers from NM and CO and saturday was typical for NM, small field but stacked with good climbers (a bunch of hairy-leg guys straight off of their XC mountain bikes.) I knew the long climb at the 30k point (2200' over 10k) would split the race and I wanted to get on the right side of it. So I attacked at about 5k and did the first three intermediate climbs and about 40 min solo. I had about 2:30 at one point and 1:30 by the base of the big climb. That turned out to not be enough for me to hold off the lead group, but enough to get attached to the chase group for the rest of the day. We whittled our chase group of 6 down to 3 over the next 70k and then we all attacked each other with 1k to go at the top of the last steep climb. I ended up second in my group, with the original 5 leaders holding us off. Overall, a good day for me as the legs are starting to come around and after 4 hours either climbing or rotating in the wind I could still think, eat, drink, and follow accelerations on the steepest climbs.
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