Race Reports for 22-23 June

Tour de Nez (NRC)
Nevada
Who raced: Ian

Tour of Washington County
Maryland
Who raced: Ken and George

Ian’s Race Report from Tour de Nez
NRC Pro 1 Stage race
Race Dates: 18 - 21 June 2008
Field: 75+
Finish: 24th GC; 15th, 31st, 24th, 19th and 30th for stages
Details:
1st Stage: 75 min Reno Crit - 15th  I wasn't sure how the travel, new bike and altitude would affect me so I decided to ride conservatively and just sit in the top 20. The course wasn't too difficult but there was a pretty strong wind which caused some weaker riders to get too close to the barriers and there were numerous crashes. I cruised near the front and most of the field seemed to be cooked at the end and was happy with 15th on day 1.
2nd Stage: 3.5 mile ITT - 31st  The time trial was straight up and around 7000 feet of altitude. I started out a little too hard for the altitude and ended up yo-yoing a bit in and out of the red zone. One minute I would be catching my 30 sec man, then I'd have to back it off. It was not smooth and not my best effort but not terrible. My new Cervelo SLC-SL felt awesome and was almost underweight without carbon bars or stem!
3rd Stage: 75 min Truckee Crit - 24th  This crit was in the mountain town of Truckee, 1000 feet higher than Reno and was a much more technical course with a strong head wind on the final stretch. The race was very aggressive and extremely fast, most of the time it was single file. I went with one attack and decided after that to just sit in the top 30. A group of 3 were able to stick a small gap at the end and I came in safely at 24th. Many riders were shelled during the race.
4th Stage: 65 mile Northstar RR - 19th The queen stage of the stage race was 10 circuits of a brutal course with half being a hard climb and the other a screaming technical decent. We were expecting it to be a little more tame for the first few laps but Kelly Benifits started attacking the 2nd lap. I covered the first attack hoping to get up the road and immediately upon being caught Bajadali attacked hard. The alarm bells sounded and I tried to hold on with no chance to recover. The altitude is toughest when trying to recover climbing and I popped off the back but was able to bridge back to the leaders a few laps later with BMC's Jackson Stewart. I stayed with them a bit longer before again not being able to match the surge on the steepest part of the climb. I rode solo at time trial tempo for 3 laps and eventually started picking off guys and ended up catching Tom Swirble, Roman Kilun and Alex Candelario. I wanted to blow right by them as I was doing fine and they were in the box but I did the etiquette thing and dragged them up the climb two more times and finished 19th. This race really showed me how much the base I put in has helped me as I never slowed down, I just didnt have the extra gear or lung to stay with the leaders.
5th Stage: 44 mile Northstar Circuit race - 30th  The course was 2 miles with some short punch climbs, a longer climb and some fast decents and one brick section through the village. The pace for the first few laps was intense but I was in a good position until 4 laps in I had a mechanical and had to stop at the wheel pit for a wheel change. There were no free laps as it was a circuit race and the selections were just being made so I was out of luck. I soloed for almost 10 laps and the guys I did catch were absolutely no help or use. Finally I caught the second half of the peloton and ended up a ton of the pulling in that group too even though there were nearly 30 riders. I felt strong and was just trying to minimize my GC loses.  Even with some tough luck, I took 5 NRC points and 24th overall which I was pretty happy with.

George’s Race Report from the Tour of Washington County
Date: June 22-23, 2008
Starters: 75, P/1/2, this was a stage race based on points
Place: George 6th GC; 15th, 2nd,18th for stages.  Ken 25th GC; 44th (mechanical), 18th and 16th for stages.
1st Stage: Smithsburg, MD Circuit Race-82km, 10km circuit with several short climbs-George 15th, Ken 44th  This was a pretty lumpy course and that, along with the relatively short distance, made the race pretty aggressive, Ken and I both stayed up front pretty much the whole race, about 12 miles to go, Ken had a flat in his rear tire as we were going through a corner together and I thought for a split second he was going down and was going to slide and take me out as well and we were both going to end up in the ditch in a pile of stars and stripes and carbon, but instinct kept him up right and I made it around him unscathed as well.  Finish was a field sprint up a steep little climb, I am not known as much of a sprinter so I tried to fake everyone out by going early, it was a decent thought and I was still in the lead with about 100m to go, but I didn’t have the punch up the steep part of the hill and I got swarmed and rolled in 15th in what has to be the world’s slowest sprint (watching a sprint up a steep hill is funny by the way).
2nd Stage:  Boonsboro, MD ITT-20km, out, rolling out and back with a few long grades-George 2nd, Ken 15th I rolled this about as well as I could for the day but I have to say, I felt a bit sub par.  It was also disappointing since one of the top TT guys in our area who has won TT nationals twice flatted so I didn’t get a good time comparison.  I have had my share of mechanicals and bad luck and there were some other strong guys there that I beat so I’ll take my 2nd and be happy with it.
3rd Stage: Williamsport, MD Criterium, 40km Crit, 1km loop, basically up a climb and then down it, Ken 16th, George 18th Some of the stronger teams and guys in our area missed out big time on day 1 so they rested through the time trial and we both knew they were going to hit this hard.  Not to mention the race was open to guys who had not done the GC.  Given all that and the short distance, it was “game on” right from the start.  Ken stayed pretty close to the middle and front, honestly I got a bad start and was pretty much tail gunning it the whole race.  Finally about 8 laps to go I was able to move up and was actually in the top 5 with two laps to go.  I figured maybe I would try to lead out Ken and staying up front would get me a few extra points for GC.  That whole thing kind of dissolved and we both ended up getting pushed back a bit and came in where we did.  By the miracles of points race magic, I ended up 6th on GC thanks primarily to my TT and picking up points in each stage.