The plan for the crit was derived from some sage words of wisdom from Mike Carter. Kevin sat towards the back, out of sight, out of mind, conserving and staying out of trouble in general. Tim and I spent our time floating towards the front, covering moves, pulling things back together. I had the hope that some guys who were well out of GC range would get up the road and that would be that, but others insisted on pulling just about everything back. With about 20 minutes to go, a group of four got off the front and Kevin left the comfy chair at the back of the race to quickly bridge the gap solo. This forced the race leaders to get to work since they couldn't really give up significant amounts of time in addition to the 30/20/10s time bonuses for the stage. I sat third wheel for the entirety of the chase, letting the pace lull if the leaders stopped pulling.
In the end, it came down to a sprint with no time gaps for the main group and the bonuses were collected without major impact to the GC. I worked a little harder than I would have liked, but call it an opener for the time trial I guess. On the unfortunate side of things, Blake Caldwell flatted within 5 laps to go which meant no free lap for the mechanical. He lost about a minute, taking him out of 1st place going into the TT.
I am not going to lie and say the time trial felt good, at all. Knowing there was going to be a head/crosswind on the return to the finish, the approach was to spin as lightly as possible (in the 55 x 11) on the way out and give it everything on the slightly uphill return. Going out was ok, coming back was pretty awful and I didn't ever feel like I was getting on top of whatever gear I was in. I couldn't really sort out the feelings of ambivalence with a great desire just to be done with it from the real sensations in my legs saying they were done for the weekend. It would have been nice to be able to push a little harder. Another 30 seconds would have put me in 14th in the GC and would have met Doug Manno's challenge to put 1:30 into him in the time trial . . .
As expected, Kevin clocked a very fast time and finished the race sitting at the top of the pile. We stuffed everything back in the car and headed back to Laramie for the awards BBQ. Way off in the distance, you can see the Snowy Range Pass we rode over the day before.
I felt like this squirrel who was sunning himself peacefully, eternally in the park . . .
Since the race was the FIAC (don't ask) National Championship race, Kevin is officially a national champion and has the jersey to prove it.
All around it was a pretty good weekend. We laughed, we (or at least I) cried, we rode well as a team . . . another Dead Dog Classic in the bag.
1 comment:
I think you should rename it "Dead Squirrel Classic."
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