First Collegiate Race, NC State

I am tired so let's make this short.

The RR was dull until my man Ben Warren made a "real" attack off the front. What I mean by "real" is that he attacked hard enough so nobody could go with him. As a result, BW rode half the race by himself while Tim and I blocked back in the field. After a few fast periods of racing courtesy of Navy and NC State, BW came back right before the last of four laps.

The fourth lap was the hardest. Everybody was trying to make a new break, and I stayed near the front and followed attacks. About half-way through the lap, a break started to stick with Reid in it and 4 others up the road including Andrew from Navy, Sean Barrie, Andrew Troy and Turner Johnson. I counted the number of people vs. Reid in the break and decided that I should try to bridge up. I attacked the field, bringing one Navy rider with me and after riding 45 seconds at 590 watts I made it to the break. So now there were 2 VT and 2 Navy riders with representation from GT, VCU and Pfieffer. The break went on to hammer up the next few miles of false flat. I did not pull through in this time period, I merely sat on the back averaging around 280 watts. Finally we got to a place where I could recover and I started to rotate with the group. I confessed to Reid that my legs were blown and I had no sprint. I told him to expect a late attack from me.

1 km to go. Time to attack, but no, Sean Barrie was near the back with me, and Reid was stuck in second position behind Andrew. Attacking would be stupid. Reid realized he was in a bad position and he looked back to see what he should do. When he looked foward, Andrew had a gap, realized it, and started to make a run for it. Reid then looked back again at me- "JOHN!" Time to go to work. I got on the front and put out what watts I had left. 520 watts for 40 seconds and then I was blown, closing the gap to Andrew halfway. I blew up 200 meters from the line, and Reid took off, a bit too early but with lack of a better option. He held a great sprint all the way to the line and took second, catching Andrew but getting caught by Sean Barrie before the line. Still a decent result, 2nd of the day.

Kudos to Eoin and Tim for shutting down the field once the break was set. We performed well: Reid 2nd, Me 7th, Eoin 9th, Tim 11thish. We have shown that we are a strong team and we will be marked, as always, in the future races.

That wasn't that short. I will post about the crit tomorrow.