I can’t begin this race report without first extending my gratitude to our extraordinary Fayetteville hosts, Kevin and Pam. You two are simply amazing. You took in 8 cyclists, all but one as complete strangers, then you housed us, fed us, pampered us, and cheered us (including riling up an entire local bar to yell for xXx at the crit). I have never been treated to such first rate hospitality. Thank you.

The trip itself was phenomenal. Six of us (Seegs, Briney, Liam, Tamara, Koster, and myself) caravanned down to meet up with Dave Moyer, John Tomlinson, and David Jones. It was a weekend of fun and of course bike racing.

Overall, the team was amazing. In the 3’s, Briney got a stage victory and for GC, we had two in the top 10 and three in the top 15. In the 4’s, Chris Koster got a 2nd and 4th in stages, and 9th in the GC and David Jones got a top 10 in the road race. Tamara was very solid in the women’s races and lest we not forget the performances of Moyer and JT in the very tough Men’s 1,2 event. For GC, Moyer was 18th and JT was 21st. In addition, both made a very select lead group in Friday’s 110 mile road race and JT was top ten (I think 6th) in Saturday’s road race.

Individually, the race was an emotional roller coaster for a few of us with tremendous highs and lows (I guess that’s bike racing and life itself for that matter). If you want my probably overly verbose account of the details of the 3’s races and my own GC debacle, read on.

Saturday morning: TT

It was about a 10 minute, mostly uphill effort. I really didn’t know what to expect from myself at this race. I knew I was behind on my training and my form would not be what I had envisioned when I put this race on my calendar in December. Nevertheless, I’m a respectable time trialist and a respectable climber, so with the two combined, I was hoping for something good.

My warm-up went well and as I’m heading to the start line, I hear of the first, and perhaps biggest low of the trip – Liam missed his start time. This story is for him to tell (if he writes it up in a report, it might be the last time he ever wants to discuss it, so maybe read about it and let it go), but the short of it is that if he hadn’t missed it, he would have easily won the TT and the GC. Alas, I guess that’s bike racing and life.

So upon hearing this, I panic thinking I may too miss my start and scurry to the line, fortunately with about 3 min to spare. I relax and let my heart rate drop about 50 beats. I get my count down and bury myself for the next 10 minutes. It was a maximal effort, I felt great, and I could not have pushed myself harder, so regardless of my result, I had to be happy with the effort. As it turns out, I was 8th and only about 2.5 seconds from 5th. This exceeded my expectations and I was thrilled. Things were set up for me to take home a top 10 in a big stage race.

So I was on a high and Liam was on an extreme low (although still finishing 11th after missing his start time by 1 min and a couple of seconds – you can look at the results and do the math to see how far ahead he would have been). Briney was also a bit disappointed (although he also had strong ride, he just had very high expectations for himself) and Seegs was happy.

Saturday afternoon: Road Race

This was my big concern with Joe Martin. When you are on a very time limited training schedule (6-8 hrs/week) the two primary things I believe you sacrifice are endurance and recovery. For me, 69 miles was a long race and I wanted to make sure I survived. 45 min crits are no problem. Road races and back to back race days are tough.

The course was beautiful, mostly rolling roads with 1 notable climb that we did twice. Liam rode with fury, attacking numerous times in attempt to steal back his GC crown. Nothin was doing from this field though (well, except the two that slipped off about ¾ of the way through, one of whom would bump me down to 9th on GC). Seegs attacked multiple times also and rode very strong. Briney and I rode conservatively, stuck with the field and tried to save our energy. I was actually quite pleased with the race. I never really struggled, and easily stayed at the front on the climbs. I gave it one big dig towards the end to try to get away and move up on GC, but it wasn’t happening.

So, we basically came in with the field, a little over 1 min back from the 2 man break, and day 1 of racing was concluded.

Sunday afternoon: Criterium

This was a 12 corner, technical course with fast corners and a false flat leading up to a punchy climb to the finish.

Rewind a few hours to course preview time. Me: “Hey Seegs, you want to go check out that corner down there? I hear it’s already seen a few crashes.” Seegs: “Yea sure, that’s a good idea”. As we approach, a group of riders are coming through and sure enough, right away, riders go down. Hmm, I think to myself, the corner really looks benign, I wonder what happened. Well, let’s just watch a few more groups go through. Next group is up. They seem to be going pretty slow, probably won’t see much here. Next thing you know, wham, a rider hits the deck. He yells “Damn it, that’s the second time in the same spot.” Me: “What the #*$%? How the hell did he go down? He really was going pretty slow.” Seegs notices a slight off camber depression in the pavement. The divot of destruction on what will henceforth be known as the corner of destruction. It is a really subtle depression in the road, but deadly for skinny wheeled bikes. We concluded that a tight inside line would avoid this little pit of calamity, but nevertheless, it was troubling to see the ease at which riders bit the dust.

Before the Men’s 1,2 race, we jumped on the bikes and rode the corners at speed. I’m a little nervous with my first approach to the corner of destruction, but really it seems fine. I loop back around and take it one more time, this time at full speed. However, right in front of me, wham, Chris Padfield hits the divot and subsequently the pavement during warm up, which I think ended his 1,2 race. Well, that corner is clearly a disaster and with that race time was upon us.

We were the second to last race of the day and we had seen this challenging course obliterate every field before us into numerous small groups. This would not be a typical crit and time gaps could be significant. So what to do? STAY AT THE FRONT AND OUT OF TROUBLE!

Liam again wanted to try to attack and gain time which was a good and possibly successful strategy on this course. Briney felt this course was practically tailor made for him and could salvage his weekend with a win. I wanted to ride conservative again and maintain position. Seegs would selflessly aid any of us however he could.

I tried aggressively to stay near the front. First time through the corner of destruction and no problems. My nerves began to ease and by the 3rd or so time through that corner, I had washed its evil from my mind. As with prior races, the field splintered quick. Within just a few laps, we had a much smaller group and I felt like we had probably reached the select group that would represent the lead group. I just needed to maintain my position, see if I can block a little for Liam during his inevitable attacks, and if it comes down to a sprint, try to help setup Tom. I drifted toward the rear of the group (big mistake) as we approach the corner of destruction. Sure enough, 5 riders ahead of me, wham, the divot claims its next victims. I avoid the crash, but almost come to a complete stop in doing so. The resulting gap would be fatal for me and my GC aspirations. I essentially rode the rest of the race alone, futilely trying to unsuccessfully catch back on.

I finished frustrated and angry at what I had let occur. There was no reason to be lackadaisical and in such poor position when I was in GC contention. Had I finished with the main group, I may have even moved up some. As it was, I finished about 1 minute 30 seconds back and dropped from 9th to 15th. My previous high dropped to rock bottom low.

I learned, however, that Tom won the race. This brought him from low to extreme high and somewhat soothed the bitter taste in my mouth. With that he also moved into 8th place on GC. This was a hard race and a victory to really be proud of. My congratulations to you, Tom Briney, on a very impressive win.

On personal levels, I think Liam and I left trying to avoid the could’ve/should’ve/would’ve game, and lament our missed opportunities. If I take a step back and look at the big picture, however, this weekend was a tremendous success. As I stated above, the team was phenomenal and had great results. I think we promoted xXx well, and people from across the country took note of us. I will just have to take my frustration and anger out on a few races in the coming weeks.

Thanks again to Kevin and Pam for your amazing support of xXx. Job well done to everyone who competed.