Tuesday, September 8, 2009

GMSR Stage 3&4

I'm back from Vermont after an extremely successful race with the team. We came away from the Green Mountain Stage Race with three stage wins, the overall win, along with the points jersey. The road race didn't go as well as I hoped. After Stuee and Gavin rode their hearts out on the front for about 40 miles to bring back 4th place, Matteo Dal-Cin, who got a maximum gap of 6 minutes on the field. When it came to App Gap, I just didn't have the legs and cramped up with one and a half. I then preceded to nose-dive into the ditch and then lay there for about 10 minutes trying to work the cramps out. I ended up losing 8 minutes on the climb along with the yellow jersey. Nate put in a good ride up App Gap and took it over from me. For the 15 mile crit the next day, our plan was to keep the 20 second lead over second place, and also try and win the points jersey with either Nate or me. Right from the gun I was extremely active and attacked multiple times before the first prime with 15 of the 25 laps to go. I attacked right after the prime and immediately got about a 20 second gap with another rider. The two of us worked well together and I took the next two primes and hot spot sprints. Going into the sprint I was on the front, so I just decided to lead it out. I did just that and held him off for my first crit win this year. Next on the schedule for me is the Chappell Hill Road Race on Sunday put on by the team that I grew up with, NWCC.

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