On Saturday, April 17th, I headed down to Anniston Alabama to race in the Sunny King Criterium and The FootHills Road Race the following day. I was excited about watching Jamis/Sutter Home, Bahati Foundation, and Flying V duke it out Saturday Evening more so than racing my own race, but it was set to be an action packed weekend.
Sunny King- I arrived at the course early enough to walk the track, watch some early races, and relax. This event screamed PRO from the full course barricades, the jumbotron, roadside bleachers, the internet streaming, and the announcer stage with Jamie Smith, author of ‘roadie’ on the mic. One hour to my race I started gearing up and getting the legs moving. When time got close, I fought the crowds to take my spare wheels to the pit only to find that they were not taking wheels since SRAM was providing support to all races that day. If you needed wheels, you got some loaner 303s, more PRO race perks.
Well unfortunately, I got to know SRAM support quite quickly. I was lined up against the left barricade. When the gun went off, the rider to my right diagonal could not clip his left foot in. The rider looks down and lifts his left foot up and OVER my handlebars as I pass him (imagine him with his knee up looking down at his feet to examine his pedals). I pushed his leg off but ultimately had a face plant 10 feet from the line. Luckily, this was right in front of the SRAM support tent. The guy checked my bike over and held me in a time trial start so I could take my free lap. I asked him “Are you at least going to give me a rolling start?” (I’ve been in some races where they make you wait til the pack passes and sprint on to the back of the field). SRAM mechanic replies “Dude, I’m going to give you the biggest f’ing push you’ve ever had”.
They held me until an early break-away passed and then launched me off at warp speed. My lip is bleeding and I’m a little overwhelmed, but I’m back up and running. It takes me a few laps to regain my cool head and get into position in the field. When I can start to get a read on the race, I realized Nashville’s Philip Armbrust is trying to bridge up to the break on his own. The pack stayed stagnant.
After several laps, when Philip came back to the main field I started thinking about how the race was going to finish. The field was racing for 5th place. The riders were unmotivated to chase. It was going to come down to a field sprint for 5th. I decided with 4 laps to go that if no one was going to chase until the sprint set-ups that it would be a good time to attack. I powered up the front uphill portion of the course and took one rider with me. After getting to the first turn, I settled in and did a hard pull. Before turn 3, I signaled my guy to come through. He pulled hard, was ultimately trying to drop me. I stuck with. At turn 1, he signaled that it was my turn again. I gave it what I had, but we shortly got sucked back in. We didn’t have enough distance when the fields “2 laps to go” speed kicked in.
Spent from my effort, I crossed the line 20th in the field sprint. Philip Armbrust and Max Gander from Nashville grabbed top 10 positions!
The highlight for me was speeding around the course with the fans all banging on the barricades in support. It really was fun.
FootHills Road Race- I signed up for the 3/4 combined race. For the first 8 miles of the race, I was on the back- not where I wanted to be. I had to overcome any notion that this was the category 3 race and I was just there to ‘check it out’. The slinky effect in the back was so bad that I was going to get exhausted before the race even go going. Nashville Cyclist’s Mathew Meunier went with an early attack which stretched out the field. This was my opportunity. I charged up the side of the field until I found Krystal’s Jay Martin and Philip Arbrust. Neil Fronheiser jumped on the front of the field and slowed the pace for his teammate up ahead. The field bunched back up and I locked in better position. Lots of hills, lots of attacks, but things ultimately were together coming to the final big climb. I tried to stand up on the climb, but the legs were not having it. I had no option but to ride my zone as the main race went slightly ahead. Fronheiser, Martin, Armbrust and I regrouped at the bottom of the hill and all finished strong against the subgroup we were in.
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Dude..that race weekend was a blast. Your attack was well timed and I thought you might actually do it. Definitely going back to this one.