Race: French Broad Cycling Classic
Date: Aug. 1-3, 2003
Place: Asheville, NC
Category: Cat. 4 Men
the races went ok, but not great.
we had horrible luck in the Time Trial friday evening. as we drove up to Asheville friday afternoon, we passed through several scattered thundershowers. but by the time we got there, the skies cleared. but a big traffic jam on I-26 ensured that i make a habit out of showing up late for my time trials. i changed into my kit in the car as i drove, and we rolled up with about 1 minute to spare before my start time. (shawn was already late as his start time was 4 minutes prior to mine). i only had enough time to pull the bike off the car, pump up the tires, and go. kerry's friend Shaun was there, and he got our numbers and pinned them on us at the start line. i got to the line about 15 seconds late and took off. well, at this very moment, a huge
thunderstorm decided to roll through the area, and immediately started dumping buckets. we're talking torrential downpour. thank god i grabbed my cycling cap, but i didn't have my sunglasses. time trialing in the pouring rain with no eye shield and no warm up was nice. mid-way into my race of truth, a lightning bolt cracked within inches of my left ear. of course, as soon as we finished, it quit raining.
anyway, i took 9th out of about 30, and shawn was shocked he didn't finish last given his 6-minute penalty. at one point during his time trial, he overtook a woman out on the course, sprinted past her as a county line sign approached, and raised his hands in victory salute as he took the sprint.
the road race saturday morning went much better than the time trial. no rain. not even that hot. it had some good hills, but nothing brutal like Dividing Waters. coming down to the sprint finish, we were set up perfect. kerry was sitting about 5th wheel, i was on his wheel, and shawn was on mine. the only problem was that we weren't sure exactly where was the finish. (no signs). the guys in front of kerry died, and next thing we knew, some other guys came around, so then all these dudes were in our way. we never got a chance to ramp up our lead-out, and wound up just a little better than mid-pack, trying in
vain to find a clear shot to the line. shawn wound up 7th, kerry took 11th, and i took 12th. we wish we had that one to do over again.
our race had a brutal crash. as we neared the finish, at high speed a guy got run off the road on the right, into a deep rut with mud puddle. i don't know whether he tried to swerve back onto the road, or caused others to go down, but the sound of metal scraping pavement and the subsequent gun shot as a wheel exploded were horrific. not sure of the details, but word on the
street the next day was that the dude broke a bone in his face. in fact,every single race saturday morning (Cat 5, Cat 4, Masters, and Women's 4)
had a bad crash, i think due to the narrowness of the road. ambulances were
zipping around right and left. the Masters' crash was also in the sprint finish, and apparently there was so much blood on the ground they told the
women's race, who were finishing next not to sprint because of all the blood
on the road. in the women's race finish, two girls were side-by-side, way out in front of their field, so it was between those two. as they
approached the line, they bumped each other twice and then both crashed right at the line.
despite the smell of cancer in the air from the local paper mill, the crit on sunday was fun. but damn, it was fast! i guess everyone ate their wheaties for breakfast. i even felt strong, but you wouldn't be able to tell by the way i rode. every time i juiced it to try to move up, i went from On The Back to Almost On The Back. those sons-a-bitches wouldn't slow down! anyway, it was too fast for my blood, to get organized at the end, so it was a free-for-all mid-pack finish for shawn, kerry, and me. shawn was about 10th and kerry and i were about 20th. that dude, Eric Flores, won the
crit and omnium overall.
so anyway, no victory trophies for us (or more importantly, cash, for that matter), but it was fun. kerry's already kicking ass in the 4s, in this his first weekend of racing as a 4.