Wachovia Classic

by Tim Henry (West Virginia)

Race: Wachovia Classic
Place: Trenton, NJ
Date: June 5, 2003

Trenton is the second race of US Pro week. It is a 14 lap race held on a 6.5 mile circuit for a total of 91 miles. The course is almost completely flat except for one big ring hill through a park. The course is one long straightaway with crit-type loops on each end. Trenton is also know for very high average speeds, usually over 30 mph. We started off the trip from our hotel ten minutes late and then got lost on the way to the course so we arrived thirty minutes before the start. The worst part was that I 
was not in the car that my bike was on and we got separated to I had to get dressed and walk around looking for my bike. When I found it I had twenty minutes until the start. As I rolled to sign-in they called us to the line. This was great because I was going to have to start one of the fastest races in the country with no warm up. Mercifully, the pace was not 
bad for the first few laps. I also had good legs that day. I started out in the middle of the pack and I was comfortable. At one point I moved up to the top twenty and realized how much easier it was up there. This was fine until the pack bunched up and I drifted to the back where I would remain. The race did not start to get really fast until we got about halfway. And then the only really hard parts were the descent out of the park where I sprinted full tilt in my 54x11 to keep up and the turns onto 
the straightaway on both sides. The roads through Trenton are very rough in places and this made the difficult parts even worse. With four laps to go I was getting tired and many thanks to my teammate Wes Siegler for the moral support that kept me going. With two to go, as CSC came to the front to chase down the only serious break of the day, a Webcor rider two spots in front of me popped and I could not match the jump of the riders in front of me who closed the gap. Less than half the field finished so I think I did pretty well. Julian Dean of CSC easily took the sprint from Oleg Grishkine of Navigators and Viktor Ripinski of Saturn. I was not selected to do Philly on Sunday so this is my last night in town. I am looking forward to heading home and hitting some local races soon. Thanks for reading, Tim