Yesterdays events were the normal routine for race day. Waking up bright and early, a little unhappy about my previous night, hotel breakfast, starbucks and on the road for our little transfer to Franklin TN. The course was pretty intense, but nothing suprising for here. It was going to be 66 mi with 10 climbs racking up 1,100 ft. of elevation change per lap. The race started as expected, with the pro guys of Jelly Belly, Jittery Joes, and HEalthnet controlling the field but nothing was going away that early. After a few laps of sitting in, an attack went in from Healthnet that found one of their riders off the front in a mix and match group of pro and strong elite guys. Jittery Joes tried to control, but not luck was on their side today. 4 Laps in, Karl "the beast" Menzies put in a hella hard attack hurting what was left of the main field. I quickly started moving up when the field started to mellow, and got a chance to give it a go. Off the front with 4 others was fun, but once we got things organized jittery joes, and krystal elite was having NONE of it and drove hard to bring us back. In a poor attempt to get something going I attacked our group on a climb only to be caught 4 or so miles away.
The last lap hurt the legs with Jittery joes lining it out right after the feed zone leading up to the long climb. BY this time the field was dwindling and exploded on the last climb. My unlucky break was that I had a badly timed dropped chain that found me getting gapped and trying to chase back on. In the end I lost 46 seconds to the main field with one of the Healthnet riders winning the sprint in the break.
Other news:
1. Teammate Allen Morris found the going get tough putting in a very good finish in the 3's bunch sprint only to clip a roadside cone and find out how pavement feels at 40 mph. not fun seeing a 16 y.o. kid with gnarly road rash and blistered fingers but then again, thats racing for you!
2. Rich Harper from the back home team of A&F almost took a huge with for them at Raleigh Twilight finishing 3rd. Awsome for them.
3. Erik Zabel and Bjarne Riis suck because they take drugs and make our sport look bad. THANKS DICKS!
Loaded and ready to head south!
My lifeblood on the way down,
AND in nashville,
AND before races
AND on the way home after a 100+ mile RR tomorrow!!!! Caffeine!
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