Some More Hardware - 2nd Place

Today was the Patriot's Trail Road Race and the weather was OK - no rain but a little colder than expected. We had a group of 30 riders in the 35+ race and we did 1 lap or 45 miles. I felt pretty good today and coming off of my 4th place finish in the crit, I felt I had pretty good legs.

The race was uneventful until halfway through, my cable decided to stretch beyond the point that my front derailleur needed to move the chain to the big chainring. Finally, after 10 minutes of spinning in my 36 x 13 on the flats, the chain decided to move over. Good thing we were past all of the climbs and I made sure that my fingers stayed away from the thumb button on my left shifter.

With about 500M to go, a guy dropped his chain for the second time in the race, and the pack went in all directions. This allowed one guy to get away unnoticed as we later found out. At 200m, we had the full road and I took full advantage of it. I sprinted past 10 riders and ended up taking 2nd by a few bike lengths. With second in the road race and 4th in the crit, I managed to take 1st in the Omnium as well. All in all, a pretty good weekend, and I owe it to my coach - Dave Morris, my new steed, and the racing smarts I've acquired over the past year.

Next up are two crits in Charleston on the 19th and 20th with the 20th being the SC State Crit Championships. If this weekend is any indication I should be in top form by the 20th.