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Thank you for your support, and we hope to see you at our home race April 10-11

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Conference Championships

UAH Cycling Race Report
Conference Championships
Brevard, NC

We brought 5 guys to the Conference Championships in Brevard, NC, our 2nd largest turnout for a race so far this year. Me, Joe Bray, Clinton Wann, Barrett Eubanks, and Daniel Carter all rolled with. Daniel and Clinton were plagued with mechanical problems, and I was battling a cold going into the weekend. The hills of North Carolina beckoned…


Saturday April 18th: Road Race

Instead of tackling the Team Time Trial, we decided to get a few extra hours of sleep and hit the Road Race at a much more agreeable 1:00 PM. Hopefully the team doesn’t get used to this, as next year the TTT’s and ITT’s will be hit every weekend.
We got a lot of conflicting intelligence on the road course. The Brevard flyer SAID the major hill was only ½ mile long, but the Brevard flyers course profile suggested a monster was on hand. Our coach, Stuart Lamp, told us the hill would hurt but would not be a factor in the race. We should have trusted the course profile. The hill was about 1/5 miles long and climbed about 700 feet of elevation. The last 400meters were about 20-21% grade with no reprieve.
In the C’s race, a UNC Asheville rider soloed off the front early, leaving death and destruction in his wake. Thanks to the AWESOME chip timing system, we were able to see that the UNCA rider was pulling lap times within 20 seconds of the A PACK. This kid was definitely in the wrong category. The climb annihilated most of the C field, but put Barrett into a good position in the closing miles. He sprinted for a ROCKING 3rd place finish in the road race, with Clinton not far behind in 9th.

In the B’s race, a group of 6 got away on the first climb, holding within it a healthy assembly of teams. On the 2nd lap that breakaway caught a lone A rider on the climb (cough cough), and not much after the climb, the main group caught the same rider. An FSU rider fell off the breakaway and sat in no mans land for most of the race. Joe did his best to inspire the pack to chase the breakaway, including taking some pulls at the front himself. A Georgia State rider seemed willing to work with Joe, but everytime momentum got going, the Lees McRae riders would take over and make sure the breakaway (which had a Lees McRae rider in the mix) stayed away. In the closing miles, the FSU rider got caught, but still managed to finish well.

The A race started out innocently enough, cruising along easily as most of the field wondered where this supposed big climb was. We got our first hint of the climb in its gradual leadup, which averaged around 5% grade, nothing serious. We rounded a bend and it kicked up a bit more, touching 7-9%, but the pace stayed the same and it was painful but manageable Coming around another bend , and all hell breaks loose. A Brevard rider hits the gas to try and make a break on the hill, and everyone follows. The attack was not much, but it was enough to see this heavy A rider start to slide backwards in the pack. In the interest of coserving energy, I sat down. Bad idea. I did not have enough gears to sit down when the grade hit 20-21%. I lost the pack, never to see it again. I ended up on the caboose with a Lees McRae rider, and we chased for while, picking up a Brevard rider as we tried to catch a Florida and Georgia rider, currently about a minute up the road. We picked up another LMC rider and dropped the Brevard rider, then kept going. When we hit the hill the 2nd time, the LMC riders decided they would rather wait for the B field to pull them up to the A groupetto. I kept at my tempo, dropping them on the climb. I could see about 10-12 A riders in a group about 20 seconds ahead of me on the climb. I pushed as hard as I could up the climb, but never made connection with the group. Instead, the B breakaway passed me. And about 6 minutes later, the B field passed, and I hopped in with them for another lap. The LMC A riders were hanging out with me at the back of the B pack, and we just chilled and chatted for a while. When we hit the hill the 3rd time, it was the B field’s last lap, and we had no interest in hammering the hill when we had to do it a 4th time. I tempoed up, and one of the LMC guys decided to gun it for a bit. Again, it ended up just me and Went (short for Wentworth I think). Zach Arnold (Clemson) started to drift backwards, and I could tell he was hurting on the climb. We have all been there, suffering uncontrollably on the last lap, every reasonable notion says you should say “Screw it” and give up. Bicycling sounds like the worst idea ever conceived. You doubt yourself, you want to give up the sport. If you could choose between being on the bike on that hill that day and being in a 4 hour lecture on stack theory, you would gladly trade the narrow carbon fiber saddle for a lecture hall folding chair. So I coached Zach up the hill, giving him intervals to do to keep his legs moving, talking to him to keep his mind off quitting. Looking back, Im not sure why I did it. But in the end, collegiate cycling is just as much about the camaraderie as it is the competition, a trait that USAC races sadly do not share. Long story short, Zach made it up the hill, and we rode with him until the finish line was in sight. We then embarked on our final lap…by ourselves. A 15mph lap never hurt so much. The last place I wanted to be was on a bike. I was cramping, I was sore, I was tired. I hadn’t drank or ate enough since I was just by myself and not in contention. After a hard fought lap, we finished, and that was that.
All in all, EXCELLENT results by the team. 3rd for Barrett, 9th for Clinton, 8th for Joe. While I cannot say much for my recent results, the team rode very well.


Sunday April 19th: Criterium
The C race started with a bang. A group of 4 including Alabama’s own Austin Starnes got off on the first lap and was never seen again. Daniel had chain problems and fell off the pace, but held on as best he could. Clinton and Barrett sat in the main group, utilizing teamwork to stay safe and keep the pace aggressive. Thanks to their aggressive riding, the pack of about 12 riders slowly dwindled to almost nothing. On the last lap it was the lead group of 4 followed by a lone Georgia State rider, a lone Georgia rider, and a pack of 3 containing Barrett, Clinton, and a Clemson rider. As he hit the line on the last lap, Clinton accidentally dropped his chain into the small ring, and Barrett and Clemson rode away. Clinton regained composure fast though and chased back. The finish was hotly contested, with Austins Starnes (Alabama) almost taking the win, losing by half a wheel to take 2nd. Not 40 seconds later saw Barrett outsprinting the Clemson rider for 7th, and right behind was Clinton, Mr. Consistent, pulling in yet another 9th place finish.

The B race started a bit more innocently and took a while to get rolling. Lees McRae had a clear strategy. They had 6 or 7 guys, and every lap they tried to send one off the front. About 6 laps in a break of 2 LMC riders and Stephen Leotis (Georgia Tech) got off the front and it looked like the break of the day. But it was not to be. The break was caught quickly, and the next lap, another LMC rider was off the front. It wasn’t until with 4 to go that a break finally stuck. A LMC rider just launched off the front, putting 16 seconds on the field. The field tried to catch, but simply couldn’t make the gap, mainly because LMC did its best to control the pace. Joe was really sapped from the road race the day before, and a lot of the LMC riders had not even started the road race the day before and were fresh. Both Joe and Preston (Alabama) finished mid pack. When we asked them how bad it was, they were not optimistic. The crit course had an uphill finish, and right after the start finish was a 15-20 second hill that was just brutal.

The A race played out about how I expected it to, especially after I got to ride the course. The front stretch is about a 4-6% gradual uphill grade, followed by a very steep short rise, which leads into a long descent and a flat 4th leg. I sat pretty comfortably on the first 3 or 4 laps, but soon the pack got interested, and when it did, it was on the gradual front stretch. I made some ground back on the steep riser (this would be the theme of the day), but I was popped off the back. It was the last race of the year, I was not about to pull out of the race. I settled into a zone and dug in. Everything else in the race was fairly arbitrary. I got lapped a bunch, and I spent a few laps in the main field as a lapped rider before getting disinterested and decided to just go my own pace. I continued to pick up lapped riders along the way. Despite being off the back I continued to motor at a fairly decent pace, just without the animal aggression required to stay in the packs. I finished, and I was happy for that.

After all was said and done, it was time to review the conference standings and see who would be getting a coveted bid to the National Championships. The Division 1 standings were quite up in the air going into the weekend, with Florida being the only team with a lock on their bid. Division 2 standings were essentially locked down except for the 3rd place team. In the end, Florida, Georgia and Lees McRae got Division 1 bids. Cumberland, Furman, and Mars Hill got Division 2 bids. The individual qualifications wont be announced till this week, but at first glance it looks like Ben Zawacki and Tyler Hawes (both of Clemson) will get bids in Division 1, and it looks like Thomas Brown and Curtis Grace (hey wait, that’s me!) will get bids for Division 2. Of course we will post an update once that is confirmed, but the individual results seemed to be fairly locked. Updates on that later.

So this is the last race report from the Southeast Conference Road Season for 2009. UAH Cycling pulled in 33 top 10 finishes, 16 top 5 finishes, 5 top 3 finishes, and 5 2nd place finishes. We raced in 5 states, covering a total distance of 5,600 miles. 6 guys raced. 2 riders upgraded. All in all, I would consider this an extremely successful first season of racing for UAH.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the community for supporting this from the beginning, the University for supporting us, and most of all the riders who stepped up to make this dream a reality. In particular I want to thank Joe Bray for being a trooper and attending EVERY SINGLE RACE with me. I would also like to thank our sponsors Trailhead, Velo Vie, Vetta, Rudy Project, Bray Family, Adtran, UAHuntsville, and everyone else who donated their time and money to help make this team a reality. Because of what the team has accomplished this spring, we are set up for even more success for Mountain Biking and Track in the fall, and more seasons to come. Hopefully the success of the team this season and in seasons to come will set the stage for Cycling to become a major sport at UAH in the future.

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