Florida State University Race Weekend
A heavy heart followed the UAH Cycling Chargers to Tallahasse, Florida this weekend, the five cyclists being the first athletes to represent UA Huntsville since the tragic shooting February 12th. The immense impact on our University and the Huntsville community was heavy on our hearts the whole weekend, and we all went into the weekend hoping to honor our community and University by representing it with honor.
Joe Bray, Barrett Eubanks, Justin Wilson, Mark Temple and I (Curtis Grace) composed the team this weekend, the team’s first official outing for the year. It also marked the first weekend we were able to use our new trailer, which we were able to tow to the race thanks to Hunter Leo, our teammate who will be joining us after this weekend for the rest of the season.
We learned many things this weekend, many of them related to the wonderful gas economy brought by a V8 and a 12 foot trailer. Once we got to the race though, the value of our investment was clearly apparent. No unloading cars, no stressing about where things are. Everything cleanly and neatly placed in the trailer meant less time for preparation and more time to enjoy ourselves. The ramp also makes for a great place to lounge in the sun. Much thanks to ITT Defense for providing the majority of the funding for our trailer.
Apart from showing up in style, the team represented on their bikes as well. First up on Saturday morning was the Team Time Trial. Joe, Barrett and Curtis made up the TTT team, which will add Hunter Leo as its 4th rider next week and also feature Davis Yarbrough as an alternate at some races. For those unfamiliar with the Team Time Trial, it is probably the most glaring example of the usefulness of teamwork in cycling. 3 or 4 riders work together to ride a set course in the fastest time possible. At the most elite levels, a Team Time Trial can feature average speeds close to 35 miles an hour. Since this was the first time Joe and Barrett and I have even ridden together this year , this first TTT was more for practice and gauging fitness than anything else. The course was a bit hilly for a time trial, and speeds suffered accordingly. The team looked incredibly sharp in their new kits though, and we learned each others strengths and weaknesses and started to get a feel for the rotation (amount of time each rider spends on the front). The team finished in style though, with Curtis pulling the team across the line at over 29mph in front of the cameras and crowd. Be fast when it counts!
Immediately following the TTT was the Individual Time Trial. Mark and Justin competed in the ITT, and Mark even passed the TTT team going the opposite direction just as they were finishing. Mark blasted the time trial, his experience as a track runner at UAH becoming extremely useful. We got to see Justin start, and his experience in the ITT at Florida proved extremely useful. Where he finished at UF with gas still in the tank, he came across the line utterly exhausted after a solid 10 mile effort. Mark also finished strong, but like Justin at Florida, suggested he could have gone a bit faster. He spent a little more time complaining about his bike though. Weight does matter I guess.
The Chargers then proceeded to head to Subway and break their credit card machine before preparing for the afternoon road race.
In the C’s Justin and Mark would have a 35 mile hilly effort in front of them. Joe and Barrett had 51 miles in the B’s while Curtis had the privilege of going 67 miles in the A category. Mark and Justin fell off the pace early, it being their first road race ever and unfamiliar with the sudden accelerations that typically come out of corners. They grouped up with some other C riders that had been dropped and an A rider involved in a early race crash (more on that later). Joe and Barrett did fine with the cornering but it was the hills that eventually ended their day. After almost 46 miles of racing, and with a strong breakaway of 4 riders off the front, the intense climbing efforts by the B pack shelled Barrett and Joe in the closing miles of the race. At about the same time, the B pack was passing the A pack that had started 5 minutes before them…
The A race looked to be interesting from the start. The hills in Tallahassee aren’t particularly steep or long, but offer enough of a challenge that any strategy had to take the climbs (and subsequent descents) into account. A small group sat about 5 seconds off the front at about 14 miles into the race when disaster struck. A Mars Hill rider stood to attack a small hill when his chain snapped and he crashed, causing a ten rider pileup that not only took those riders out but caused a bigger gap for the riders up the road. Once the breakaway riders realized there was a crash they attacked. I happened to avoid the crash and saw an opportunity to be in the winning move of the race. I teamed up with 2 Georgia tech riders, one of them former B superstar Stephen Leotis. We were slowly gaining on the break, and the fractured peleton was doing little to chase back on immediately. Hitting the final hill of the lap, I took over the work for Leotis and bridged the gap to the break. But I worked too hard to do so, my heart rate was through the roof and my legs were screaming with lactic acid. I stayed with the break for about a minute before realizing I was not rested enough to be in a breakaway (and likely not in good enough shape to last 50 miles off the front) and I knew the pace would remain incredibly fast for longer than I was comfortable with. A chase group was about 20 seconds back at the time and I dropped off. Just as I dropped off Leotis caught on. The chase was more concerned with picking up riders split by the crash, (rightly) thinking that it would be easier to catch the break with more riders. Unfortunately very few riders were interested in chasing and most big teams were represented. I had no gas to do another big effort, but pulled through when expected. Also, I had 2 good friends on other teams in the break, and chasing your friends down is bad etiquette. Kudos to Ben Grier and Bryan Derstine for an epic ride. After efforts by Mars Hill and UGA failed to produce a solid chase, we sat up, Mars Hill sent a rider to bridge the gap, and we finished the last 30 miles at an easy pace before setting up for a fun sprint.
Sunday featured a fast, fun criterium in a new development north of Tallahassee. 1.1 miles long and with a serious kick of a hill at the finish, it proved to be a challenging course for all categories.
The same accelerations the hurt Mark and Justin in the Road Race hurt them even more in the crit. A Crit is a really intense, relatively short race on a closed course where cornering and high speeds are the norm. It is not unusual to see average speeds upward of 30 mph in professional crits, even more impressive considering most are less than a mile and feature at least 4 90 degree corners. The tactic of a criterium is to ride as fast as possible in the beginning to shell riders and set up the main group. Accelerating out of corners and up any hills is the best way to make those early selections. Mark was the first to learn this lesson, and a few laps later it was Justin. The race officials then engaged in what was a very unsportsmanlike course of action. They began to pull dropped and lapped riders. Usually in a criterium you only pull lapped riders if their presence on the course impedes the regular race. On a 1 mile course, those riders do not present much of a danger. I could even understand the lapped riders, the C race started with 46 riders. But pulling dropped riders who have not been lapped is just bad judgement and contrary to the open environment of collegiate cycling. Those riders deserved a chance to compete, and even if pulled should be assigned placing based on that. Regardless, all dropped and lapped riders were pulled out of the race, and Mark and Justin had a short day.
Joe and Barrett were up next in the B’s race, which was a bit more interesting and had less dropped riders. A large breakaway ended up going up the road and with all major schools represented, the main group sat up and rode easy (much like in the A road race). Those in the break were very aggressive as they tried to thin the group out a bit. The gap from the group to the break grew and the gap from the break to the main field shrank. With about 3 laps to go the breakaway lapped the field and sat in for an easy finish with the top 12 places already guaranteed. Joe and Barrett, still early in their training for the season, played it safe by sticking with the main group and aiming to finish with the group. They did both, sticking together most of the race, representing UAH well.
After 80 miles of racing yesterday my legs were politely asking me not to race. I went into the crit with the simple goal of finishing with the main group and not getting shelled off the back. Last year, my last several crits ended with me being lapped several times or settling for being assigned a place and being pulled from the race. After a rough crit in Florida I had low expectations. Despite a FAST first lap and some intense attacks the first few, I sat in very comfortably. Ben Zawacki from Clemson was very aggressive from the get go, and his persistence paid off midway through the crit when he ended up in a breakaway that ended up delivering him the win. The main pack again let up a bit, but a few breaks tried to go and one succeeded. Most were chased down really quick by teams with riders in the break. After 68 minutes at 25 mph, the race came down to an uphill sprint. I had decent legs, but a lot of riders sat up on the hill impeding any full out sprint. I settled for a top 10 field sprint, which put me somewhere in the 15-20th place range. Considering I was totally prepared to get dropped, I was incredibly pleased.
The drama did not stop there, though. Since we at UAH support our teammates, most of the team were sitting in the truck with the doors open (75 degrees and sunny!). That combined with all the peripherals plugged into the car power sockets had drained our battery. A jump would have fixed it, but the hood would not unlatch. So after an hour and a half of waiting for AAA and then watching the technician become baffled, we finally were back on the road, and we are now heading home.
Results will be posted later this week as the official results become available. Photos may be added later tonight
Next weekend we head to Statesboro, GA and the infamous LaQuinta Inn for a weekend of racing on the rolling hills of South Georgia (not much unlike the Tallahassee hills). We bring a full TTT team this time, with the added caliber of nationally competitive rower Hunter Leo, a recent convert to bicycle racing.
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