ID3 Race Weekend Report

Three days of Racing in Roanoke and Blacksburg.

First day was a downtown Roanoke crit, held on a technical course, with rather bad pavement in spots and several slick brick crossings (often with raised lips to watch out for). This really isn’t my kind of course, and we had a fast field, so I stayed at the back and stayed out of trouble. Attrition busted the field size in half. With three to go, I tried sneaking up the side and got pinched into the curb and had to ease off. So, not wanting to get too crazy I sprinted from the back of the main field and finished with them. The race was pretty fast, and I was happy to finish with the much reduced peloton. Not sure what place I got.

Day two was the hill climb. I was a bit off this year- too much pie I guess. Finished 4th in the Masters 40+ and for my second run up the mountain finished 6th in the Masters 30+.

Day three was the Blacksburg crit. This was more of a high speed course with a short big ring climb and couple high speed corners. Did the 30+ as a warm-up. They wanted to drill it from the start and my cold legs were having none of that. I rode until I felt warmed up and that I understood the course well at speed, then pulled the plug.

The 40+ field was fast from the start, the expected break went, and had Bill and Mark in it, so I watched the front till it was safely gone. When that was safe and 4 of the 5 paying slots were up the road I decided to have some fun. I tried a couple of attacks so Ruth would announce my name each time through the start/finish. When the prime lap came, I soloed off the front for a lap, and won a set of Panaracer tires. With two to go, and only one spot “in the money” left, I decided to attack of out the field to try and get it. Alas, I didn’t make it. Also was then cooked for the sprint, but faked it well enough for 9th place.