Tria Cycling presented by DonohooAuto

Berry Peddler Road Race – Dayton, TN 7/5/2008

Dayton, TN
July 5, 2008
Pro/1/2/3
Posted by Wes Douglas

This was supposed to be a cat 3 only field but the Pro, 1,2, field was combined with the Cat 3s at the last minute, however the 3s were to be scored on their own. This was a good race for me to do alone because the big climb was 5 miles in to the first loop and lasted for about 5 miles.  Very steep, Lots of Switchbacks, no recovery.  Think Nickajack (up in Mentone) only way longer and harder.  Teams were a non-factor here because there was nothing they could do to improve or impede any rider’s position.   If you didn’t climb well you were out.   Ty Stanfield and Matt Winstead were on the front going into the climb so I decided I was going to stay with them no matter what.  A mile or two into the climb guys were blowing up all over the place but I just stayed about 20m back from Ty and Matt. My focus was to stay in the saddle as much as possible and control my heart rate and breathing.  Basically, we shelled the whole field.  I made it to the top a few meters behind Matt and Ty with a guy from DLP (Spencer) a few meters back.  The field was about a minute back by the time we hit the ridge and I think there was a 3 or 4 man break between us and the field about 30 seconds back.  The four of us started working to improve the break and by the time we made it to the end of the first lap we had over 4 minutes on the field.  So here I was a cat 3 in the break with what I thought was two cat 1s and either another cat 1 or a 2.  Just before we started the 5 mile climb for the second time Spencer rolled up and said that Ty and Matt were going to attack hard on the climb and that, however it played out, he would wait for me at the top if I would wait for him should I make it there first.  I nodded that would be fine but I still considered trying to stay with Matt W.  At the first pitch Matt and Ty started to push it and I started to go with it but I was worried that the effort might make be blow up completely and I really didn’t have anything to gain by going with them.  I was in first place already and I didn’t want to make it this far only to blow up, get stuck out there alone in no mans land with the field closing in on me.  So I backed it all off and did the climb with DLP.  When the two of us got to the top Ty and Matt had a minute gap on us and I don’t think either of us had the motivation or the energy to try to catch up.  It really didn’t matter much for me.  I just needed to stay away from the field.  On the second to last rise before the finish DLP attacked me after I came off a pull.  I should have been watching out for this but I was really expecting this move a little later.  I was pretty drained so I didn’t really respond and I ended up finishing a few seconds behind him.  After I crossed the lined I rolled up to Spencer and asked if he was a cat one or two (because I was hoping I had beat all the twos) and he said, �Actually, I’m a pro. Are you a 3?�  So I won the cat three race, beat all the cat 2s, and finished 4^th behind Ty(1^st), Matt(2^nd), and  Spencer.  This was by far the hardest road race I have done.

-Wes Douglas