Tria Cycling presented by DonohooAuto

Posted by Brian Toone
March 28-29, 2009
Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Quick summary – criterium
Pro/1/2 – 11th (Brian), Raced hard (Wes and Stuart)
Cat 3 – 2nd (Lennie), 4th (Sammy), Raced hard (Mike and Jacob)

Quick summary – road race
Pro/1/2 – 4th (Brian), Worked very hard (Wes and Stuart)
Cat 3 – 2nd (Sammy), Raced hard (Mike, Lennie, and Jacob)

P/1/2 Criterium
The Pro/1/2 criterium was Saturday and started at 8pm. The temperature had dropped off considerably, and the wind had picked up speed and started to gust in a few different directions on the course. It made for a crazy race with the dark conditions, too. I will definitely admit that I had a lot of fun on the course even with it being crazy. I made the mistake of going with the lap 1 breakaway and the lap 2 breakaway and then when that got caught sliding all the way to back of the pack for several laps. By this point, the winning break of 3 had gotten away and established itself pretty well. Stuart and Wes got to the front a lot and drilled it, but they weren’t getting a lot of help. Other people were constantly attacking, and the pace would slow way down again when the attack would get caught. Going into the last couple laps, I worked my way to close to the front, but could only manage 8th in the field sprint for 11th in the race with the breakaway of three already finished.

P/1/2 Road Race
If the Tour de Tuscaloosa is one of my favorite race weekends, the road race course has to be my favorite course of all the races I do each year. It has a little bit of everything – mostly rolling hills, but one longer climb, a couple flat sections, and even a short downhill switchback section. 7 laps of a 10 mile loop. We started out with the plan (devised on the start line) that Stuart would go with whatever break went off the front early. Sure enough – a break went very early (immediately after the neutral section) and we had it covered. It didn’t last long before another break got away. Attack, chase, rest, was the flavor of the day and eventually a well-represented break got away with Stuart, two jittery joes, two cumberland riders, and a couple other riders. This break looked like it would stick – but there wasn’t a lot of cohesion because the jittery joes riders had a solo rider off the front. I’m not exactly sure when he got away. Eventually, Ty Stanfield (Inferno), me, and two Cumberland riders bridged across to the break but because the pace had slowed down the whole field shortly caught up to us. I think this was towards the middle of lap 3.

At the start of Lap 4, I attacked on the hill to try to get something going and a small break formed, but we were reeled in a mile or two later. On the flats before the feedzone climb, Scott Kuppersmith attacked and got away solo (the Jittery Joe’s rider was still by himself off the front just out of sight). Then on the feedzone climb, Travis Hagner (Warp 9) attacked and got away solo. I had already decided about midway through Lap 4 that I was going to attack hard on the hill right after the start/finish. I moved into position but I was about 3 riders back from the front on the lefthand side of the road just waiting for something to open up. Then the first two riders moved a little left and the riders on the right moved a little right giving me just enough room to squeeze through in the middle. I attacked hard and got away solo with nobody chasing. By the top of the hill I caught Scott and Travis who had joined forces (they slowed down a bit to wait for me). I drove the pace and we quickly got a 30-45 second lead on the pack.

We drove it as hard as we could. Towards the end of the 6th lap, though, we got caught by a group of 4 including Ty, a Jittery Joe’s rider, and two Cumberland University riders. We worked OK together but the Jittery Joe’s rider and one of the Cumberland riders sat on without pulling a few times and this disrupted the pace. Jittery Joe’s did have a rider off the front so I guess it made sense for him not to pull as much, but we were being chased by another group of about 7 riders who had gotten off the front of what was left of the field. This group of 7 caught us at the start of the feedzone climb with about 2 miles left in the race. I attacked on the climb to try to shell as many of the hurting riders as possible. Only Ty, the Jittery Joe’s rider, and one of the Cumberland riders was able to maintain the pace. The Jittery Joe’s rider counter attacked shortly after I got caught towards the top of the climb. I was just barely able to hang on for the descent and then was in second position when Ty launched his first attack. I was just able to hold his wheel, but it was still too far out for me so I was hoping that maybe one of the other riders would counter attack. It didn’t happen and so we slowed down. Ty attacked again on the last hill before the downhill to the finish. I was able to hold his wheel and then when he tired, I launched from about 350 meters to the line thinking that maybe with the downhill I could get a gap and hold it to the finish. It wasn’t even close as the Jittery Joe’s rider and the Cumberland rider both passed me about 100 meters from the line.

So the order of finish then was 1st for the Jittery Joe’s rider who had been off the front solo for a large part of the race, then 2nd went to the other Jittery Joe’s rider in our break, third went to the Cumberland rider, I got 4th, and Ty got 5th.