Double Update

I didn’t feel like writing a race report after Mt. Holly last week, for the simple reason that it didn’t go well. I go to every race with goals and expectations, and that was the first time all year that I couldn’t accomplish them. I was straight up dropped—early—and I never really nailed down why. I made a couple early attacks, and after being unable to pull through in either of them, I realized I was in trouble, and tried to sit in the field to recover, but it was too late. I think there were a number of factors in my poor race: lots of training in the week leading up to the race, too much time in the altitude chamber (which kills your recovery), and too much focus on losing the meaningless two or three pounds I’d gained at stage races over the course of the season (especially since I’d raced well all year with the extra weight). 

I jumped in a local crit the next day, hoping that my legs would come around. They did, but only a little, so I pulled out after an hour and a few good efforts. After one day off, I did the Northampton Cycling Club training TT on Tuesday, averaged 29 mph without all the geeky aero equipment, and threw down great power for 18:30. I put over a minute on the course record, and proved that I’m still on track for U23 TT nats next month.

Today, I did my first long ride since the Tour of Pennsylvania ended 4 weeks ago. The ride was a bit of the shock to the system, because it took the form of a 95 mile, hilly road race in crazy heat. A strong local field showed up, plus Ted King (ranked 2nd in the country right now) and his brother Robbie. Of course, they attacked early and often, and all I could do was go with them. I ended up bridging solo to the move of the day. I wasn’t too happy with it at first, and I was excited to see the field come to within 1 second of us up one of the hills. Unbelievably, they never caught us, but my teammate Hayden jumped across, and the odds for the team improved. I worked when they made me, and had enough to make all the splits, as the break narrowed down to 4 by the final climb with 10k to go. Unfortunately, the climb wasn’t steep enough for my attacks to have much effect, and I ended up 3rd in the sprint. Still, it was a great day for training, and a decent result given that the win was going to Teddy King no matter what anyone did. That man was just way stronger than the rest of us, and it's nice to see a clean, local boy (and a friend of Fiordifrutta) tear it up like that.