Saturday 5/13/06

Joe Martin Stage Race REPORT (stages 1 & 2)

Stage 1-46 mile road race (Sat AM)

The course was slightly rolling to hilly. On the big hill of the course @ 15 miles, I was popped off and never fully re-integrated. Working with one other I ended up 3:13 off the pace. The big reason I was popped off is my lack of course knowledge. Had I known it was the only hill of note, it might have worked out differently. I had the profile and the map, but did not take the time to review it. Lesson learned. I ended up 13th out 16 finishers (3 DNF). This field was the smallest I have been in a while (I raced Cat4/30+).

Stage 2-2.5 mile uphill timetrial (Sat PM)

As usual, afternoon TT's hurt. This course features about .3 mile of relatively flat followed by about 2 miles of 8-10% grade. My legs were dead, dead. It took me about 13 minutes to get up this hill...which probably is good for about 10-13th place probably (my usual TT position).

Today's crit is going to be interesting. It features about 100 feet of up (and therefore down) each lap. It is going to be bloodbath after yesterday's tourture. We (me and some Memphis guys) walked the course again after dinner. It was much easier to *walk* it on Friday night with fresh legs....

All in all, this is a well put on race with a bunch of the pro's showing up (Toyota United, Healthnet, etc...) I will be watching the Pro crit tomorrow....since my race is not until 4:15pm....

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Sunday 5/14/06

Stage 3-30 minutes + 3 laps.

The course took its toll on a number of fields as expected. After a long weekend, most fields had people blowing off the back on the 2nd or 3rd lap. Our field was a bit smaller at about 17 or so, but I am happy to say I was not a victim.... I ended up around 10th or 11th in the crit in a field of 12 (I think). The descent was actually sort of fun and railing around the corners made up for the difficultly going up (others in the field weren't such good cornerers). I don't know how I ended up overall...after yesterday I was 13th @ ~+5:00 (my TT was 12:59 as I thought, the winner was @ 11:11). I probably moved up since some guys ahead of me in the G.C. DNF'ed the crit (not sure how that will shake out). I wanted to hit the road since it was nearly 6p, and I had a 5 hour drive back to Memphis....

It is strange but so far this year, my best experiences have been in crits with a bit of up in them.... (Tour Le Fleur and now Joe Martin). Maybe this is a good sign. I felt smooth and in control during the whole crit, it is nice to be back. I might run up to Sumner/Collesium Crit. It is funny how after a bad day (take yesterday, for example), a good day will erase all bad will towards racing....)

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Results were posted already:

http://www.joemartinstagerace.com/Results2006/results.php?cat=mm_30&event=oa_gc

Stage 1-RR: 17th (16 finished with the field). @ +3:34 (after bonuses)

Stage 2-TT: 15th (21 started). @ +1:48, +5:22 (overall)

Stage 3-Crit: 9th @ +0:15, +5:35 (overall for 13th) [they did not give all in the field the same time....which is suprising.]

If I wouldn't have screwed up the RR, should have been in the money (top 10)....

Oh, BTW, they did not use AMB-IT (or any other) timing chips this year....must have not been all that!

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This is what I missed in the cat 4 field.... yikes! Several guys I know from Memphis were in this field, but none were involved in this mess.

http://www.break.com/index/cylcingcrash6.html