Tour de Moore RR 30+

Rich, LL and I made the trip to Southern Pines, NC to race the 70 mile 30+ Tour de Moore RR yesterday. We very nearly missed the start, because we weren't paying attention and missed a turn on the way and lost at least 45 minutes. We rolled into the parking lot about 10 minutes before the race start and well after registration had closed. Thankfully the race promoter and officials were sympathetic to our situation and allowed us to race. All three of us were pre-registered, but we still had to sign waivers and get numbers, but we did that while lined up to start, which was a little nerve racking.

Once the race started, all was fine. We rolled out easy for about 10 miles or so. Once the attacks started I went to the front to take part. At one point I attacked, was brought back, then countered by Nathan Smith and Kris Stein. Then Jason Sprouse joined them. A little while later LL was able to bridge up to the leaders. I sat on the front for a while and kept a false tempo, which was much slower than the leaders, and they were all gone pretty soon.

For a long while, nothing happened as the first group got a huge lead of a few minutes. Then, I was out of position and missed getting into a chase group. After that 4 man group got out of sight. I did manage to get away with a couple of others with maybe 25 miles to go. We were caught by 4 more. The seven of us motored along until we made the turn to head back into the town. During those last 15 miles we had a head wind and the temp was probably approaching 90 degrees. At about mile 55 I was still feeling great, but suddenly by about mile 62 I felt terrible. We limped in to the town with no one fresh enough to attack. I jumped early to kick off the sprint for 9th and was covered by Pat Raines. He got around me, so I finished 10th. The finish had some climbing before the final stretch, and somehow I ended up with a 569 watt 1 minute burst.

Up at the head of the race, LL hung on to finish 4th with Nathan winning. Rich came in with the field. I think everyone was shocked by the heat out there. Everyone looked like death by the finish.