3 Race Weekend in Beaufort

I had a busy weekend of racing. I loaded up my 2 bikes, several wheels, tools, and miscellaneous gear and left at the ass crack of dawn to make my 8:44 am start time in the 40K State Championship TT, held in Yemassee, SC. I made it in plenty of time and got a decent warm-up. I surprised myself and rode a 57:12, which was good enough to get 2nd in 40-44 and 5th in P/1/2. I was happy to average 310 watts and over 26 mph, considering how little I have ridden the TT bike this year. Teammate LL had a great race, riding a sub 55 time to take gold in 35-39 and 2nd in P/1/2.

After a big lunch and a few hours resting in a hotel room, we took on the crit in downtown Port Royal. The race was shortened to only 47 minutes and was hard from the gun. I felt surprisingly recovered from the TT and made a few efforts to get away around the middle of the race. I found myself in bad position in the closing laps and couldn't move up much as the field was bunching up leaving little space to pass. I gained a few spots on the last lap and finished 16th, salvaging a few omnium points. Norm power was only 304 watts, but as you can see from the graph it was anything but a constant effort. It was a 4 turn 1/2 mile course, with coasting through turns, then sprinting out of them.

Sunday after a big breakfast including a waffle and assorted cereals, LL and I made the 2 mile drive from the hotel to the Naval Airstation in Beaufort to conclude the weekend with a 63 mile RR on a pancake flat 10.5 mile loop. The sun was coming out and from watching the radar I thought it was going to be dry. I even put on sunscreen since we were racing in the middle of the day. Then a dark cloud moved in and the skies opened up right after the race started. I rode near the front for a while, then settle back as we rode through downpours for the first couple of laps. It was dark and hard to see and there were areas with standing water on the course. A group of 3 got way up the road early on.

Late in lap 3 I got away solo, knowing a had no chance of bridging the 2 minute or so gap myself, but what the hell, I went for it just to see what would happen. What happened was lucky for me. Two guys, then eventually three, bridged up to me after I was away for 5 minutes. One guy was super strong and helped us bridge that gap to the leaders with 1.5 laps to go. After dropping one, the now 6 man group at the front rode together to the finish. There were some attacks along the way, but I just did what I had to do to stay in there. My legs were dead from the chase. In the end I got 4th in the sprint, which was enough to secure 4th in the omnium.

The power numbers didn't reflect how hard the RR felt. My norm power for the 2:24 race was 285 watts (88%), but it felt much higher. The big effort of the day was my 5 minutes out there solo at 340 watts average. All in all I was pleased with some good results racing Pro/1/2.

Great day for the Palmetto Velo team Sunday! Marc got 3rd in cat 3 and Rich took 3rd in 40+.