Saturday
The Junior race was the first race of the day. It started at 8:00. The plan for this race was to attack and if I could get off the front then sweet if not then I would just sit in and contest the sprint. I never was able to get off the front and stay there even though I tried a couple of times. On one of th laps I heard Prime lap and I was like sweet! So I manged to pick up a 20 dollar prime. I was feeling strong and was at the front of the group for the last lap. Actually I had been at the front for almost the whole race. I camp around the last turn following Josh Antleys wheel and put the power to the cranks and flew past him getting myself a first place finish. I would have 5 hours until the next race.
The Podium
The cat 2/3 race was much harder. I managed to hang in pretty good until about halfway through when I got gapped on one of the turns. Somebody bumped me and about took me out and It took a lot of energy to catch back on. Once I did get back on I started to fall off and never could really recover. I bailed out with 5 laps to go and decided I was going to race the cat 3/4 race which was right after the 2/3 race.
I felt a lot better in the 3/4 race. I have no idea how I manged to still have energy and the legs to do a 3rd race of the day but I did. I didnt get the best starting postition but I knew that I would be able to move up to the front easily and thats exactly what I did. I got in the top 10 and staye there. I felt great. I was covering attacks and sitting in saving energy. We came around to the start finish line and I heard 3 laps to go! I kept my position up in the front and tried to find the strongest guy in the field so I could get on his wheel. With 1 lap to go people were getting crazy and making really dangerous moves. I got passed by about 10 guys and was now sitting in about 20th. We came around the final turn and I could see the Finish line. The group started to sprint and I went around 7 guys and ended up with 13th. I was happy with the finish and was looking forward to Sundays race.
Sunday
Today was the SC Crit championships. I would be doing the Juniors race in the morining and the Cat 3 race in the afernoon. The Junior field had a pretty good sized field. There was a team called Carolina Cyclones and they had 5 guys working for one guy. I knew they were going to be attacking every chance they got and I was prepared to cover them. We lined up for the start and the official told us that the last turn was wet and that we needed to be careful. Then he said the magic words "go". We were off, The Carolina Cyclones had a guy go off the front from the get go. Robert Antley covered that one and that would be the last one he covered. Once that guy got caught Carolina Cyclones did it again! They attacked the whole race until they manged to get their man off the front. I tried my best to bring him back but no one was interested in helping me. He stayed away and it came down to a field sprint for second place. I got passed by one guy and got third. If it was not for all the work I did I think I would have came away with second but I was still happy with the results.
The cat 3 race felt like it was a lot easier. This time it would be Land Rover controlling the race. They had a guy in a break the whole race. I was able to stay in the front easily and even manged to get in a couple of breaks. None of them stuck though. I rode really strong and was happy with how I was able to cover the attacks and get on peoples wheel easily. I was sitting about 12th wheel coming out of the final turn and I knew I wold be able to get around some guys and get a top 10 finish. Well just my luck and accident happend right in from of me. I managed to go around it but also got passed by about 8 guys. I was still really happy with the race and feel that my fitness is coming around.
My next race will be in Athens GA, followed by the Dillworth Crit. All for now
-Andre.
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