Rock Hill Omnium

So my first weekend as a Cat 3 went great. I rode down to Rock Hill SC, to do the Omnium even know the weekend called for a 100% chance of rain. I rode down with Frank Obusek. Frank and I rode to a lot of races together in 2006. Friday night would be the White Rose Sprints Saturday would be the Old Town Crit and Sunday would be the Patritots Trail Road Race.

Friday Night
The sprints in the Rock Hill Omnium are unlike any other Omnium I have done. Most Omniums consist of a Time Trial, Road Race, and a Criterium. I was scheduled to go off at 7:40 in a heat with 7 other guys and 1st and 2nd would automatically make it to the final heat while 3rd,4th and 5th would get a second chance to try and make it. Frank went off an hour before me and told me the best thing to do would be sit 3rd wheel until about 200 meters out. I did exactly that and came around two guys to take the win advancing me to the final round. The final round would not start until 8:25 but do to a strong thunderstorm system the start got pushed back until 9 P.M. I went down to the start line and got clipped in while someone held my seat. The rain started coming down again and I was getting ancy as I did not want to get soaked. The official blew the whistle and we were off! I found myself leading the group of 7 guys and with the rain starting to pour I hit it as hard as I could 300 meters out and managed to hold everyone off. I got 120 bucks for the win and I was now the leader of the Omnium.

Saturday
I was registered to do the Juniors but skipped out in order to save myself for the crit that would follow later in the afternoon. I would have my Strong teammate Adam Penny to help me out and try to keep my first place overall. The rain held off and we were off at 11:45. With the course being went and slippery from the rain the night before I knew the chance of a crash was high so I would be very careful. The race would be 25 laps. I was feeling pretty good until a crash happend in one of the turns. My teammate Adam went down in the crash but was not hurt. He went to the Wheel pit and got his free lap. After the crash I had to chase down the leaders and after I caught them I was hurting bad and I would suffer the rest of the race. A breakaway of 3 guys went up the road with 2 laps to go and Adam did an Incredible job to bring them back and help me get a 7th place finish. I made 45 dollars for that place and gave Adam 20 for all the hard work he did.

Sunday
Sitting 3rd overall in the Omnuim only 1 point out of second place the plan today was for Adam to bring back breaks and protect me. The race would be 90 miles. Two 45 mile laps. About 7 miles in a 4 man break was established and they had a 5 minute lead by mile marker 35. When we came around and finished the first lap I grabbed a water bottle from my girlfriend Morgan and found out that the break was only 3 minutes ahead. Now the real race would start. Adam went to the front and was working extremely hard so the break would not stay away. Adam is such a hard rider and a great training partner. The break eventually got caught at mile 70 and the Peleton was Groupo Compacto(All together). A 2 man break went up the rode with 10 miles to go and they would never be seen again. Adam was cracked because of all the hard work he had been doing all day. I needed to get a good finish. My legs felt great and I knew that if I could get to the front of the group I could do really well in the sprint. As we turned on the finishing road and had only 1 Kilometer to go I was finding it hard to move to the front. At 400 meters the group started sprinting. I flew around a lot of guys but only enough to get 15th. I got 5 dollars for 15th. As of right now im not sure if I lost my Omnium spot but I probably did. Overall it was a great weekend and I am feeling really strong. Its great to have a strong teammate such as Adam and be able to come away with results. My next race will be in 2 weeks down in Charleston SC.

Warm Weather and A Nice Ride

Adam and I rode together today and did some hill work. It was pretty tough but I felt good on the bike. We climbed Terrys Gap, Locust Grove twice, and Hutch Mtn. For those of you that dont know these climbs Locust Grove is a beastly climb. It hurts, especially on the second time up. My legs are feeling good so far this year and my training is going good. I hope all the hard work pays off. I would out pictures up but my computer is being stupid and it wont let me.

Assault on the Carolinas

I decided to brave the cloudy skies, the chance of rain, and cold weather to do the Assault on the Carolinas. Part of me wishes that I would have not have done it. We started the ride and it was a good fast pace until we hit the first big climb of the day Walnut Cove. That climb separated the field into a bunch of different groups. I managed to go over the top with the lead group of about 25 guys. After the climb it started sprinkling and then it started lighting. After that the skies opened up and we got poured on. For about 20 miles I could barely see in front of me. I made it to Caesars Head with the lead group of about 25 riders. I Rode up the climb at my own pace with 2 other guys and came over the top about 5 minutes back from the lead group. We got to where we were supposed to turn and the policeman made us turn right instead of left. Oh man that caused some problems. We ended up having to ride an extra 12 miles and and extra 35 minutes. It was still a great ride and I felt really good. I'm excited about this up coming weekend and racing in Rock Hill.

This Past Weekend

Was pretty exciting. I went riding with Adam and Billy on Saturday. I rode from my house in mills river to meet them in Fletcher. We decided we would ride to Asheville and climb Town Mountain. A long the way we climbed some other pretty steep hill and Adam and I did intervals up it. Its always fun to go out and ride with a couple of teammates and chit chat. Im not going to go into great detail about the ride we did but here is a picture looking down the parkway after climbing Town Mountain.

Finally!!

I got my upgrade to cat 3. Im pretty stoked. Looking forward to racing 3's in Rock Hill. Nothing new lately, just been riding and training. Hopefully something interesting will come up and I can post it on here.

Last Weekend of Greenville Spring Series

Sunday March 9th
This race went awesome for me. It was at the Donaldson Center and I figured since it was free to enter I would do the Juniors race. In the first 2 miles of the race I attacked hard and was off the front. I thought to myself "sweet i'm off the front, but wait can I hold it"? Turns out I could. By the end of the first lap the field was no where in sight. By the middle of the second lap I figured all I had to do was hold my pace and no one would catch me. Third lap started and I knew I had the race won. I came across the finish line and out my hands in the air. It was the coolest thing that has ever happened. I had always want to win by a solo breakaway. I waited for 8 minutes before the field came across the finish line. So far the season is going good for me. My next race will be in April in Rock Hill.

The Win!

Me Hammering

Sat March 8th
Todays race was the River Falls Road Race. The course really suited me. It was a 6 mile loop with a one mile climb at the finish. I felt really good today and thought I would have good results. Well I was wrong. At the start of the race it was sleeting and really cold. I was wondering exactly what I was doing racing. The first left I felt incredible and I was sitting comfortably in the top 10. We hit the hill really hard and already people were falling off the back. Towards the end of the second lap I hit a big pot hole and my wheel locked up between my brake calipers and was way out of true. I had to stop and get off my bike to try and fix it. I managed to fix it good enough to ride back the the start finish line. I bailed out of the race do to the problem and figured I better save my energy for Sundays race.

Weekend Race Report

Saturday
I headed down to fork shoals with Frank and Erica to race in the cat 4 race. With high hopes of winning and being to upgrade to cat 3 the team said they would help me out if all things worked out well. Well lets just make this one short. Things didnt work out to well for me. At the start of the race the official said that the field was 189 strong. I thought "wow thats insane". By the second lap it seemed that half the field had fallen off. On the third lap there was a guy up the rode by one minute and the field started hammering to catch him. People started falling off the back left and right. I found myself struggling to hand on. My lower back was really hurting me. I eventually did fall off the back and tried so hard to catch back on. I caught plenty of people a long the way who had fallen off. None of them which could hang with the pace I had going. I was disappointed for getting dropped but looked forward to racing on Sunday.

Sunday
Sundays race was much much better than Saturdays race. I did the Junior race today because I was going to be going to a Puddle of Mudd Concert in Charlotte. More on that later. So at the start of the race Evan Wynn and I were at the front setting the pace at a nice tempo. We eventually let a team from Salisbury do some work. At the end of the second lap Josh Antley attacked and Evan got right on his wheel. I sat in the pack and waited to see if anyone was going to go after him. After I saw that no one was going to go after him I attacked on the outside to try and bridge up to Evan and Josh. at 30 mph and a super hard effort I managed to get up to them. next thing I know and was expecting anyway was AJ Meyer came up to the break. AJ is a super strong cat 2 Junior. Before I knew it the 4 of us crossed the start finish line with one lap to go and we had a good gap on the field. We worked together really well until AJ decided to attack about 2 miles into the 3rd lap. With his attack it made josh fall off the back and left Evan and I chasing after him. To make a long story short AJ won the race. I spent the entire third lap trying to catch Evan who was about 5-10 seconds up the road from me. Josh ended up catching up to me with 1 kilometer to go and road my wheel to the sprint and out sprinted me by less than a bike length. I ended up getting 4th on the day but was very happy to be part of a breakaway.

Before the Start on Sunday

The Break

The Sprint for 3rd

AJ Meyer