Lee's McRae Collegiate weekend

(L to R) Spencer Beamer, Scott Sewart and me, catching and dispensing of the break one by one on the climb up hw 194.

well, a little rest the last two weeks and the legs are coming, as all the work is starting to pay off. This weekend was a lot of fun. I got to do my first climbing race of the year, to test out what the numbers in training were saying about my form. it was 48 degrees and threatening rain, misty and foggy. quite epic. 6 laps with your standard avery county portions of climbing.

we let a 7 man break roll at the start, and were content to stay conservative. but the climbs and the technical decents shreaded the lead group down to 8 riders after 2.5 laps. LMC had four there, Scott Stewart, Carson Worts, Kevin Holdber and myself. we kept the pace solid for another lap when on the 3 mile climb Scott, Spencer Beamer and myself went off on our own. The gap to the leader was too much to worry about, but there were people inbetween to be caught and of course, Spencer to deal with. next lap on the same climb Scott and I started attacking him and finally I got clear and stretched out a 15 second gap, and scott dropped Spencer at the top. I waited on Scott on the following technical decent and we worked together, or basically he pulled me around another lap and a half haha. but the last two laps it started raining really hard and my legs got really cold and went from feeling "no chain" to unfunctional in the matter of one decent. we had caught all but 3 of the break, and while 5th on the road i called it a day. I was freezing and got everything I wanted out of the race, some TOV prep and some confirmation of how my climbing is looking. I was really happy to be in the three man group with two VMG/Nat'l Team guys, and to be able to cut it down to an LMC only chase group late in the race and on the biggest climb after pulling everyone else around for 3 hours.

Next weekend is Conference Championships at Vanderbilt, then it is quickly back to school, then off to Tour of Virginia on monday. not to mention the masses of homework I have to do inbetween now and then.