Yesterday we started stage 2 in another quiet little town called
Wilkesville. Sean and I got there a bit early to scope out the course
which was a three leaf clover type shape taking 3 different laps and
coming back into town each time. The third loop was really the most
important because it had the biggest climb of the day (about a 11%
average w/ some slopes that got up to about 17-18%) that was about 1.5
miles long until the KOM sprint, and then a 7ish mile descent back
into town to the finish. Sean and I decided to ride the last loop as a
warmup since it was going to be the most decisive part of the race.
The climb wasn’t as bad as we were building it up to be, but it was
still going to be the biggest sustained climb that I’ve ever
encountered in a race.
We got to the line and they announced all of the leaders jerseys and
we started to roll out of town at a nice easy pace. The attacks didn’t
start for a while which was nice, but the weather was brutal with low
80’s and extremely high humidity. Sean got into a couple of the early
breaks and stayed away for a while until about 45 miles in when the
pace heated up when the bigger teams were thinking about setting up
for the climb. For the next 15 miles it was pedal to the metal in
order to drag back all of the attackers. Once everything was back
together we had about 6 miles before the climb was going to start.
Jittery Joe’s had for the most part been sitting on the back during
the chase effort, and then when it all came back together they hit the
front and set a blistering tempo to the base of the climb. Nobody was
able to move around very easy so it made positioning yourself ahead of
the mayhem of the climb very difficult. At about the worst possible
time (1/2 mile to the climb) Sean dropped his chain and had to get off
his bike to fix it. Once we hit the climb all hell broke loose, the
remainder of the Jittery Joe’s team hit it crazy hard with Dewey
Dickey from Mercy Specialized and got a little gap for the lead group
of probably 6 or 7 riders. I was a little further back than I wanted
to be so I had to dodge people as they were quickly moving backwards
up the climb. One guy actually tipped over right next to me and almost
took out a couple of people. I ended up finding a good tempo and was
leading the chase group up through the KOM sprint, but the lead group
had opened up a pretty good gap. We bombed the descent (pretty sketchy
with a lot of potholes and loose gravel) heading back to town and I
was able to fight for pretty good position coming into the final
sprint. It was a great sprint for me with a slight uphill rise coming
through the finish line. I jumped with about 300m to go and was able
to pick off a bunch of spots which left me around 6th place in the
field sprint. I’m not sure exactly how many were in the break but I
would guess that I was probably around 15th on the day.
Today’s stage is an 80 miler in the Hocking Hills area, which is where
we had Collegiate Regionals. It should be pretty hilly as well with a
couple KOM’s and a couple of intermediate sprints. It ends with a
five lap criterium which I am praying will be dry by the time we get
there.
Data from Stage 2:
Distance: 65.28 mi
Time: 2:49.45
Avg. Speed: 23.1 mph
Total Ascent: 5,030 ft
Avg. HR: 163 bpm
Cal: 3,719
