Stage 3 in the Hocking Hills was by far the hardest race I’ve ever
done. The race consisted of a big loop through some state parks with
some painfully steep grades and extremely fast descents. After the
loop we were going to come back into the town of Nelsonville and do a
5 lap circuit race around this incredibly hairy brick and pavement
course. Previewing this crit course made me very nervous because there
were a number of sinkholes on the brick section that looked like they
could easily gobble up a carbon wheel. The sun came out right before
the race started which eased my nerves a bit about coming into town to
wet bricks.

Our neutral roll out was a bit of a joke because a Jittery Joe’s guy
was tailgating the pace car which just kept going faster and faster
and eventually just pulled off the course. About 2 miles outside of
town the first climb hit, it was about 10.5% for a little over a mile.
I was glad nobody took the first attack seriously because it would
have been pretty tough to go up that without having warmed up very
well. Once we got up to the top there was the normal flurry of attacks
for the next 20ish miles. Yet again Sean got into a couple of
different breakaways and stayed off the front for about half the race.
The KOM climb caught me a little off gaurd but when I saw the polka
dot jersey madly following Dewey Dickey I knew we were there. It was a
stair step climb for about 9/10 of a mile and I felt like my lungs
were about to explode when we got to the top. I was in the top 1/4 of
the group but nobody was really able to do much so I figured I head
back a little before I got stuck on the front. This climb caused a
pretty big split in the field and we spent most the rest of the race
chasing down the small breakaway. We finally got to the top of the
climb that we came up from town on and there was another decisive
move. Dickey, a Jittery Joe’s guy, and two other guys I didn’t see
attacked on the last rise and flew down the descent. I spent one of my
last matches on bridging up a smaller group right before the descent
and it paid off. The lead breakaway must have been cruising because I
hit 55mph down this descent and they were still ahead of us. Once we
got into town and started the circuits it was one of the most
confusing things I’ve ever done. Since the field was so strung out
people were all over the place. I was holding a pretty fast pace but
thought that I was way far back. On the last lap I started passing a
bunch of guys and even started to pass some of the Jittery Joe’s guys
that had been pushing the pace back into town. I opened it up for the
sprint but still thought that I was probably going to finish in about
30th. I did my cool down and came back to the podium to watch the
jersey presentation and look at the results. I was totally surprised
to find out that I came in 7th place on the day.

Today we have a crit in Worthington, OH which is supposed to be pretty
wide open and not too hard to sit in on. I am looking forward to
trying to conserve some energy for Saturday’s race (apparently just
like Snake Alley).

Data from Stage 3:
Time: 2:56.43
Distance: 68.53 mi
Avg. Speed: 23.5 mph
Max Speed: 55.5 mph
Avg. HR: 157 bpm
Total Ascent: 5,249 ft