The course was pretty crazy because turns 1 and 2 were pretty wide open and fast but turn 3 was super tight and you practically had to come to a standstill before the finishing straight. This meant that for each lap we were doing 2 pretty much all out sprints, and doing 60 laps in total meant we did at least 120 sprints during the race. Obviously, this got boring pretty quick. It was just stop, start, crash, start, stop, repeat. I tried to stay somewhat in the middle and make sure that I rolled in with the group for pack time. After about 35 laps in the pace picked up significantly and we shed a number of people from the group. This made the remainder of the race go pretty quick and before I knew it I was hearing 5 to go. I moved up to about 10 wheels back and tried to keep a good position. I made it past a couple of people in the sprint, but I’m not exactly sure of where I placed.

With my pack time I doubt that there will be any change in GC, so I will most likely have ended in 17th out of 50 starters (hopefully they will post results online like they said).Overall I’m really happy that I did the tour. It was an awesome race and gave me a lot of new ideas and confidence that I’m looking forward to using in races to come.

- Nick

I was well rested by the time we left the dorm and headed down to do a
little warmup. There were tons of people out here in the downtown area
to watch the start as well as a cat 4/5 crit that they were going to
run while we were out in the country. The pace was fast right from the
gun and it was quickly strung out in one long line. After the whole
peloton missed a turn and had to turn around and go back to the right
road, we hit a brutal cross/headwind. Everyone was focusing on trying
to stay in the draft and were not really looking ahead. The guy in
front of me (one of the most squirrely riders of the whole group)
plowed right into this big pothole, and since I was trying to make the
best of his draft I ran into it as well. About 30 seconds later I hear
the horrible “pssss” of my tire going flat. Based on the track record
during the week of people falling off the back and not being able to
chase back on I was all but punching my ticket to ride in the sag
wagon. When the neutral support car rolled up he came very quickly
with a new wheel, but decided to grab the one without a skewer. He ran
back to the car and got a new one and put it on, all the while I’m
watching the peloton strung out single file getting further and
further away. I hopped onto the bike and sprinted up to speed, luckily
I hadn’t cooled down too much so it wasn’t a huge shock. I tried to
keep my HR under threshold so I wouldn’t immediately blow up. After
about two minutes the mechanic came up and got in front of me and gave
me a really good draft. I was able to hold between 40-45mph behind him
for about a minute before I had to pass the traffic backed up behind
the peloton. I then hopped from car to car (in hindsight probably not
the safest thing to do…) until I got to the caravan of team cars.
Being able to actually see the group at this point was a great relief,
but I still had a little ways to go. All in all it took me 8.5 minutes
to get back onto the group from the flat. During that time I averaged
almost 32mph, so needless to say I was pretty shredded by the time I
got back on. I must have pissed off the cycling gods though because
right when I got to the back of the group I see the “1.5 miles to KOM”
spray painted on the ground. The pace was ridiculous up the climb, but
I was just able to hold onto the group. After some much needed time in
the back we came into the circuits at a lightning pace. I knew with
the climbs ahead, and the 7 laps that I needed to conserve somewhat so
I just rode my own tempo. Sean and I worked together for the next 7
laps and picked off a bunch of people by the finish. We rode in
together for a finish somewhere in the mid teens.

Stage 4 was a crit around the city of Worthington, OH. Apart from the
Priority Health race downtown it was probably the best attended race
I’ve ever done. There were people out in just about every lawn with
chairs and grills, and some of them even had live music playing. The
course was really smooth and fast with a decent amount of climbing
each lap. We were originally slated to do a 40 mile crit, but they
were worried about rain so they shortened it to 35 miles (big
difference). I really wanted to sit in and try an conserve for today’s
stage which most people are saying is going to be the hardest race of
the week, and where making up 5-10 minutes on GC is a definite
possibility (although this means its just as easy to lose that much).
I was feeling really tired during my warmup and was worried that the
day before had taken a much bigger toll. Once the race started though
I felt refreshed and found it easy to sit in the center and do as
little work as possible. The crit was for the most part uneventful,
except for a break of 6ish guys that got up the road and finished
about 1 minute ahead of the main group. With about 3 laps to go my
friend from Purdue went on the attack and I was able to block for a
full lap for him. He ended up staying off the front and finished in
14th place. I rolled in right behind the soon to be dethroned yellow
jersey somewhere in the 20’s. I felt very good after the race and did
a surprisingly little amount of work on the front.

One of the houses on the course had a bunch of Purdue flags and tents
and when they saw Joey they went absolutely ape. We got invited over
to their house and they gave us a bunch of free food, cold cokes and
beer. It was pretty hilarious too, a bunch of little kids came up to
us at the end of the race and were asking us for autographs. Feeling
pretty good for today with a lot of rest last night and tons of food
earlier today I hope I’ve got enough fuel for whats ahead.

Data from Stage 4:
Distance: 35.3 miles
Time: 1:22.23
Avg Speed: 25.4 mph
Avg HR: 159 bpm
Total Ascent: 1,970 ft

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

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