Evan and I represented Mock Orange Racing at the 2007 Masters National Championship Road Race, in the 30-34 age group. We were up bright and early at 5 AM for breakfast and large amounts of caffeine. We had decided the night before to ride the 20 miles to the race from the condo rather than drive, this turned out to be a good call as it gave us a good long warm-up, including the killer finishing climb that we would do battle on latter that morning. I also have a feeling it intimidated some of the others racers that we were so confident to put in such a long hard warm-up before such a difficult race.
The field was stacked with the best of the best from all over the country in what is known as the “baby masters” category, including a couple of former pros from teams like Sierra Nevada. There were two teams with 5 guys and the rest were ones and twos. Along with Evan and me, there were 2 Hincapie/Disani riders a CT/Ryobi rider and an unattached rider representing NC. We spoke briefly with the Hincapie guys about working together, but there was nothing set in stone. We all new it was going to be a day of survival.
We rolled to the line for the 8am start along with 49 other riders, and we were off on what would prove to be total chaos racing. The course was a “lollipop” style with about an 11k start leg, an 18k loop and the finish back up the same road we started on. The loop was rolling with some steep but short hills and a brutal 1.5k hill that felt like climbing Grandfather or Mitchell. We rolled down the starting segment and saw speeds near 55mph, turned right and started the first of 4 laps around the circuit, there were a few early attacks including one from the winner of the TT a few days earlier, which I covered, but they were all reeled in. After a few kilometers we came to a sharp left and started the first accent up the “big hill”. One of the things that made it so hard was that you hit it without any speed, literally at about 12mph. After just a few hundred meters, there was an atomic detonation in the field; I swear there must have been a mushroom cloud. The gaps were instant and within seconds there were guys strung out all over the climb for 200 meters. I instantly started closing gaps, I noticed two of NC’s strongest cat 1/2 riders explode and abandon the race. I was already resigned to the fact that I was gone as well, but I kept digging and closing those gaps. At the top of the climb, after about 5 minutes I found myself in what was left of the main field, I looked behind and spotted Evan in a small group of 6 or so that quickly latched back on once we started the decent. After the smoke cleared, we had lost 20% of the field!
A solo move had gone clear on the climb, it was Josh Frick again, the winner of the TT, he was soon joined by 4 others including Dave Fuentes formerly of Sierra Nevada. It was a very dangerous move and we chased hard for the next two laps. Each time up the climb we would loose a few more riders. Going up the climb the 3rd time was probably the hardest and I thought we had lost Evan, but he put in an amazing effort to bring himself and a few other back into the field. Just after he had made it back on, about 500m before the feed zone, the entire 5 Star Fish team out of California made a huge surge up the left side. It was a blatant attack just before the feed zone involving the entire team, obviously planned that way. It was a “cheep shot” to say the least and very un-sportsmanlike. Since we were now going through the feed zone at 28mph, most guys, including Evan and I missed feeds, bottles were flying everywhere and I was almost taken out by a renegade bottle.
The un-cool attack succeeded in splitting the field exactly in half, and the instigators were driving hard. Well, I hadn’t made it up that climb 3 times already to get dropped now so I put in some hard pulls and we finally linked back up. It was just before the last time up the big climb and I was sure I was getting dropped, but managed to stay in connection.
Evan and I both got bottles the last time through the feed zone and were in good shape for the long, steep finishing climb basically 11k of steady steep climbing with a few short rests. As expected the race really blew up at this point, there was a group of 9 that went away early, it eventually split into two groups of 4 with one coming back to us. I was in the second group of 9 or so and Evan made it into the third group of 4. The rest limped there way up the finish, mostly as ones and twos.
All we could do at this point was ride our own pace and hope to survive, and we knew that going into the race. Approaching the finish, Dave Fuentes put in a wicked attack from my group with 1k to go, I responded and caught him at 200m to go. There was an immediate counter, I think it was AT Stamp, Fuentes latched onto his wheel and came around him at the line. I was cooked and was rolled across at the tail of our group of 8.
I had just caught my breath and one minute back, I saw Evan charge out of his group of four and got to the line first, he looked really strong and I was wishing I had had that much kick at the end.
We ended up 18th and 21st 3:41 and 4:41 behind the winner. I am happy with our results considering how tough the course and competition was, but still hungry for next year. We both raced well and got some awesome exposure for the team, I only wish we had had our teammate Jay as the course was tailor made for him and we could have delivered him easily to the start of the climb with the leaders. Oh well, there is always next year.
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