Crosstown Cycling: Sumatanga Training Race

Sunday 2/26/12- Sumatanga, AL

The weather for the race was perfect, sunny and warm with little to no wind. ST3 had a good turn out as Lynne was there for her first race and rode strong in the C’s along with Alan helping out for 2 laps and Mick helping out for the first. In the B race we had 5 ST3 riders as I was able to drag Max out of bed post Southern Cross from Saturday where he finished strong in the single speed class, John Soto showed up to race in his first road race, and Alan and Mick and myself were there also.

The course was a smooth 10 mile loop with 4 laps. There were no climbs and for the most part it was a bunch of rollers and several kickers that kept the field honest. The finish was a short rolling downhill to flat at about 300m out so it provided for a good opportunity for a sprint finish. The field was about 40 riders.

The pack went out fast, with Alan making several attacks on the first lap and getting decent gaps on the field. There were a lot of attacks but lack of organization among anyone ended up bringing everyone of them back. The first two laps went by at a brisk pace but I stayed sitting in the front 10 pulling though as I didn’t expect to have much in the tank due to my race on Saturday.

On the third lap I went to the front and began talking with some of the stronger guys to get a feel on how everyone was feeling. I felt strong so we all agreed to kick up the pace a bit and try to break some of the back of the field off. The first two laps we had held a consistent 21-22mph and on lap 3 we began taking pulls closer to 25mph. A couple people tried to break off the front, one group of Steel City and GMSR guys took a gap of about 100m and no one wanted to chase them down so I went out front and took a long pull to get us within 20m and then the pack pulled through to do the rest.

On the last lap I moved to the front 5 and stayed there for the rest of the race for the most part. We kicked up the pace again and a group of 5 or 6 of us kept a rotating paceline on the front of the field because no one else wanted to pull through it seemed. We kept this up for a couple miles until about 3 miles from the finish then everyone starting sitting up to get ready for the inevitable sprint finish. Eddie launched an attack unexpectedly on the field and a group of 5 of us got off the front by a good 100m. I mentioned to the group as I pulled up to them we had a gap and to “let’s go!” and they all agreed and fell in. We hammered for about ½ mile but just weren’t able to hold off the group. At this point we were a little over a 1 ½ miles from the finish so the field regrouped and began to sit up anticipating the sprint, then Steel City, GMSR , and Cahaba began to get there teams to the front for a lead out. I saw this and didn’t have any of my team around so I moved to about 6^th wheel in a double paceline and left myself space to jump around the group and catch one of the stronger leadout riders wheels. At 500m the pace picked up to high 20’s and at 250m the field jumped. I pulled out around and we were sitting 5 or 6 wide with 3 or 4 riders in front of me. I jumped on a NSAT guy’s wheel for a second and then he pulled off to the right and we split a slowing rider. I put my head down and hammered to the line, extending my front end to the line at the last second. 3^rd place by less than a half a wheel to the NSAT guy, and 1^st was a Bob’s Bike rider by a couple more feet.

I was really happy with the finish and how I rode given the strength of some of the riders in the field. I learned a lot this weekend a look forward to a full season of road and mtb this spring. Next weekend I’ll be doing Spring City Crit in Huntsville on Saturday followed by the opening AMBS race in Tuscaloosa on Sunday at Munny Sokol Park.

Here is my garmin from the race.