Sunday, May 27th,
2012
Murfreesboro, TN
Sunday I traveled up
Murfreesboro, TN to race in the MOAB Downtown Crit. MOAB is the local cycling shop in downtown
Murfreesboro and I must say they put on a great race. The hospitality and amenities were great and
this is a fun course to say the least.
My strava of the course can be
found here. The course was a 5 turn up
and down course with a 150 degree hairpin at the far end of the course. The first .5 miles of the course involved 4
turns and was all downhill with swooping wide turns. After the hairpin, it was a .25 mile long
uphill that provided a brutal serving of punishment to anyone brave enough to launch an
attack there. One last turn at the top
of the climb and 250m to a downhill finish.
The weather was hot, I saw a
bank sign thermometer reading 101 degrees so give or take a few, it was pretty
hot. I went through 2 bottles of water
for a 40 minute race, that’s how humid and hot it was. Luckily Cahaba Cycles provided us with their
shop vehicle and tent to keep us cool and out of the sun so we did have some
respite on the day but it only added to my otherwise pronounced cycling tan
lines.
The race started at 12:30 and
after a good 45 minute warm-up I was ready to go. The field was in the mid 30’s and the roads
were fairly wide so I wasn’t that concerned with getting a good starting
position. With the course having a good
uphill on the back side, I didn’t expect any breaks to stick so I went in with
the mentality of sitting in top 10 and not chasing anything all day. What a difference it made, when your not up
front chasing or attacking, it is a lot easier to just ride along with the
group. It was really hard for me not to
launch an attack but in retrospect I should have when I felt it. The problem was, Harpeth Cycles had 3 guys
sitting and BPC was chasing everything that moved, as well as the Tree House
Cycling guys who were well represented.
I knew if I went, I would have to do it alone and I didn’t want to go
that hard when I knew I was one of the stronger sprinters in the group so I
just sat in and waited patiently.
With 2 to go the pace kicked
up and finally the field got a little stretched out. I moved from back 20 up to top 8 through
turns 2 and 3 and coming up the back stretch I sat second wheel on 5 guys
spread out across the road, just waiting for the jump. BPC went mid way up the hill, I swung wide in
turn 5 to keep my speed and stayed top 10.
We were pacelining it and we hit the finish with 1 to go. Turns 1,2, and 3 came fast and hard and we
got a gap on the back part of the field.
On turn 4, the hairpin, I went to the inside as not to have anyone come
under me and my rider to the outside almost lost his front wheel but recovered,
this gave me just enough to come hard out
of the turn and take 7th wheel in the paceline. BPC was still hammering hard and we started
to ascend the hill. Now came the counter
attacks, 4 guys came to the outside hard and I jumped on their wheel and
weaved my way up the hill as hard as I could go. I railed turn 5 into the uphill and came down
hard to close off the inside line then stood to sprint to the finish. I managed to get 2 spots and was gaining on 2
more when 3rd and 4th place hooked bars and both went
down, sliding across the finish line.
Luckily I was able to pull up and went off the course as I went through
the finish line, while the rider I was chasing I believed ran over one of the
guys who fell.
Overall I ended up 6th
place and had a good time racing with everyone and watching some of the faster
races. I ended up with the fastest
average speed for a crit so far this year so I can only image what the 123 race
was doing but it looked fast.
Thanks to Cahaba Cycles for their shop vehicle and tent! What a great sponsor to work with.
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