NC State RR Championship

OK, so……
It’s a sad state of affairs when your master’s riders are requesting hearing aids as part of the team “kit”… maybe this is why there are so few AARP USA Cycling members……..
I am not sure how it is you can mix up a simple 3 color code system up, but TEAM headstrong did….

Green….. I feel good and am going (you block)

Red………. Did deep…. let’s go (like closing a break down)

Blue……….Chill…. relax.. (let’s recover)

40+ riders lined up for the 50+ NC State RR Championship, including Dave LeDuc, Butch Holt, Dave Stevens, Gary Jackson, Peter Leousis…. and Joe, Randall, and myself….

Team plan…… relatively flat course with 1 little wall at the end of a 1 mile climb 2 miles in, numerous rolling hills… will end in a sprint… need to sit in and wait for final run in, but we cannot let a group with LeDuc get away, so we will close down the breaks if he is in it…….

Something Chandler said to me on Tuesday is ringing in my ears….. “race it .. poll to poll…..right Bird”

Go..

2 miles in we hit the climb…. at the crest I am at the front… a lone rider has gone off the front…. we roll along to the next “bump”… I attack… pass the lone rider getting a break going with 3 other riders…. maybe 20 yards…. pack coming up…. settle back in… LeDuc goes…. I jump and chase… close it down… Gary Jackson goes… chase it down… riding at the front ….. several riders launch attacks… we close it down…. even though LeDuc is not in the break…….. Joe goes and closes a break down on a little climb… that hurt….. heading back towards the Start/Finish… now LeDuc goes to the front and starts attacking…Randall goes to the front closes….. LeDuc goes again……… I am right there as we pass the S/F making 2 right hand turns to start the second lap…. drilling it at the front…….

Wait… what was the PLAN??? LeDuc going… … has 20 yards…. another rider and I at the front decide we are going to let him dangle off the front to try to wear him down….. so we control the pace…. Randall coming up ……. BLUE… I shout… Randall attacks I SAID “BLUE” Randall is going … as we head up the wall… spending quarters like a geriatric at the Las Vegas slots….. everyone now chasing frantically …. Randall closes it but has spent every cent….. I am redlining as we are nearing the top of the hill ….. riders passing me as a gap forms…….. I am OK, I am OK…. settle down…… close it at the top…..

Shit.... the wheel truck goes around me with 2 cars in tow forcing me to hit the brakes on the false flat….. pack slowing …. stand… pass 1 car…. I cannot get around the second car, which is behind the wheel truck… the peleton hits the descent and ………. is gone…. as the truck and car accelerate away…. chase … chase…. done… just done……
Randall blew…. I settle in and solo the rest of the race, praying that something happens to slow some riders down….nada… LeDuc drops the field heading into the final sprint and wins it solo….. Joe comes in 15th, he says (little does he know he actually placed 8th in the 50-54)
Post race… Randall wants to know why I wanted him to go at the worst part of the whole race…….. Blue…Chill…..!!!! not KILL….. (not to mention WHAT HAPPEN TO THE RACE PLAN? especially as it ended in a field sprint just like we thought)
Unabiding Loyalty……. ..... bordering on stupidity…..
Randall’s simple summary…. “Bird, we rode that like a B Donaaldson race, when it was actually an A race…….” very true… very true…..