4:10am alarm brought back memories of spring races with Andy. Being out the door by 4:30 should get me comfortably to Oak Ridge, TN for the Oak Ridge Velo Classic Road Race. I decided to go the Hot Springs route from Weaverville and it was a nice change of pace. Rolling to the Melton Hill Rowing Course was really nice with the mist over the entire lake. What wasn't nice was the complete lack of toilet paper in the out house from minute zero; glad I brought some shop towels. Andy's message at 23:30 of "see you there" left me hoping that someone was going to race with me - after all, Ryan Newman's bike is apparently made of sugar and didn't show given then 30% chance of rain.
Andy and I did a quick warm-up and lamented our recent decrease in motivation. Come the start though, we both led out a furious pace (...for the neutral 5km...). Right at the start Andy rolled off the front without effort and a Krystal guy shortly followed. Inexplicably the field was content with me setting a false tempo on the front before Jim Bob and Bobby put two-and-two together and said "are you going to let his teammate set the pace?" So a 30sec lead went to zero shortly thereafter. My only mistake in the race was not countering Andy's move with two others who would eventually make the winning break.
The race was four laps of approximately 24km per lap. There was one short climb in the last 3/4 of the lap preceded and followed by rollers, and a short climb to the finish/start of the race/lap. The first time over the 2-3 minute climb we shed almost 1/3 of the group. After the start of the second lap my race was nearly over prematurely as some doofus came blowing by me STRAIGHT when I was just about to turn right onto the next road of the course. I had to go down a hill, back up, and chase for a while before catching the field. Luckily it didn't do any irreparable harm nor did another break escape. Andy dropped back a little to help pace me up. I almost said "F-it" after last week and more bad luck.
On the third lap's climb of the obstacle climb, Andy said "I may not see you again." Fortunately two guys who decided to go to the front on the climb set a false bravado by chatting like they were Contador stuck in a training camp. During this lap we had a time check of three minutes to the leading duo. A teammate of a team of three said "Come on! Do we really want to race for third?!?" Andy and I said, "three minutes? Yea, sure. Sounds good." The poor bastards were all the way from Memphis and clearly had hoped for greater things.
Fourth lap to the last ascension of the climb was as predicted harder than the previous circuits. Myself and two others made it over the top but one moron (ie. one of the idiots with a false bravado) thought it was smart to play games with a short-ish distance to the finish and only three of us off the front of the main group; so we were joined by the rest with Andy - maybe eight or nine others. Going over the rollers and flats towards the finishing hill and hill sprint I stayed to the front and I think Andy was hurting. Nearing the hill I pretended to accelerate hoping to ignite something other than wheel suckers' flaming lips. Hitting the final hill with just over 1K to go I stayed on the front and was a little worried at this point of being in that position. About 300m later I gave a harder and longer acceleration to get people's legs burning and to shake things out. Finally a small selection was being made. Almost to the top before the lesser gradient of about 300-400m to go I accelerated again - one beside me and one just behind. After a bit I looked under me and we made a gap - so it was time for some more games and less brute strength. Homegrown rider passed me and a Clarksville Schwinn/Rapid Transit rider as well. Both going too soon I thought and me feeling strong enough I tucked in for slight time up the slight uphill drag and sprinted around them both for a 5th place finish.
I'm pretty excited with the result since it was a strong uphill finish, a sprint, and me being smart. While I should have made that decisive break, this was good confidence. I finished the race smart and strong. Andy came home 8th which was great given his anticipated resignation prior to the 3rd lap's climb.
Luckily we both finished out of the money and were able to have an early start home.
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