First collegiate race of the season.

This past weekend was our first collegiate race and it went very well for the most part. Saturday started out with the team time trial. That was the first time that Corey, Marshal, Bryan and I did a team effort like that in a race. We did fairly well not as well as we would have liked, but it was a start. Then in the afternoon we had the road race which was 70 miles. The plan was for Corey and me to attack from the start and try to stay away. It didn’t work quite like that. I got into the break a mile into the race with about seven guys in which one of them races of the Bissell Pro team and a few other domestic pros.  I just kept telling myself that I worked so hard this past winter and that I can hang with these guys. It hurt like hell, but I did it. About two laps after a small group caught us and luckily for me Corey was in it now I had a teammate. With about 30 miles left I started to cramp and started to struggle. I kept fighting through the pain and trying to stay with the group. Since this was my first race in a Brevard Kit I wanted to do something special. Around twenty miles left our group started to stop working together and five riders got away. At that point I was completely pinned and could not counter any moves. As we approached the last lap I was completely shot. By this time both of my legs we cramping and I had to pour water on them so I could keep them from cramping. With about a mile and a half and guy from Cumberland attacked on a little climb and I got within twenty yards of catching his wheel, but I was spent. We hit the last 200 meters and Corey started his sprint with me on his wheel and he finished right in front of me with both of us in the top 10.  It was a pretty fast race with us averaging over 25.5 mph.  

The second day on Sunday we had another road race which would test everybody’s fitness level. The race was 80 miles with the course rolling the entire time. The beginning of the race was insanely intense with tons of attacks. I attacked and counter attacked so much and with my legs tired after a hard day in the break the day before I wasn’t feeling 100%. With about 40 miles left somebody countered my move and 15 riders got up the road. I was at my limit and couldn’t make the break. With Corey in the break it was my job to slow my chase group down so his break could stick. At that moment I thought the best I could get was maybe 20^th place. But everybody in the break started to get shelled and the chase group starting picking riders up and with two laps left I could get 8^th or 9^th place. On the last lap Matt from Cumberland University attacked and I followed it along with a guy from the college of Charleston and we hammered the last ten miles averaging over 30 mph. The chase group was trying so hard to catch us, but we opened the lead to about two minutes. My legs have never hurt that bad in my life, I just kept telling myself to keep going and not to give up. I just kept suffering and every pull I took hurt worse and worse and with a mile left I knew we were going to stay away and now I was going for 7^th place. Right before the home stretch there was a little climb and the guy from Charleston attacked and I was completely spent and was just trying to catch his wheel. My quads and calves were like knots with 200 meters left and luckily I held off Matt who finished right behind me. So I finished in 8^th place and somehow Scott got a gap on the field and got 11^th place which was amazing and also Bryan and Marshal hanging in there to get in the top 20. Corey stayed with the main group and got 6^th place, an awesome result for us.  All around it was a very successful weekend with also our B riders getting a few top ten in their first collegiate race. This race shows that we as a team have a lot of potential to do great thing for the rest of the season.