Tour of Ohio: Stage 2

Well, me being frisky ended me up on the group about 1/2 lap into the 6 lap race. The rain came down all afternoon but stopped about an hour before our race. This left some slick blacktop behind which was my downfall on this course that had far too many 90 downhill turns. Blacktop is not Chipseal.

Getting back on my bike after the crash I spent the next 5 miles attempting to get back onto the back of the pack. Unfortunately, the adrenaline was wearing off and the pain of sliding on pavement for about 30-40 ft and eventually loosing feeling in my leg began to catch up to me. I fought it out for the rest of the race along with Holmes (who was having trouble with the humidity) and about 15 others only to come in about 7 minutes back. *sigh*

Tomorrow is in jeopardy, that’s for sure!

Tour Of Ohio: Stage 1

First stages can be a little nerve racking. Cramming 127 riders into a .6 mile 8 corner crit made it even more so. Being only able to warm up about 10 minutes before the race start only added to “drama” of the day. Fortunately that was pretty much the only worries that I had as the race started and finished without any sort of major event.

I did narrowly avoid about 4 crashes that all happened around/in front of me. A quick dive onto the grass and over to the sidewalk was only just the beginning. Loosing about 50 spots from 20th down to 70th quick ended any thoughts of trying to place on the day.

Fortunately, I thought the crit was surprisingly easy and ended up coasting a lot of the straights. I don’t know if that means I’m feeling frisky for the rest of the stages, or that others realize there’s still about 400 miles left to go.

PNW’ers Richter and PNWBuckey are in attendance as well. Good times. 

In the big times now…

The following request to change your USCF category has been approved and processed by USA Cycling:
nathasm – 2007-06-04 11:13
Member: Nathan Smith
License: Road Racer
Request to change category from Cat 2 to Cat 1