2017 would be the first year that I raced at the USA Cycling Amateur Road National Championships. I've done a few Collegiate Nationals, but the races are shorter with smaller fields. I was excited to race in the Elite race this year! Originally we planned to have our full roster at nationals, but after some last minute conflicts, nine riders turned into four. Whoops! A big part of our program is preparation and in-race support. Our program operates on a small budget, but we try to make the most of this budget. We don't have a fancy team van, a follow vehicle with four spare bikes, or a full staff. Our team decided to skip the TT and focus on the road race (Friday for the Elites and U23s, Saturday for the juniors) and the criterium on Sunday. Hopefully we will have a bigger budget next year and can focus on getting the guys better prepared for TTs. I was pretty bummed I wasn't going to be doing the time trial, as I've done pretty well that past three years at collegiate nationals in the TT, but without a time trial bike to dial in this year it just would've been a waste of energy, time, and money to do the TT. Next year!
Carson, Omar, Gabe, and myself started the 15 hour drive from College Station to Louisville, KY on Wednesday. We made a quick stop in Little Rock, AR for a spin before stopping for the night in Memphis. The next morning we drove to Nashville, stopped for lunch (white bbq sauce = perfection), and finished the drive to Louisville. We had a little bit of time before sunset, so we quickly did a pre-ride of the road course. The course was a really unique road course - 23 laps of a short 4.7 mile loop for a total of 110 miles. Lots of turns and up/down the whole way. Should be an interesting day to say the least!
Carson and I had the first race - bright and early at 7am (6am Texas time!) on Friday. All of my training since collegiate nationals in late April has been focused towards the road race, and I thought with a little luck I might be able to get a result, or at the very least help set Carson up for the finale. With only 2 riders we had to be very careful with our efforts and just follow, follow, follow for the first 2/3 of the race. I started in the middle of the 120 rider field, knowing that with a long day ahead of me that starting right at the front wasn't super important. The gun went off and the field started along a slight downhill and then turned right onto a kicker of a climb. After a short two minute effort, the road leveled off and started down. After two fast left turns, we started climbing again into the feed zone. Riders were fighting hard on the downhill turns for position, with seemingly half the field wanting to be in the early break. Right before the second left, a rider dove inside of me and I had to change my line to avoid a crash. I went right into a huge pothole and my rear tire exploded. GREAT. Pretty much the worst time to flat, right at the bottom of a twisty narrow climb. I panicked a bit and pulled to the left side of the road. The neutral service car pulled around me and yelled "SERVICE FROM THE RIGHT ONLY". As a domestic elite team, we were technically allowed a team car with our own mechanic during the race, but with our budget and staff this year we decided to just rely on neutral and roll the dice, since the course was so short and opportunities to grab bottles were a plenty. I awkwardly clunked over to the right side of the road in my cleats, and the mechanic proceeded to have an issue getting the wheel changed. Not the best start. I finally got a neutral wheel, but the field was at least 3 minutes ahead of me, with constant attacks going trying to establish the early break. I took off, riding as hard as I could to try to catch the back of the field. After 30 minutes, I was told by a moto that the gap was just growing, so I called it a day. No use trying to catch the field when I was guaranteed to get lapped on the short course. Pretty devastated, but after a few minutes of composing myself at the car, I hurried to the feedzone to help Gabe feed Carson. Carson rode an excellent race, staying hidden until the last few laps, and making the final selection of 25 riders. He attacked with another rider going for glory at 3 kilometers to go, but was reeled in and finished 17th in the sprint. Not too bad for our two (but mostly one) man team!
Saturday was the 17-18 Junior Road Race for Gabe and an off-day for Carson, Omar, and me. The road race was in the afternoon, so Gabe chilled in the hotel room while the rest of us went on a quick spin outside of Lousiville. I made a 20 mile route using Strava heat maps . Louisville has some awesome roads! Once we got back to the hotel we filled up bottles and headed back to the course. Gabe's race would be a little shorter - 72 miles (15 laps).
Gabe road great, limiting his matches and following a good move in the last few laps to finish 11th - an AWESOME result as a first year 17-18. Watch for him on the podium next year! Our plan for the elite crit was tricky, as neither Carson or I are sprinters. Our goal was to be in a late breakaway, or for either of us to launch a late attack at the beginning of the last lap and try to catch the field off guard. I felt absolutely terrible for most of the race - I went through two bottles in the first 45 minutes of the race and ended up pretty dehydrated. Turns out that spending 8 hours on Friday and 3 hours on Saturday in the feed zone in 95 degree heat isn't the best prep for the hot, hilly crit! I had trouble moving up in the field, which felt like it was single-file the entire time. Carson put in a great ride, narrowly avoiding some late crashes to finish 11th in a top-caliber field.
We jumped in the car after the elite race and started the trip back to Texas. Our plan was to make it as far as we could on Sunday and then drive the rest of the way on Monday. In the middle of a rainstorm on Monday morning (in MiddleofNowhere, Tennessee) we hit a huge piece of debris on the interstate, ripping the transmission pan off of the bottom of the car. Turns out the best-laid plans don't always work out (and the day before the 4th of July is the WORST time for your car to breakdown)... Four hours later our tow truck dropped us off in Memphis, where we decided to get a rental car to take us back to Texas. Omar and I flew back up to the Memphis the next weekend to pickup the car from the repair shop. Expensive and stressful trip, but still fun!