Mountaineer Stage Race

I went to Philippi WV for the Mountaineer Stage race over the weekend. I was trying to find someone to ride share with but couldn't get anyone to commit for both days. But on Friday night I got a hold of Ben Stephens and we decided to drive down both days together.

I was really excited about this event, it was going to be my first stage race. Saturday morning was the TT and it was my first TT race. When we got to the start I got to check out some really impressive TT bikes first hand. These are some pretty amazing bikes when you look at them up close. After a good warm up it was my time to go. I felt good and tried to ride aero and was happy with how I rode. But after seeing the results I finished in 7th place and Ben was 4th. But we both were more concerned about the time gap of 4 plus minutes. I'll need to invest in some aero bars, and do a little more practicing for the next TT.

We figured that with some of the free time that we had between the TT and the crit we would use it to drive Sunday's road race course. It's seemed like there would be a lot of climbing but looked to be fun and fast. When we were done we headed up to the college where the crit was going to take place. We just tried to relax and stay out of the sun. Then at about 3:30 we started to get ready for the crit. There was going to be 3 prems and they were going 3 deep for the time bonuses on the prems. There were also some time bonuses for the top five finishers. I wanted to at least get a few seconds if possible. I figured that the finishing time bonuses would be hard to get because a lot of people showed up that weren't at the TT.

I went a little to early for the first one and ended up 4th . But got a second and first on the other two. The last one came at a heavy price because it came with only 2 laps left and I ended up 6th in the end and just missed the last time bonus. On the ride home Ben and me figured that if we wanted to to well in the overall standing that we would have to attack early during the road race on Sunday. Just before I went to bed the overall standings were up and Ben was in 4th, 4 minutes back and I was in 6th, 5 minutes back.

I met Ben and Jake at 7:00 in Greentree and we were on our way. We were pretty happy to have Jake with us because he's a strong rider and we would need his help for our early attack. We got started up a nice long climb and there was a group of about 8 people that got away from the field. The three of us tried to break away but didn't have much luck. Finally we got a good gap but it didn't last too long. Somewhere near mile 11 we had a little encounter with a dog but luckily the motorcycle that was leading us out was able to hold it off until we got around it. Then we hit one of the bigger climbs and about halfway up I attacked and nobody came with me. So I had a decision to make go for it on my own or fall back into the pack?

I went for it on my own knowing that this would be my only chance to move up in the overall standings. I kept the group out of site until mile 25 then Jacob T, the overall leader, was starting to bridge the gap. I wasn't too glad to see him because he was one of the people I was trying to make some time on. But I was happy to have someone to work with because the climbing was over and it was going to be harder to stay away from the attacking pack. They got close once but we were able to work together and hold them off. Even though I drove the course yesterday, I didn't know how much further we had to go. I was glad that Jacob had a better memory than me because we could see a small hill coming up and he said that's the last one. And then it was about 1.5 miles down hill though the covered bridge on to the finish on Main street. We came out of the bridge together and I was able to beat him in the sprint for the victory.

The next thing was to see how soon the pack would finish. It seemed like about a minute so I knew it was going to be just a matter of seconds that would decide the over all standing. The next person to cross the finish line was Ben. After cooling down and waiting to see the overall standing, I was very happy to see that I moved up to 3rd in the overall standings. I was hoping for a top 5 in the overall standings. It was disappointing when Jake rolled in because he suffered from a flat.

Thanks to West Virginia University Cycling and Thad Kelly for a well organized event. Check out http://www.wvucycling.com/ for complete results.

This weekend we might make the trip to Charleston WV for the the Black Bear race. This a really fun course and was once called “The Scariest Mountain Bike Race in the World”. I've done this race in the past and it's a tough race but wasn't too scary.

Justin