Food Lion City Park Crit., Salisbury NC

March 19, 2008 on 5:47 pm | In Road Racing |

Pro-1-2, 3-16-08

Day two of the Out Like A Lion race weekend. A very different day. Sunny, temp. in the high 50’s with a NNW wind that gave just enough chill to warrant the arm warmers.

The big guns showed up today with two Bissel pro’s, the entire Time Pro contingent, Adam Myerson of Santos-Toshiba, Team DLP, Hincapie Sports and the Lees-McRae collegiate team (complete with team tour bus) and Carolina Triathalon. I was riding solo as Jason decided to stay in A-town today. We started with a group of about 50-60.

The course consisted of a start at the top of a hill an immediate descent to a flat lakeside road where the crosswinds were in your face with 10-15mph breezes then a turn to the stair step ascent back to the S/F line. We ended up with 30 laps and 28 miles.

I started well and knew that the climb was going to determine the race. Sure enough, 15-20 minutes in the big move left and I didn’t think I would last so I just stayed in the pack.

The break ended up being 6 guys, all pro’s except for Ted king’s brother. They gained 50 seconds in no time due to the lack of an organized chase. This was surprizing because Hincapie Sports and Carolina Tri both missed out on the move.

That climb made me unsure of my staying power. My HR never went below 170bpm the entire race. I wanted to finish, not blow-up and drop out. These early races are low on the priority list. Just tough it out.

So the finish comes an hour and three minutes after the start. The field “sprint” was a group drag race up the climb. No results were posted anywhere on the web so I will take a guess that I finished somewhere between the 20’s and 30’s.

Fun Stats:

26.5mph Avg speed.  63 minutes of above LT FUN! 174bpm hr avg. 1245ft. ascent  28.5 miles  about 1 mile/lap

Till next time,

Chad Schoenauer

P.S. The results on the RR from 3-15-08 weren’t posted. Race called due to Tornado. YEAH!