Ocala Stage Race 6/13-6/14/09

I have been looking forward to this race for a while. The course is fairly close to Gainesville and we often go down to the road race course and time trial course on our weekend rides. I have been riding pretty strong and the team was willing to help me in an effort to get a podium spot. There were seven of us ready to go for the Cat 4/5 races. I think we had one of the largest groups out there which was awesome for one of the smaller teams in Florida.

The first race of the weekend was the Marion County Road Race. This was the course we have ridden a number of times. Our plan was to push the pace and cover any breaks that tried to go away early. My team mates would challenge for the King of the Mountains time bonus and Intermediate Sprint time bonus. The final part of the plan was to get me in a break on the last lap to try and get some time on the field.

It all went fairly well. Ben challenged the sprint, and came up just short of a bonus in 4th. He was also very active at the front of the race chasing breaks. Justin went for the KOM bonus, but again was just short in 4th. All the breaks were getting chased down quickly by the field. I think the heat had something to do with this. It was easily 95+ and it was hard to get enough fluid down. I started to get chills on the last lap a sure sign of dehydration. Talking to others after the race I found out I was not the only one. So a small change of plans we tried to line things up for the final sprint. Ben, Justin, Marco and Keith Lad all moved to the front, but I got boxed in and pushed back to about 20th place. There was one final small hill just before the finish. I was able to come around guys over the top of the hill and sprinted hard for the line about 500m from the top. It was a bit clogged up and I had to go around a guy on the grass, but I managed to finish 5th. This was only 1 place out of the money for the road race, but I was still happy with the result.

I was going to have to do a good time trial to keep my position and hopefully set myself up for a podium spot in the general classification. They used the same start finish line and ran us backwards on the road race course. The time trial was short at just under 5 miles, but there were a few hills to really make it hurt. As usual I forgot to reset my computer at the start, so I had no idea what my time was until the next morning. I chose not to use aero bars. With the hills I thought they would do more harm than good as I would have to get in and out of them when I shifted. We were happy to see a thunderstorm coming in from the North. It cooled the temperature down a bit. The only downside was the chance of rain and the wind. Luckily it moved to the East of the course and we did not get wet. I managed a good time of 11:13 which was a 7th place finish for the time trial.

Sunday's road race was in Ocala National Forest. It was on a flat loop course of about 11 miles. There was a short spur road that we started and finished on. The tricky part was going to be getting into position before the spur road and holding it. There was a 90 degree corner at 200m to the finish and I was going to have to be in the top 5 to 10 to get a good finish. Our plan was to push the pace and line up a good lead out on the spur road to keep things fast and safe. The race was fairly uneventful. Unfortunately there was a lot of acceleration and then breaking which really clogged things up. We managed to get 4 or 5 of us towards the front on the spur road, but a couple guys got caught behind a crash and were gaped off the back. The spur road was really scary an you had to fight to keep any position you had. I managed to move up and then got swarmed and was sitting back at about 25th with 1k to go. This was not going to work, so I took a chance and tried to squeeze up the right side through a small opening. I got bumped a bit and almost went into the ditch. I managed to keep the rubber down and got by the guy. I went around the corner in about 10th place and hammered it. I turns out I was a bit too far back and came across the line in 6th.

With my good time trial performance and consistent results in the road races I managed to finish 4th place overall for the weekend. My teammate Keith Lad finished 5th. It was a bit disappointing to not get on the podium, but overall I was really happy with my result. I really appreciate all the work my teammates did this weekend to help me out. I would not have finished where I did without their work.

Next weekend is the Lake County Stage Race. It is the last race before a month off racing. It is going to be a fun race. The time trial goes over Sugarloaf Mountain, the highest point on the Florida peninsula at 312ft. Hopefully I will be able to bring home some hardware.