Wake Forest Race Weekend - Day 1

This weekend was the second weekend of the ACC Cycling at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC. Winston-Salem is only two hours away from Tech and the team decided to leave early Saturday morning to avoid extra hotel costs and make the weekend a little shorter than N.C. State. The morning began early for me with my alarm going off at 4:15AM to head to the parking lot where the team was meeting. After we quickly packed the van the team headed south on 81 towards Winston-Salem. We arrived early and unpacked to prepare for our first race of the day, the individual prologue. The individual prologue was a short 3.75 kM race based on fastest time. After suiting up and a quick warm-up on the trainer, I headed down the road towards my start to the prolgue. My start time was at 9:03AM but with a few riders missing their start times before mine, I didn't leave until 9:05:30 AM. The course started out with a fairly significant climb followed by a few rolling hills. I think I went out to hard on the first climb and struggled to recover for the rest of the race. My power file for the race is below, the huge spike at the beginning is the climb at the start, and the significant drop at the end is where I forgot to hit interval after I had crossed the finish line.

No Power File

Bad news, my power file somehow got corrupted and won't open. Bummer!

However I did have my Garmin 310XT GPS watch in my back pocket and recorded all of my power data and GPS information. Garmin Connect Prologue Data.

Results from Wake Forest Prologue

After riding back to the parking lot, I changed out my clothes and watched the road races before my scheduled Men's C race at 1:00. The weather for the day was incredible and everyone enjoyed hanging out and talking about how much the prologue hurt. Below are some photo's of team members:

Mike exhausted after the prologue.

Justin with Captain America sunglasses.

Will and John

Lindsey (It wasn't really that cold out)

The Girls, Edie and Irene.

Reid.


A pretty cute Weimaraner.

The race was staged at a Flint Hill Vineyards and I snagged a few cool photos of my bike and a kindof funny one about the possible dangers.

DANGER!

Kyle staying clear of the pesticides.

At 10AM, shortly after the prologue the Men's A and B races began, the races were 50 ish and 40 ish miles respectively.

The start of the Men's B race.

Mike way off the front in the B Race, he wound up taking 4th for the day

A's getting ready to race

Wake Forest Road Race - Men's A Start from MyDailyGround on Vimeo.

The Start of the Men's A Race

Unfortunately Jacob had a little wreck


The damage, a cracked fork and ruined front wheel

My race began at 1:00, so around 12:30 I got dressed and hopped on the trainer to warm-up. After warming up and making sure I was ready to go I headed to start line where most of the C field was waiting to begin racing. Unfortunately right about the time our race was about to start the official let us know that the race was delayed a half hour. After another half hour warm-up and a course preview we were finally lined up for the our start. The race began and the first of three ten-mile laps was very uneasy will a lot of nervous braking by the group. By the second lap the pace had picked up and the field had shrunk in size from only ten miles. Around 3/4 of the way the way through the second lap I popped an went off the back sturggling to rejoin the group once more before finally falling off. I spent the remained of the 12 miles with a pace group of 4 before finally falling off about a mile from the finish. I continue to improve in fitness but didn't have enough to stay with the gruop this weekend. My power data from the road race is below.

Need More Powa!

Results from the Men's C Road Race

More from Day 2 and the Wake Forest Crit to come...