180's out the Wazooo! - UVA/VCU Day 1

I wanted to share my fortune from Thursday night, I believe my blog is taking care of this particular one.

My fortune from Thursday's Chinese.

Today was Day-1 of UVA/VCU's crit. weekend which went surprisingly well...but before I give away the results I have to build it up.

First, I need to comment on Tech's very strong presence this weekend with what seems to be one of the largest groups we've brought to a race weekend, including family/gfs/friends, today we were the large obnoxious group.

Justin's presence was most noted, the combination of a megaphone and Justin made for a hilarious afternoon.

We awoke early and ate breakfast at our host house in Midloathian, VA and headed north for an hour to Doswell, where the races were being held at the Virginia State Fairgrounds.

Kings Dominion in the background. Nice setting for a bike race.

Today's temperatures had a very large range, beginning the day by warming up the car in the morning, by the end of the day we were putting on sunscreen trying to not get burnt.

I had the opportunity to watch the Men's D field race before I began suiting up, watching the lines and the crashes (only 1). We had 3 of the 4 VT Men's D finish in the top 10, the 4th finish 11th. The results below:

Men's D results.

After the Men's D race I got ready and hopped on the trainer. I was a running a bit late but figured I'd be okay since the first race was delayed, WRONG! I got about two-thirds through my warm-up realized I had two minutes to my race start, hopped off, strapped my helmet, and headed towards the start line making it just a minute before we were supposed to begin. The race started a few minutes later and it was a quick start from the gun. A break formed and had a decent gap for the first two laps, but was caught after a few laps of work from the field. I moved up positions in the corners and found myself in the front but decided to ease off so I didn't blow up. I rode a smart race and came into the sprint strong finishing 8th, holding off the guys jockeying for my position.

Justin took 4th, I managed 8th and points form the first prime.

Power file from today's race.

I took a nice cool down after the race, changed and enjoyed a few amazing bowls of chili from the Aber's and then watched the end of the Men's B race and the Men's A races.


Some pictures from the day:

The start of the Men's A race.

Men's A field.

Justin getting some around a corner.

Mr. Ben Warren.

Tomorrow is another day of the same course, hopefully they'll be more exciting news tomorrow but for today I was happy with how I rode and my performance.