Appalachian State - Day 2 - Criterium

Following an exhausting day at the Boone Roubaix - Hell of the High Country, Appalachian State held a collegiate race featuring a parking lot criterium at Boone Mall.

Although the race was held in a parking lot, it didn't differ too much from the previous days rough terrain. After a harsh winter in Boone, NASA may consider the Boone Mall parking lot for their next moon hoax, with potholes that more closely represented craters than parking spots. The App. State team did a great job creating an awesome course around the many obstacles and wound up having a fast course with 3 chicanes and a long sweeping front section.

We arrived just over an hour before my race and I quickly attended to my first priority, breakfast. Seeing as Sunday was Easter the mall was closed and although we were surrounded by every major fast food chain the average Americans frequents, nothing seemed overly appealing or Easterly enough. In the end I choose an egg and cheese biscuit from Bojangles (or as I like to pronounce it Boh-hong-glay-s), healthy diet and proper race fuel of course. After my nutritious breakfast I completed the usual pre-race routine. One part of the pre-race routine that I absolutely despise is pinning numbers, I've choosen to add some additional pins compared to the standard 4/number. Some may say its overkill but I've found that 3 on each side of a number, or 8 total/number is bests for keeping things "aero."

I strategically placed my trainer facing the course so I could watch the Men's D race. After my pyramid style warm-up that I've begun using this season, I rode headed over to the start line where Navy was already 8 across the line. Now when I mentioned the likely return of the "Navy Armada" this weekend, I thought they would be back, little did I know they would have most of their riders Cat. up which gave them 9 in our field. The race began quickly and I rode up front for most of the race, about 1o minutes into our 30 minute race, a Navy rider attacked with an App. rider on his wheel and the two went up the road, never to be seen again. This was made possible by the strong presence of both teams up front sitting up and allowing their teammates to put a considerable gap on the field. My teammate Nick attacked about 2/3 of the way through the race when I was feeling a little cooked and unfortunatley hit his pedal cause a wreck right in front of me. I managed to avoid it by locking up my rear wheel, check out the video below (I'm in orange sliding sideways and hit a cone, but keep rubber side down):

How I Spent My Easter... from nick shoemaker on Vimeo.

At the end of the race I sat up a bit and allowed riders to roll past me on the final lap, losing 3 or 4 positions finishing a measley 11th for the day. I think this is one of my worst races to date this season, simply because I didn't race a smart race.

Men's Collegiate C results, 11th for the crit. Full results Here.

PowerData for the crit including my warm-up.

Reid working the camera in a different way than usual, not modeling mullets that is of course.

As for the rest of the day, after a trip to both Cookout and Taco bell (did I mention we were surrounded by every fast food chain the average American frequents), in case you're keeping track that's three fast food meals in a day....although cookout was only a milkshake, I fulfilled my duty as photographer and watched the rest of the races behind a lens.

The Men's B field was ripped apart by none other than Virginia Tech's Matt Dockin's who lap after lap sat on the front punishing the field with a leg burning pace. In the end, only 7 riders remained in the field and Matt "THE CRUSH" Dockins setup a perfect lead out train for Jacob Aber and Mike Breitenback taking 1st and 2nd place respectively, Matt just barely edged off the podium for 4th.

Mike, Jacob, and Matt sprinting for the finish.

In the Men's A race attack after attack was covered, the field not letting anyone go too far up the road especially another John-Crow-walk-away lap-the-field-palooza. With a few laps to go a Duke rider got away from the field and was nearly caught at the finish but remained away for the win. Second place was capture from the field sprint by Justin Beard of Phifer University, followed by Reid Beloni rounding out the podium.

John Crow leading the field into one of the more technical turns on the course. The site of Nick's Accident above.

Notice the giant crater near the right edge of the picture, these things were the size of VW Bugs!

In the end Justin Beard took the field sprint, followed by Reid Beloni of VT.

Another very succesful weekend for Virginia Tech cycling.