I hadn't planned on doing this race, but at the last minute signed up and I'm glad I did. I believe it was the first year for this race in Wrightsville, and I hope it isn't the last. A fun course, good location, and a generous payout make this one that I'll be marking my calendar for next year.
I met Brandon before the race, and we briefly talked strategy. One of his teammates was itching to try and get away, and Brandon sounded like he was going to sit in, help out a teammate, or go for a chance of his own if it came up. Jokingly, he asked me if I was going to lap the field again this week, I think my dismissive response was something like "yeah right..."
As usual, I staged at the very back of the field, with about 30 starters, it wasn't a huge group. There were plenty of early attacks, and the pace was high right off the start. After turn 2, the course had a long fast downhill section, followed by two 90 degree right turns in quick succession on a fairly steep, short incline. The accordion whiplash at the back of the field was really bad, you'd lose most of your speed from the descent while navigating the two turns, and then have to try and accelerate up the steep section, and that effort was quickly sapping my legs.
I decided that I had to try and get up towards the front, because I was dying back there. It took a couple of laps, but I finally got there. I took a few hard turns at the front, and tried to follow some moves, but everyone was still too animated and nothing was getting away. On one lap, I came through turn 2 on the inside, and somehow got pinched off in the exit of the turn, I may have been trying to squeeze through a tight line, but ended up tangling bars and went off to the right smack into the side of a big black SUV parked along the grass. There was quite a good "BANG" and I bounced off, managed to regain control, went through an evergreen tree (spruce?), narrowly squeezed through some ornamental lawn rocks, and just jumped back on course before the next row of hedges. I lost a lot of spots, and field was half way down the hill by now. I quickly checked with the other riders, and we all seemed to be ok, so I jumped on full chase mode.
Fortunately, the accordion squish saved me, and I managed to latch back on during the exit of turn 4, right on the hill part. The battle to get away was still full on, and in another lap or two, I shaved down my rear derailleur cinch bolt and right pedal on the high curb inside turn 4. It was tight....
At one point I found myself up at the front with Gale, who was really working to make the race, we sort of countered each others attacks, and managed to get the right combination of gap and speed to put some small distance on the field. David from NC State was right there also, and we quickly went into full on escape mode. Gale was in full on animal mode, and about dropped me a couple of times, but we were working very well together, and on each lap, took the same section of course which allowed for very smooth, predictable rotations and we kept the pace high. Plus, we could just rail the turns 3 and 4, which was a huge advantage as we were carrying far more speed into the short hill.
I think we started the race with the lap counter showing 35, and when we finally had our breakaway established, there were 18 laps showing. It felt like a long way to hold a breakaway, but at the pace we were going, I was more worried about just following Gale and David's wheels. David seemed to be the strongest, he was pulling the entire start/finish straight, into the wind, and slightly up hill. We deferred the primes to him, and just kept the pace smooth.
Eventually, we saw the tail end of the field wrapping around the turns ahead of us, and I knew we were going to lap the field. I made a plea for a little respite in the pace, and they relented, slightly, but not much. Finally, with about 5 to go, we integrated into the back of the group. Gale made his intentions clear, he wanted to go right on through and out the other end again. That was not much of an option for me. He developed from animal mode, into full on beast mode, and proceeded to attack and lead the field for much of the remaining race. David hung back slightly, and I tried to stay on his wheel. Coming into the final lap, I was losing the battle of positioning again, and finally just sat back, to watch David and Gale take 1-2 in the field sprint. That was not something I could have contested, and was happy with 3rd.
If you missed Wrightsville this year, definitely check it out next year, it's a good location, and a fast, fun, and challenging four corner crit. Not your ordinary industrial park course, for sure.
I met Brandon before the race, and we briefly talked strategy. One of his teammates was itching to try and get away, and Brandon sounded like he was going to sit in, help out a teammate, or go for a chance of his own if it came up. Jokingly, he asked me if I was going to lap the field again this week, I think my dismissive response was something like "yeah right..."
As usual, I staged at the very back of the field, with about 30 starters, it wasn't a huge group. There were plenty of early attacks, and the pace was high right off the start. After turn 2, the course had a long fast downhill section, followed by two 90 degree right turns in quick succession on a fairly steep, short incline. The accordion whiplash at the back of the field was really bad, you'd lose most of your speed from the descent while navigating the two turns, and then have to try and accelerate up the steep section, and that effort was quickly sapping my legs.
I decided that I had to try and get up towards the front, because I was dying back there. It took a couple of laps, but I finally got there. I took a few hard turns at the front, and tried to follow some moves, but everyone was still too animated and nothing was getting away. On one lap, I came through turn 2 on the inside, and somehow got pinched off in the exit of the turn, I may have been trying to squeeze through a tight line, but ended up tangling bars and went off to the right smack into the side of a big black SUV parked along the grass. There was quite a good "BANG" and I bounced off, managed to regain control, went through an evergreen tree (spruce?), narrowly squeezed through some ornamental lawn rocks, and just jumped back on course before the next row of hedges. I lost a lot of spots, and field was half way down the hill by now. I quickly checked with the other riders, and we all seemed to be ok, so I jumped on full chase mode.
Fortunately, the accordion squish saved me, and I managed to latch back on during the exit of turn 4, right on the hill part. The battle to get away was still full on, and in another lap or two, I shaved down my rear derailleur cinch bolt and right pedal on the high curb inside turn 4. It was tight....
At one point I found myself up at the front with Gale, who was really working to make the race, we sort of countered each others attacks, and managed to get the right combination of gap and speed to put some small distance on the field. David from NC State was right there also, and we quickly went into full on escape mode. Gale was in full on animal mode, and about dropped me a couple of times, but we were working very well together, and on each lap, took the same section of course which allowed for very smooth, predictable rotations and we kept the pace high. Plus, we could just rail the turns 3 and 4, which was a huge advantage as we were carrying far more speed into the short hill.
I think we started the race with the lap counter showing 35, and when we finally had our breakaway established, there were 18 laps showing. It felt like a long way to hold a breakaway, but at the pace we were going, I was more worried about just following Gale and David's wheels. David seemed to be the strongest, he was pulling the entire start/finish straight, into the wind, and slightly up hill. We deferred the primes to him, and just kept the pace smooth.
Eventually, we saw the tail end of the field wrapping around the turns ahead of us, and I knew we were going to lap the field. I made a plea for a little respite in the pace, and they relented, slightly, but not much. Finally, with about 5 to go, we integrated into the back of the group. Gale made his intentions clear, he wanted to go right on through and out the other end again. That was not much of an option for me. He developed from animal mode, into full on beast mode, and proceeded to attack and lead the field for much of the remaining race. David hung back slightly, and I tried to stay on his wheel. Coming into the final lap, I was losing the battle of positioning again, and finally just sat back, to watch David and Gale take 1-2 in the field sprint. That was not something I could have contested, and was happy with 3rd.
If you missed Wrightsville this year, definitely check it out next year, it's a good location, and a fast, fun, and challenging four corner crit. Not your ordinary industrial park course, for sure.
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