Saturday's events started at 8 am with a neutral rollout from a pretty lakeside park; it was race on a few miles later as we started up a one mile climb. As usual, there was a flurry of attacks, and a 3-man breakaway formed within the first few miles. Jake attempted to bridge solo, but was swallowed by the surging peloton in a few minutes. With the two biggest teams represented in the break, every attack from the field was quickly chased down. The pattern of surging and recovering was repeated for four laps, with some riders getting dropped on each lap. We responded to most attacks but minimized attacking ourselves with the strategy of not burning too many matches so we would have a strong finish on the last climb. The break shrank to two riders but still had a two minute lead with five miles to go when a lone rider attacked and got about a 30 second gap on the peloton. The Hincapie Green team went to the front with some help from Friend of the Smokies (the two teams in the break) and drilled it, causing the peloton to stretch out and begin to break up. As we absorbed the lone rider mid climb the peloton splintered and a group of about five surged off the front. John and two other riders chased on the descent and were joined by me and another rider as they began the final climbing stretch to the finish. Just ahead of us 30 seconds was the lead group. Even though I was already maxed out, I took a long pull at the front to try lead John out and maybe get him to within striking distance of the lead group ahead. As it turned out the lead group caught the two breakaway riders within a kilometer of the finish--thanks in part to the (misguided) efforts of their own teammates a few miles earlier. John sprinted early and finished ahead of the group he and I were in, but just barely missed catching the lead group. John finished 8th and second cat 2. I was 12th and Jake was a little further back.
It was then time to recover for a few hours before the afternoon time trial. Things weren't looking good an hour prior to start with a huge thunderstorm downpour, but luckily it quit by race time. Jake was the very first to go at 5 pm followed in two minutes by me and a couple minutes after that by John. We all were still felling the effects of 80 miles of racing earlier in the day, and so despite a pretty flat and short course weren't too confident about our results...and the feeling was justified as we pretty much stunk, taking the worst two times and the forth worst time!
Saturday night we had a nice meal and took in the sights in Knoxville. Sunday morning we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast as our criterium race wasn't until 4 pm. We felt good about our chances on a fairly flat, fast course. The goal was to keep John on the cat 2 omnium podium and get Jake on the crit podium. Jake had some bad luck 30 minutes from the start when his rear shifter lever broke! The solution was to pick a gear and tension the derailleur in the position. The two big teams took turns attacking for the first 20 minutes, with two riders eventually getting a small gap on the stick attacking field. I was attempting to cover every attack and was beginning to wonder if I'd survive the race when John did a massive attack that was covered by the two big teams and one other strong rider. They quickly got a gap and things settled down in the peloton....thank goodness! Jake, after stopping once to try a different gear, called it quits...but not until he'd made one last effort to sprint for a cash prime! John did a great job conserving energy and finished 6th and first cat 2. I ended up leading out a chase by the remaining peloton to catch an escapee and had no energy for the field sprint.
Even though we didn't always play our cards perfectly, we worked well as a team, and John finished 7th in the omnium and 2nd for cat 2. Oak Ridge is long way to go to race, but I think it was well worth it.
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