GA Cup Rome 4/2-3

There's nothing like racing in the mountains to build fitness...and shatter a peleton. The GA Cup Rome race took place in town (tt, crit) and in the mountains of NW GA (rr). I decided to race the 45+ crit--my first of the year, and 35+ road race--I wanted the challenge of a 3-lap rr race vs 2-laps for 45+. The promoter decided to combine the 35+ and 45+ crits, resulting in a still-small field of about 18. But, it also resulted in a talented field with several racers using this as a warmup for the P12 race later. The race hadn't even gone 1 lap when there was a powerful attack that resulted in three riders (including me) getting a small gap. It was brought back within 1 lap, and subsequent counter attacks resulted in tongues dragging w/in the 1st 5 minutes of racing! The day was already over for several racers including my teammate Chad. I was doing some "active recovery" at the front when I heard about 3 rapid gear clicks and watched with fascination as Chris Brown (BMW-Litespeed) went by the group in an instant. He may as well have been a fighter jet as far as me being able to respond. Only one racer (Igor the Brute) was able to make the break, and poor Igor was dropped after several laps. A few strong racers put on a strong attempt to chase and to further break up the field. They succeeded in the latter, but not the former. Mr Brown not only soloed away...he caught the field (at almost 29 mph average speed)! If that wasn't impressive enough, he then worked to stymie any attacks in order to protect his teammate. The field was pretty small by then, so even though I had little sprint reserve left in my non-sprint legs, I managed 3rd of the 45+ racers.

Sunday's road race start held yet another surprise--the 35+ field would race with the P12 field. I looked forward to this, but it would make it much harder to keep tabs on the 35+ competition. It was a cold start, but soon warmed up nicely--3 bottles was just right. After a flurry of attacks, a two-man break got away. I believe they stayed away the entire race (impressive with over 3 hours of racing ahead). The peleton split up on the 700' climb over Horn mtn. I knew my limits and rode at them, watching some impatient racers surge and then flounder. A lead group summited with several small chase groups. I was in a group that coalesced with a couple groups ahead to about 20 racers. We never caught the lead group, but were only about 1 minute back as we started the 2nd (of 3 total) climbs up Horn. The group completely fractured this time and I crested the top about a minute off of several at the front. I can descend pretty well, and if it had been a long descent I might have caught them. As it was, I did everything I could to bridge up to them in the rolling terrain, and got within about 30 seconds but could get no closer. After awhile 2 riders came up from behind and while one of them sat-in, two of us powered on, eventually catching two more racers that had been dropped. The last climb up Horn was tough, but I made it without any cramping and beat the 4 other riders I'd been with for a while. I had no idea how I'd done, but ended up 4th in the 35+, just off the podium.