I didn't get much sleep friday night as I was watching Lockup Raw. (Only the greatest show about Mendocino county ever.) so I woke up early on saturday morning so i could indulge in the bountiful feast that was Comfort Inn's continental breakfast. It was lovely! I had taken a drive around the TT/RR course the night before and I knew that it was going to be rough. I think my course reconnaissance only made me nervous. I got to the venue at about 7:15 or so, so I could check in and get my TT start time. During the time while I was waiting for my TT start time Kevin and I got in a lap of the course so we could get a feel for the hills. At 8:30 the TT times were posted and i was set to go off at 9:27. I relaxed for about 20 minutes and this made me nervous because I knew I should have brought my Aero-bars but I didn't I then started to warm up about 40 minutes to shuttle launch(A.K.A. my weak example of a TT). The TT did not go well at all I was hoping for a a sub 12 minute for the 4 mile route but ended up with a 12:40. I was passed 2 times and one was within the first 3 minutes. This was pretty disheartening.
The 15-16 mens road race was set to start with the 17-18 women at 12:32. This left about 3 hours after the TT to go get something to eat. The team and I all went to Cracker Barrel and I got some real breakfast. We showed back up at the venue about an hour early for the Road Race and Aidan and I decided to sit in the car to keep cool. Aidan and I had a few flaws in our race prep because we barely drank any water which was a huge flaw. The road race started slowly but quickly heated up and I soon found myself off the back with a young lady named isabella before the first lap was even over. I rode one more lap at a painfully slow pace and decided to call it quits on the Road Race. I hated myself for dnf-ing but I had to. Aidan dnf-fed one lap later we both didn't drink enough. We watched Kevin race in impressive fashion.
I woke up the next morning thinking I wasn't going to race the crit (even though I dnf-fed the Road Race we were allowed to race the crit with a time of 2 hours for the RR.) just because of nerves but Aidan convinced me to. I am so glad that i decided to race the crit because this had to be one of the most fun races I have ever done. The crit was set to be 20 miles (my longest crit so far). The race stated off pretty fast and I was holding on but having a great time. Aidan attacked with a few other guys which lifted the pace further and I was dropped. I eased off to recover and waited for the pack to come back around so that I could hop back on. I got back on with about 8 laps to go and I held on until the last lap and I finished just behind the pack.
Congrats To Aidan for getting 12th in the crit and congrats to kevin for racing strong all weekend. I will speak for the 3 guys that went up to The Tour de FCCC and say that I hope we can bring more teammates next year and maybe get a good result on GC.
RANDOM INFO:
The 15-16 and 17-18 TT's were both 4.1 miles. Both RR's were 7 laps or 29 miles. The 15-16 crit was 20 miles and the 17-18 crit was 25 miles.
Thanks for reading,
Nick Caddenhead
