Vandervorts Corner

Sunday I raced my first road race of the year. Vandervorts Corner is always a good race. Mostly flat with one power hill. Mike, Jason and I piled in my car and headed off to the race.

The weather was in the low 60's and some wind. Luckily the wind wasn't as hard as it has been in the years past. I suited up and toed the line for the Pro/1/2/3 race.This was my first P/1/2/3 race and while I was slightly nervous, my form had been pretty good so I wasn't too worried.

We finally got rolling for 64 miles and 8 laps. Pretty much off the gun, one guy went off the front and we never saw him again. There were a few other solo attacks throughout the race. Burns has gone off the front to chase the lone leader but a few laps later we had reeled him in. He was with us for part of a lap, then he took off again. With a few laps to go, our group had slowly, one-by-one, whittled into two groups. Unfortunately I was in the second group. We all worked together to bring the two groups back together but we still had a few off the front and gone. I believe we were sprinting for 4th at this time.

I was feeling pretty good, but then out of the blue, my right leg cramped and completely locked up. I tired everything possible to get the leg going again, but to no avail. The group rode away. Luckily, I was on a slight downhill and was able to coast down while my leg was locked. I thought I was going to end up just falling over once I got to the bottom. Then I was able to get going again and had the tough task of trying to get back into the group. They were pretty far away but still in sight. I pounded away and the gap closed when the group wasn't doing anything and then got bigger when it got fast.

Half way through the last lap, I knew there was no way I could catch back up. But I still motored on so it didn't look as bad when I rolled in DFL.

Overall I felt like I had a good race. At no point did I really feel completely tapped out and suffering. I was able to respond to all the attacks. However, the cramped leg really did hurt me. I was hoping I would be able to do well in the field sprint but just wasn't there.

Next week, I'm off to Tennessee to do the Cohutta 100. This week's training will be fairly light so I can rest up for the 100 miles.