Wilmington Grand Prix

Wilmington—

RPC left the morning of, to go up to Wilmington, DE to race the Wilmington Grand Prix. This is my first huge race with the team, and I was pretty excited about the whole thing. Wilmington was a good 4 hour drive, and the time was spent in the team car with Jeff Buckles and Craig Dodson. This was also my first race back from Nationals in Wisconsin 2 weeks prior. Wilmington was a NRC race—National Racing Calendar—so all the big name teams were there, and the field was about 120 riders I think. There were a few things that had me nervous: 1. The field size. I am use to the ACCC races that have a max of 30ish riders on a good weekend. 2. The caliber of racers. These guys are fast, unlike the ACCC races which is a mixture of Cat1,2, and 3s. The grand prix was all Pro, 1…

Nonetheless, I told myself it was like collegiate nationals crit to mentally give me a boost. Man, could I have ever been more wrong? From the gun, it was balls on the wall as hard as you can go. The race was 35 miles, and was composed of an 8 turn loop. The start/finish was a long uphill, that the peloton was railing at 28mph. After what seemed like an hour of racing, Iooked down at my watch to see how long we’ve actually gone…. 9 minutes. Crap, are you kidding me??

Buckles, Dodson, and Matt Spohn were already in good position. Buckles and Spohn got the prestigious call-up because of previous race results. I focused on them and started moving up person by person each lap. It took forever to get anywhere, or at least it seemed that way. I would pass people, a lap later take a peek behind me, and no one would be there. They would pull out of the race, and it seemed like I was always last. Around the 3^rd mile on the course, I hit a gnarley bump and sent my front wheel out of true. I continued to race on it for another 30 minutes until I looked down and noticed that the wheel was rubbing my front brake. That lap, I stopped and got a free lap, switched out my front Kazane wheel for a Zipp 404.

When I jumped back in, I found myself sitting comfortably in the mid pack range. I maintained my spot for about 10 laps. Going around a corner, a guy in from of me bumped wheels and he ended up going down. I had the OS syndrome—“Oh Shit” and swerved around him. “Phew” I thought…but no sooner did I think I was safe, a guy came from behind me and took me out. There I was, laying on the ground with 4 other people. Luckily, no one was seriously injured, and I rushed by to the start finish to the wheel pit to get another free lap. This time when I jumped in, I was sitting top 20. Also at that moment, a small cloud came overhead and let out some rain. Not a lot of rain though, just enough to mix the oil to the top of the road… danger!! Going down one the hills, 15 guys in front of me all fell over at the same time. I’ve never seen anything like it before. They just all fell, at the exact same time, without even hitting one another. I found myself now in the top 5, and I was freaking out. There were 8 laps to go, and I was in a perfect position!! At the lap counter kept ticking down, I was having a harder and harder time maintaining my spot. I kept drifting back, slowly, until I found myself in the very back of the field. I didn’t understand what was going on. My fitness is good, I was mashing down the gears, yet I was going backwards??? With 4 laps to go, I pulled out. After inspecting my bike on the side of the road, I noticed my back break was rubbing. It wasn’t a soft rub either—it was a rub that wouldn’t even let the wheel spin around when you free spin it with your hand. I guess the crash ended up knocking my brake out of alignment, and consequently put an end to the 1^st big race of the year. Things are coming together though, and I’m learning quite a lot from the guys on RPC. Definitely a great group of guys, and I’m exciting to be riding with them this year. We’ll see what comes of it!!

Ps. Sorry this blog is a late post. I started writing it and never finished… now its done though, so yay.