NRC Racing in Arkansas
After Tour of the Gila I headed NorthEast towards Fayetteville, Arkansas, for the 31st annual Joe Martin Stage Race. This stage race is on the National Racing Calendar for the 6th year now and attracts a god number of Pro’s and Cat.1 riders for the Pro/1 field.
The race kicked off with a short, 2.5mile uphill time trial in Devil’s Den State Park. I did okay and posted a 9:03min which got me in 30th place among the 90+starters. Day 2 (110miles) was a bit more exciting as we hit the famous Mt. Gaylor after 70miles of racing and attacks came from left and right trying to crack the HealthNet-train. Best moments that day: Rory Sutherland (JustRory.com) chasing down any serious escape attempts by himself and Brad Huff’s (a sprinter) bold solo move trying to reach top of Mt. Gaylor ahead of everyone else. It’s good to have guys like him back in the peloton. I felt comfortable going up and just tried to follow wheels and rode a bit more conservative this time around and finished in the pack, while my teammate Chad Cagle got a nice 10th place in a stacked field.
Day 3 (95miles) was like Day 2: early break goes, Health-Net chases, catch is made, field sprint. Almost! One guy from Bissell Pro Cycling Team fooled them all and rode to ‘V’ in his 54×11 gear. My job was it to help my teammate Chad to get a good lead-out into the sprint and get him out of the wind. After that, I finished just in the > pack and post-race I was in 26th place in the General Classification.
Day 4 (the downtown Criterium) was going to be a tough one. Health-Net rode like the past 2 years from the front, making it tough to get anything going in terms of establishing a break-away. This race is all about finishing, since usually only 30-40 guys finish the race due to the technical and hilly course profile. It was rough as always, mostly single file and “bunching up” on the climb. I felt okay for the most part and was able to score a small mid-race cash prime. With about 7 laps to go a break was caught and the sprinter teams “dropped the hammer” in an attempt to guarentee a fast finish. I started to get in trouble with 3 laps to go and had to ease up which got me a 38th place for the day. Half the peloton DNF’d today or got a pro-rated time due to getting dropped early on. That result shuffled me back to 33rd place Overall but oh well, I was somewhat happy to finish among a pretty stacked pro-field with only 10 amateurs finishing this Criterium.
Next up on my schedule is the inaugural Tour of Arkansas, which starts on Thursday with a 110mile road race, featuring 11,000 ft of climbing…Ouch!