Stars and Bars!

Collegiate Nationals was this past weekend in Madison Wisconsin, with a Road race, Crit, and a Team Time Trial. We arrived in Madison Wednesday afternoon with sunshine and wind. We just settled in and relaxed the rest of the day. Thursday we drove the TTT course to check it out and see what we were up against. Rolling hills and narrow roads, an out and back about 19 miles long. Then we drove to the RR course to pre ride it, We got a little lost riding it but got most of the course down. Friday morning was an early day for us, we started at 8:40 am and it was about a 45 min drive from where we were staying. It was raining and about 40 degrees out so it was pretty cold. We started with a one mile neutral roll out on a downhill, pretty sketchy. The course was short steep climbs with the last climb long and gradual and was a real leg burner. To make it short Pat made a move with a couple of other guys that stuck right of the bat. Rich bridged up to the group and Pat was spent and extremely cold so had to drop out. Richard ended up 3rd and I got 21st, I had nothing left on the last climb, kind of disappointed with that. Conor had to drop early on due to a broken shifter.
Saturday afternoon was the crit downtown around the capitol. It was a pretty straight forward crit, a big square. We knew we had to be in every move of the day and try to set rich up for the sprint in the end. Throughout the whole race we did not miss a move and were riding really well together. With about 10 laps to go there was a guy dangling off the front of the group, so with about eight laps to go all four of us moved to the front. Conor, Patrick and I were rotating through on the front to pull this guy back as rich sat fourth wheel to stay fresh for the sprint. With about five laps to go we caught the guy off the front and then picked up the speed just a little bit. No one dared come around us or try to attack, we were controlling the race! With one lap to go I gave it everything and pulled off for the guys to finish it off. Conor pulled to about half a lap to go then Pat took Rich to the last corner then Richard gave it everything and won the race by three bike lengths. It was a great feeling knowing I did everything I could during the race to help him win the race and now he is the National Champion. It was textbook racing.

After the crit

The next morning was the TTT, we all had all the aero equipment we could get our hands on. We had a really good warm up on the trainers and all were feeling pretty good going into the start. Right of the start you took a sharp right turn straight into an uphill. We got our speed up quick and kept it that way throughout the race. We were communicating and rotating very smoothly. It was a really hard 19 mile TTT. We ended up taking the Win by over 20 sec. I am so excited we are team time trial national champions! We road great together all year and it paid off getting the stars and bars I have been missing for the last couple of years.

Start




Pre made national jerseys(pretty sick)

Now it is finals week and I have three more to go, then it is off to St George Utah with Kenny to go watch his triathlon and eat some In N out of course. Then we will head back to Denver for a few days then it is off to Boise Idaho for the summer racing for Team Exergy. Can’t wait for the things to come.