The William and Mary Road Road race was one of several Thom Dominic has raced.
NC State Wolfpack Classic
In my first ever collegiate race, they combined us with the Pro/1/2 field, which definitely changed the tactics a bit. All the other Dukies were riding in lower categories, and I had no clue about any of the other riders. I thought I'd have a bit of an advantage as to the 24 degree temperature. They had cancelled the previous day's race due to ice, and there was still some on the course.
The combined field was unwieldy along somewhat torn up roads. Apparently a small group had got a gap from the first turn and never looked back, but the field just let them go. There was a huge team that had a guy up the road that shut everything down, and no one else seemed to have the legs or the will to chase.
The next bunch of laps involved myself and a couple others trying to string out the field on some long rollers, but we didn't make much headway until the second to last lap, when everyone started to look tired. We were able to lose a large portion of the field over the final climb of the last lap, and then splinter off the front again on the final climb before the finish.
I rolled over the line for 7th.
Wake Forest RR
My other collegiate teammates are yet moving up the ranks, so I was still racing. The day started off with a Prologue TT after arriving a bit late and nearly missing my start time.
The road race was much nicer, with some actual climbs, albeit big-ringers. The men's A field featured a lot of teams with two or more riders. I figured I really didn't want to wait around for all the attacking and counterattacking, so I went halfway through the first lap, right before one of the climbs. Over the top of the climb, 3 others managed to ride across, and so with 40 or so miles to go, we had a nice little group. We spent the next two laps hovering around a minute until the gap started going out and we thought we were home free. Unfortunately, a little chase group had managed to get off the front, and they made it across. So we were then about 10, with the next couple laps getting rid of a few more. Our gap to the field grew to 6 minutes, despite some tag-a-longs
Not wanting to wait around around to see who was fresh, I went with about 5 mi to over the top of the last climb. I figured that the guys in the break would make the two Navy guys chase as they were the ones doing the least work. I held about 20 seconds until one kilometer to go, when a William & Mary guy attacked and took the sprint with him, passing a flagging me with 500m to go. I finished 5th.
Wake Forest Crit
No teammates again on a sandy and ice-melty circuit. After 25 mins of pretty hard efforts, the winning break seemed to have formed with all the strong guys. I let it get about 10 seconds and then went after it, chased by a VT guy. I got halfway and motioned for VT guy to come around and he attacked me instead. Around the next corner, I punctured. I am happy to report the VT never got closer than 5m off the back of the winning break before blowing up.
OCS Crit
This race was a local non-collegiate race. The Duke team rode the 20 miles to the Orange County Speedway (a 600m, banked, car-racing oval) and participated various races. I elected to do my first masters (!) race as I did not have time to stick around for the pro/1/2 (which started at 2p) and ride back. The fields were composed of virtually the same riders, though, with heavy emphasis on local team triangle velo who put on the race.
With 5 triangle riders and no other teams with nay firepower, it seemed like it would be a good idea to try to get a lap up as soon as possible. So, when a triangle guy went from the line, I followed him after he got a sizeable gap. I caught him up after a lap of chasing. About a lap later, local powerhouse triangle rider parker had pulled himself and a friend along. with the other triangle riders minding the field, we came around and got our lap up in a few more go-rounds. With just myself and only triangle riders having gained a lap, it was a pretty frustrating remainder of the hour. It was pretty much triangle attacking and counterattacking me as I tried to defend my lap. Eventually they got another guy around, and then parker was able to get another lap still. By 5 minutes to go, triangle had 4 guys ahead of me on laps, then me, then the rest of the field. with all the firepower and numbers in their team, it was about all I could do. In the end, I was probably pretty lucky to have been allowed a lap up at all.
William & Mary RR
This course actually featured a 'hill.' Something you dont see too much of around here. And I actually had a Duke teammate, freshman Mike Niemi (Some of you may remember him from the Jittery Joes U23 team @ ToV last year). We were to go 7 laps for 66 miles. The first lap was a bit attacky. An American U rider managed to get away. Later, Mike and I discussed whether or not to be worried about a group of 3 others that had slipped away. The big team, Navy, now had a guy up the road. After some folks tried to light it up on the climb, the field was all attacks and counters, and the 3 were coming back into view. After I put in a failed effort, Mike came flying past and managed to bridge about 30 secs to the group as the rest of the field let him go. The next few laps were fairly boring for me as I watched the rest of the strong guys try to get away from Georgetown, Navy and myself.
Mike was well away when I managed to break a spoke. Another Mechanical! Luckily, the group had more than enough space, catching the American guy and spitting him out on the final lap. Mike took 2nd in the uphill sprint despite not having slept much the night before. I spent the ride home thinking how goog my legs felt. oh well.