The next stop for Lupus Racing Team on the USA Cycling Pro Road Tour is Fayetteville, Arkansas for the Joe Martin Stage Race, a four day UCI stage race on the America Tour. A 3 mile Time Trial, two 100+ mile road races, and a 90 minute criterium make up the racing on tap for the weekend. While Fayetteville seems like an unusual place for a big bike race, and in reality it sort of is, the roads actually offer some great riding with nice views and the town itself has some pretty good eats. It's a significantly different team this week as I haven't raced with 4 of the 7 guys. A great opportunity to play a different role on the team and get to know and race with a different set of guys. It's going to be a good week.
The Squad:
Barry Miller - Instagram - Twitter
Evan Murphy - Instagram - Twitter
Jonah Mead Van-Court - Instagram - Twitter
Mike Olheiser - Instagram - Twitter
Oliver Flautt - Instagram - Twitter
Winston David - Instagram - Twitter
The Squad:
Barry Miller - Instagram - Twitter
Evan Murphy - Instagram - Twitter
Jonah Mead Van-Court - Instagram - Twitter
Mike Olheiser - Instagram - Twitter
Oliver Flautt - Instagram - Twitter
Winston David - Instagram - Twitter
Time Trial
A new time trial at JMSR this year, 4.75km up the twisty side of Devil's Den. About 2.7km provide an undulating climb before a brief flat section and a big descent into the 1km to go sign, from there a steady drag of 3-4% to the finish. Efforts were expected to be 9-10 minutes and were going to hurt a lot. My TT went off without a hitch, legs felt good and the climb went well. I caught my 30s man and punched it over the top and spent my last bit of energy to get going for the descent, buttttttt... Turns out it rolls over the top a lot more than I noticed yesterday and I was gased waiting for the descent were I could get on the top tube and rest. Finally the true descent came, I got my "rest" and I smashed the last K leaving it all out there. As I finished and turned back down the hill the blood taste you get after a hard effort came flooding in and the TT cough came on. Prologue TTs are so nasty, when is that 48km nats TT? I finished as well as I could, in 17th, +:37 down on winner Janier Acevedo (Jamis). I wish I could be mixing it up more, but this is were I think I fit (for now). I have to be content with where I am, but I want more for sure. The rest of the guys hurt as much as I did and had a fine day.
Mike Olheiser +:38 (21st)
Evan Murphy +:52 (44th)
Winston David +1:09
Barry Miller +1:20
Oliver Flautt +1:23
Jonah Mead Van-Court +1:46
Mike Olheiser +:38 (21st)
Evan Murphy +:52 (44th)
Winston David +1:09
Barry Miller +1:20
Oliver Flautt +1:23
Jonah Mead Van-Court +1:46
Stage 2: 110 Mile RR
Today was a solid day for the team. Mike, Oliver, and I were on break patrol for today's stage. I covered early moves like crazy for the first 45 minutes or so, I had to rest and Oliver and Mike began covering. Olheiser covered two moves and got in the break. Perfect, just what we needed. The break swelled to 20-25 guys, so would have been nice to have one more teammate there but I was gassed and Oliver just wasn't in right place right time. With Mike up there we were still in a good spot. Usually when the break goes some control is brought to the peloton, but it didn't happen today. No one took control and everyone seemed to want to get another teammate up the road (even though almost EVERYONE was represented). Hincapie drove a couple of the hills super hard splintering the peloton, but then it would ease off and nothing interesting happened. I was in a weird move with all the GC contenders and some good sprinters, but that got brought back as well. Eventually people must have gotten tired and realize with the break 5:00 up the rode they couldn't get across. Somewhere during the relaxed period we passed a school bus full of kids sticking their hand out the window, a quick run through of hi-fives might have been the highlight of the ride. There is a big 15km climb at 120km that can be hard but we rode up relatively easily. As we crested the top UHC, Silber, Elbowz and a couple others went to the front for the downhill 40km to the finish and the gap to the break that was 5:00 started coming down fast. We caught Mike with 4km to go but 3 guys remained, the field kept rolling hard toward the finish.
With 1.2km to go there is a quick left/right then two rolling hills and a right hand turn into the finish. The plan was to watch for a late break or to make sure Evan was leading or right there going into the left/right. If you're 10th wheel, the race is over, it truly is a race for that turn. As the turn got close it was super hectic but Winston was near me and I yelled for him to go through a small gap. He rode awesome and we picked up Evan and rode all out to the corner, we came up a little short as I ran out of gas 100m from the corner, but Evan still went into the corner 3rd, smashed the climb and hopped on the Silber train to the finish. The 3 guys left over from the break made it to the finish with 2s to spare and Evan ended up 6th. A nice ride. I got caught in a small crash (not a scratch on myself) in the L/R and lost some time on GC. The 3km rule was in affect and I should have waited, flagged an official, and made sure I got same time, but instead I just got up and left for the finish line, if I would have done the right thing I'd be 9th on GC right now. Still have lots to learn this year, I'll keep that in mind next time. That being said, I wasn't here to ride GC or protect 17th place, we're hear to win or podium a stage and the team did their job today and we gave the win a good crack. The other guys covered moves, got bottles, and helped position further out from the critical turns. It was a really solid day. When it comes together Evan can podium for sure and have a good shot at the win. It's close. We rode to the plan and executed, little things to work on for sure and 6th isn't a win or podium, but it's right there. It will come.
Stage 3 - 109 Mile RR
Stage 3 was the harder of the two long road race days with 4 loops of a 23 mile course with a solid climb and fast run in back to the finishing town. Myself, Winston, and Oliver were on official break duty with others covering. After going nuts trying to get in the break yesterday I tried to use my brain today and wait for a descent move. I stayed close to the front at the beginning but let the group mold splits as the speed stayed fast out of town and toward the loop. Once on the loop course we went up the hill and I got in two small moves, one that might have had a chance, but got brought back across the plateau over the top of the climb. As we headed back down and toward the valley it was clear the big teams wanted to let something go. With one guy up the road I followed the next wheel as the field sat up, the speed was still high but I thought we were good. Unfortunately some smaller teams really wanted to be in the break and after 15 minutes of hard effort we got caught just before going up the climb again, the break was sure to go but I wasn't covering much. I stayed close and tried but a group rolled with us in it. Fortunately Barry grabbed a late wheel and made sure we had representation.
The next laps cruised by with Silber keeping the break on a short leash as virtual yellow was up the road in the break. It was a steady effort, not super hard, but steady and kept the peloton spread out. We waited for the finish and specifically the flurry of attacks that might occur going up the climb the last time, about 40km from the finish. I was positioned and ready for the attacks at the base of the climb when my front wheel flatted, Oliver swapped me wheels, but I was still left in the dust as the caravan was held up (barraged) as people got popped off the back. I was able to get back on as the attacks expected never occurred on the climb, I think everyone was getting tired. Unfortunately Oliver never made it back. After the climb the speed was super fast as we raced to the finish and the break was caught right over the crest of the climb.
Mike, Winston, Evan, and I were together and focused on repeating the effort of yesterday. The high speed often upwards of 60kph made it difficult to stay together and stay out of the wind. I was following Evan with Mike floating around until about 8km to go when Evan squeezed a tiny gap to get on Sebastian Haedo's wheel (Jamis), a great spot to be. I had to stay relaxed, deal with the madness, and move forward as efficiently as possible. There was still plenty of time, I kept moving forward and as we raced in to town I got close to Evan. As we hit the 3km to go mark we went through two quick turns (right then left) a crash on the left gave me room to the right and cleared things out a bit. I was moving toward Evan and waiting as late as possible to give him some help and good positioning for the S-bend that led into the final right hand corner.
As we raced toward that S-bend something ahead of me happened and I had just enough time to clearly think I was going to hit the ground hard going 55kph. Over the bars I went in a group of 10-15 riders, when the tumbling stopped there were riders over the road and in the ditch to the right. What I was most worried about were my Oakley's laying on the ground, please don't run over them riders coming through! The Oakley's and I were fine with only minor scrapes and a torn up jersey to deal with. That left Evan completely alone and shortly after he got shoved in to the grass and settled for 11th. It wasn't a good day, I was too far back and shouldn't be in the madness if I was closer to the front where I needed to be. We need to do better. The day finished late and I woke up like I got hit by a truck but I got out with Oliver and Mike for a little pre-criterium pastry, coffee, and bike path spin to help me wake up and feel ready to go. I was again lucky that besides a new jersey and new helmet am no worse for the wear.
Stage 4 - Downtown Criterium
The last day brought a hard 1.2 mile loop in downtown Fayetteville for an 85 minute criterium. For those from Virginia, it's really similar to the page county crit. A big finish line climb wears you out and the 8 corners keep things strung out with limited options to move around the field. The race was fairly boring for a while, a break went which we missed, but UHC went to the front to control things. The pace actually seemed to settle at that point but all of a sudden the course wore on people and gaps were opened and had to be covered. I was caught out with about 6 laps to go and thought my race was over, we were able to pull it back together but Evan and Mike had to close one to many gaps and were popped off. In the final laps I kept moving up 10 riders up the hill and still ended up in dead last by the descent, the field was unraveling. Going in to the last lap there was a crash in the first turn that I just missed but the deviation to get around created a split to 6 guys with UHC driving it full gas, I couldn't get there and came in with the 15 or so guys left, finishing 12th. It wasn't a good day, we weren't active, together, or influencing the race. In the end only 30 guys finished within 1:00 of the winner. Tough day.
Onward
After the crit I went for a little ride to enjoy some of the cool Arkansas roads and see some of the scenery I missed while racing. As the sun was setting not the day and the race it was nice to enjoy some easy riding and beautiful scenery. From here it's back to Roanoke for a couple days before turning around and heading to Silver City, NM for The Tour of the Gila, a 5 day UCI 2.2 Stage Race. It'll be filled with some big climbs, a long 16.5 mile TT, and another chance to race, learn, and get a big result. Looking forward to it.