Brick City Criterium

The Brick City Criterium was earlier today; still sore from yesterday but I was ready to roll. It had the largest payout of any 3's race I had ever done; $1000, 10 places deep! Every spot down to 5th was guaranteed at least $100, let's go!!! So when I first arrived to Sanford, 2 guys I ride with back home approached me and wanted to know if I was willing to have them work for me and then split the winnings; I was down with that. So they told me to sit in the field the whole race and they would chase anything down that got away; my only duty was to stay in the field, stay safe, and get to the front with 5 to go. So the race stayed together most of the time but ultimately no one got away; so it was going to come down to a field sprint. So with 5 to go, I started moving up and found the wheel of my lead-out man, Michael Ventola. He did everything he could to keep me positioned at the front and did an awesome job. Even if we got pushed back into the field, by the time we came out of the next corner, I was back near the front. On the last lap, someone tried to take a flyer so we had to follow him. Going into turn 1, I was 5th wheel and the field flooded the front. Momentarily I was split from Ventola's wheel, there was about a 5 meter gap between us coming out of turn 2. I bridged that down the back stretch and got back to his wheel. Going into 3, the rider he was following cut him off which caused me to have to touch my brakes so another small gap opened but when I stood up I threw my real wheel but was able to control it and get ready for the sprint. I had to open my sprint coming out of turn 4. The 2 guys in front of Ventola had a gap that I was unable to close. I had a great race but just couldn't close the door. So I finished 3rd overall and won $125. Because of the work Ventola and his teammate did, which I was thoroughly grateful for, I split the money with them. I took 60 and they split the $65 between the 2 of them! 

Once again, this has been a great weekend and couldn't have done it without the support and encouragement from my friends and teammates.

Thanks,

Richard Kirby, Michael Ventola, and Mike Julio!

Tour de Moore

Well, it's 10:50 now and I have the Tour de Moore Road Race in Southern Pines in the morning and then the Brick City Criterium on Sunday in Sanford. Feeling pretty good right now, about to go to sleep and get some rest.
Race morning, up at 6:30 about to eat some breakfast with the people staying at the house; Andre, Sean, Nick, Melissa, and my parents! Still feeling pretty good, looking forward to later on!!

Well it's 9:50 now on Sunday evening and I'm back in Boone till Wednesday. I have 3 three final exams in the next 3 days so I should probably studying but I'll get around to it later. So anyway, bike racing; yesterday was the 67 mile Tour De Moore, cat 3/4 road race. Going into the race I was pretty worried about the course because of the numerous rollers it had on the actual lap which we had to do 4 times but after we got started I was feeling pretty good and decided to make goals for myself.

1. Make it to the start of the lap with the group.
2. Complete all 4 laps with the group.
3. Make it to 1k with the group.
4. Have a strong sprint finish.

Well it turned out I completed all of them with only one issue in the middle. During the race we had a breakaway get up the road and they put over 2 mins on the field and at one point I thought to myself we weren't going to see them again, but we caught them on the second lap. Then for the rest of that lap and until halfway through the fourth, and final lap, the group stayed together. Then at some point during our last lap, 2 guys attacked and got away and quickly gained an advantage. Numerous times over the last 15 miles, people tried to go to the front and pull it back but as soon as that person got tired the field sat up again, allowing the 2 guys to pull away again. The heat finally got to me with about 6 miles to go, both of Quads cramped! At the point I was in the top 1/3 of the field and then after that, I fell all the way to the back. Luckily, my teammate Mike Julio was there to tell me HTFU, (Harden the f*** up) and hang in. So I stretched up my legs and had some water. I was able to hang in so once we got to the 1k to go sign I told myself I could do this, it was going to hurt but I could do it. Coming to the sprint, although we never caught the 2 riders in the break, we were sprinting for 3rd. So with 300 meters to go, we made the final turn and the sprint opened up. At the turn I was sitting about 13th or so. As the meters ticked by, I picked off rider after rider. On the line I had moved all the way up to 2nd in the field sprint which was 4th overall. It's always nice to win $70 bucks!!
Thanks again Mike!


Myself and Appalachian State University Cycling Teammate Derek Whitecarver before the race start; he got 6th! Good job man!