First race of the Season: Jefferson Cup (USA)

I usually quite enjoy the first few races of the season. I always sit in the back, get in some race miles and go in with no expectations. I expect to get dropped as my early season form isn't usually much to write home about. Last year was a little bit of a surprise and the first couple races of the year (in the snow in France) went relatively well with a top 20 and a 6th spot, but I expect nothing, and that can be nice at times. It's basically just training.


This year however I am kicking off the season with a spot of US racing. My first race was to be the Jefferson Cup, a litte local race in Vriginia that I had done a couple times as a Junior way back when I was a mountain biker. I had been told this was the Milan-San-Remo/the Grand Prix Montastruc of the Mid-Atlantic. The start list looked impressive with a few names I actually vaguely knew and a couple Pro teams. So I wasn't expecting anything on the day. Add the fact that the course was nothing but short sharp hills, and that it was pretty windy... and the race was looking decidedly "northern". That's the kind of race I suck at, power hills and wind and I just don't get along.

The race started off quite strangely. It was very stop-and-go, the rhythm was all over the place and for the first 30+km it never really got going. We seemed to be pootling along waiting for something to happen. After about 40 odd KM things started to liven up a little bit and, seeing as I wasn't feeling TOO bad I popped up to the front and had a look at what was going on. There were a few attacks off the front but none of them sincere. It was really frustrating to see people half-heartedly attacking and not going anywhere. We were in a perpetual state of "just about to attack" all the time, with nothing real ever coming out of it, and no one really believing in their actions. The opportunities were there for a group to form off the front, but no one committed. The racing was frankly soft. Everyone raced defensively and no one grabbed the bull by the horns and got on with it. There were some teams who had a bunch of riders in the field. And I believe that the Richmond Pro Cycling team actually have a couple guys who have spent some time in Belgium. Why either Richmond, Kelly or Harley Davidson cycling team didn't just get to the front, wind it up on a hill, put everyone in the gutter with the cross-winds, nail it over the top, line us all out, hit us right and left and split the entire field apart still baffles me. Some guys were using defensive "tactics" of having a guy on the front with one of their team-mates sitting about 5 or 6 guys back, then they'd let a gap open presumably to try and let the 6 or so guys get off the front... but that can only work if you've had the whole race in single file for a while and have started to hurt people. As it was there were 100 guys sitting easily behind them and any one of those 100 guys could close the gap easily. In the fast 40k or so, a few guys did seem to pick some good spots to attack and kept going at it, it got pretty hard a time and I started to suffer a little bit, but it still wasn't a long hard effort.

Taking a feed durring the 120k Jefferson Cup

What surprised me more however was the amount of wobbling going on in the field. For a race of that level there seemed to be a lot of "hubbards" out there. Guys were all over the road. We were braking going downhill, and braking going uphill. Guys didn't seem able to judge speed at all and would shoot up into spots in the field and SLAM on the brakes. At one moment, I was going round a corner, alone on the front, and some kid rode straight into me for no reason what so ever. The only reason imaginable is very poor bike handling skills. This all obviously led to the typical US racing mass crash with 5 or 6k to go. This was absolutely shocking! For no reason at all, people where all over the place and half the field went down. Crashes are a part of racing, but this was without rhyme or reason.

On the approach to the finish, I thought I might actually take part in the sprint. The headwind and slightly uphill finish I figured might actually be ok for someone with appalling sprinting skills like myself... but once again there were riders all over the road on the approach to the line, so I ambled across the line. That being said I was somehow in 14th place, which isn't bad at all.

Crossing the line in 14th spot

I caught up with a couple of Aussies on Team Type 1 after the race and they seemed a little baffled by it all as well, so it's not just me.

I've found it hard to come to any kind of conclusion after that race. I'm not sure where my fitness is. In an early season race like that one I should really have been struggling and I should have been dropped. I'm not too sure what to think of the style of racing and safety of the next few races I'll be doing over here. I guess we'll see. The positive side of all this is: and there are quite a few positive sides... I don't ONLY complain!

1) I guess my fitness isn't TOO shocking
2) I got some race miles into the legs
3) It was really really good to race with my old Teammate from France and good friend John Parks again. John pulled on the Casel/Bouygues kit as well and it was a bit like the good old days of racing together back in France.
4) I got to race along side Chris "I beat Tyler Hamilton in a stage race" Hayes again. I didn't see too much of Hayes on the day, which was a bit of a shame because the guy has more international racing experience and class in one back pocket of his racing jersey than the rest of us all put together.

John Parks and I joined forces once again, only this time on the other side of the Atlantic

Last, but not least, thank you to Warrenton Cycling Center for getting me a rideable bike after my Cannondale cracked when I got back from Australia. The bike is a very nice looking Specialized Tarmac. Thanks Tim/WCC!!!!

The Warrenton Cycling Center got me on this great new Specialized bike!!!

You can find race results for the Jerfferson Cup at Gam Jams ( www.gamjams.net )