NVGP Thoughts and a Whole Lotta Awesome

Nature Valley was a blast. My teammates were great, and we had awesome support from mechanics, coaches, a massage therapist, hosts, etc. It was so relaxing to have folks taking care of all the things that create stress in races. In my first stage race, I realized how many details need to be worked out and learned a lot logistically for future races. Having a team at the big stage races looks to be critical.

As far as racing went, there were ups and downs. Namely one big down--Wed night's crit. I started the week with a respectable TT, placing around 62nd. That night we had a6-corner crit that exploded the field. It ended up being one of the more selective races for whatever reason. It was my worst race ever. I got a quick schooling in cornering. I was getting gapped every single corner and having to do standing sprints to grab wheels again. After about 10 laps of this, I started to fall apart. I was hanging on for the most part, but then I sent my bike into a curb. I was fine, but I quickly dropped off the back. I made the time cut at 50% of the race, but they slapped me with a HUGE 25min time gap. There was absolutely no uniformity in USAC's time assignments through the week, but I'll leave it at that. So, on my first day, my GC hopes were more or less shot.

I had some good races throughout the week with a placing in the 40s in the Cannon Falls RR and a 42nd finish in the infamous Stillwater Crit. I was pretty stoked to find that my legs still worked after 5 days of racing in my first stage race. My favorite race was probably Cannon Falls or Stillwater. The stage I was looking forward to, Menomonie RR, was kind of a dud after our team missed the major split that effectively ended the race for the field. Cannon Falls was a relatively short RR at 65mi that ended with ashort gravel section and a hellish concrete descent into downtown circuits. I got in some early moves that got shut down before they started, I climbed well, and I managed to actually pass people on the finishing circuits! Stillwater was nuts! The big climb popped me with 3 laps to go, but I recovered quickly and hung on to finish in 42nd <3min down from Sutherland. The hardest part of the race was that there was no recovery between the main climb and another little riser before the descent. It was brutal, but it was awesome. My dude Tim Rugg put in a huge dig about halfway through the race and hung on until 2 laps to go! He ripped it hard and got the most aggressive jersey for his efforts. We were all stoked for him.

I learned an absurd amount in the 5 days of racing. I need to work on cornering and being aggressive. In the past, I've been an aggressive racer, but those were local races where being aggressive simply means attacking and getting in moves. In NRC races, being aggressive also means simply bombing into corners and physically pushing your way to the front. I need to work on that aspect of things. I struggled to stay at the front of the race when it mattered.

My overall takeaway is that I feel like I belong, but I have some skills and tactics to work on. I also need to get more volume in during the off-season and get legitimate interval work in. I'm going to rest a bit before ramping up for the Cascade Classic. I'm incredibly excited for a race with big climbs and only one crit. It also happens to take place in a pretty spectacular location! I'll be packing up all my stuff in Richmond and moving back to Seattle in July as well. It's going to be a crazy few weeks, but I'm very excited for this new chapter where I can focus on riding my bike for a while!