Greenbelt Training Series: Pt. Deux

Week two of the Greenbelt Training Series and while we just missed taking home the win in the C race the Union had a plan, executed and turned out excellent results. We had three riders this week in the starting field of 26 and managed two top fives and a 12th for myself. Jeff, Chris and I entered the race with a plan and while it was not executed to perfection 2nd and fifth was an obvious sign of some success.

My lead out at the final hill before the finish absolutely took the pack by surprise and created some excellent separation, unfortunately that separation was between Chris and my own wheel so I waited a bit to pick him back up and when I drilled it again we once again created the necessary separation though we pulled along the unattached rider that won as well. I pulled for a bit and got some great separation for the two following riders before peeling off and basically sitting up in front of the remaining pack to slow them as much as possible.

Unfortunately Chris ended up pulling the 1st place rider up to the sprint where the fresher legs prevailed. Holding off the rest of the pack however Chris’ effort put him in a very strong second place and Jeff’s chase with the pack put him in 5th. Ideally the two riders following me should have been Chris and Jeff but the dynamics of the pack when we wanted to go were not conducive to getting organized and we probably started to try to do so too late. Next week we have some more ideas of what to do and hopefully we’ll have at least the three of us back out there again. Hey Roy, where you at? Union representing with all four Cat 5 riders next week?
Congrats to Curtis out of HoCo MD who rode a strong and smart race for the win, even if he did steal our team’s hard work…