Crossroad Cycling Classic

by Tim Henry (West Virginia)
July 23-24, 2003

The five days of crits in Charlotte are a great set of races. The courses are tight, the field is fast, and the money is good. My teammate Scottie Weiss raced at the first race on Wednesday night and won. I showed up with my teammate Robbie Yost on Thursday to help Scottie out. Scottie is riding so strong he almost did not need us but I am sure he appreciated the help. 
Early on in the race a break of about 10 got away including me and Scottie and two Fairway riders (these guys are our biggest competition at these races). Eventually the break got wittled down to five including Scottie, me, the two Fairway riders, and a Krystals rider. Finally Scottie lapped the field with the Fairway riders. I sat up to keep the other rider from 
catching on and we were later caught by the pack. With three laps to go I moved to the front to lead Scottie out. I pulled my hardest for two and a half laps at full speed until I could not go any more. Scottie took over on the back side and kept up such a high pace that no one could come around and gave the team it's second victory in as many days. Friday's crit was 
on a somewhat dark L-shaped course. I did not warm up well and suffered a great deal for the first ten laps or so. Robbie kept the pace up until Scottie got to the front and took over. I chased down moves when I could to help Scottie out and nothing was getting away this time. About halfway through the race Robbie went down hard in a tight turn but he got away with only road rash, albeit a lot of road rash. With four laps to go I moved up. I almost took Scottie out when I came up on him in a corner but we made it through ok. I was forced to take the lead by two Krystal riders who were leading out a teammate. So I pulled as hard as I could for a little over a lap and pulled off with two to go and left it up to the Krystal riders to keep the pace up. Scottie once again showed his dominance by taking the field sprint and the third win in a row. This was 
the last race of the crit series for us because we are heading up to Altoona, Pennsylvania for the Tour de 'Toona, a six day stage race over some big mountains. This will be a suffer fest for me but the idea is to gain experience in a bigger stage race. Tomorrow evening is the prologue TT. Updates will come throughout the week. Thanks for reading,
Tim