by Bryan Holloway, Team Cycleworks
this past weekend brought gorgeous weather to the southeast. perfect weather for riding.
March 8th, 2003. Greenville Spring Training Series race #5 - Dividing
Waters, Cat IV
saturday morning, with the team, we traveled to the mountains just north of Greenville, SC, not far from Brevard, NC. i had never seen the Dividing
Waters course before, but heard it had a big climb. the flyer said "Hill Top Finish", and that's always a daunting sign. the route was an 8 mile loop that started/ended with a brutal, long, steep hors categorie climb of
pain. the back side of the climb was an awesome, fast descent. and there was another less-steep gradual hill on the back side of the loop, which also included a fast descent. and then a couple miles of flats and one 90 degree turn to bring us back to the climb of pain. our cat 4 race would do the loop 6 times for a total of 48 miles. we had about 60 riders in our field.
the race kicked off at noon with a neutral start. one guy decided the neutral start would be a good place to attack. it wasn't long before he opened up a huge lead on the
soft-pedaling peloton, and brought much derision upon himself from the race official. then everyone laughed at him and he returned to the field.
once we descended the back side of that climb, they lifted the neutral start and the race was on. and it was fast! no one seemed to be concerned that there were 47 miles and 6 brutal climbs to go. well, around and around that loop we went, and it quickly became a race of attrition. simply a fight for survival up that hill. within 2 or 3 laps, over half the field had been shelled. with each successive loop, another one or two would get dropped. about mid-way into the race, eric pulled up alongside and said, "uh, i think it's just you and me!" (from our team). doh! by the final lap, the field had dwindled to only 20. i was just happy i was still hanging with the pack.
as we approached the base of the final climb, i was ready. i still felt pretty good and thought i had one more climb left in my legs. i was wrong. as the road turned skyward, both my legs
seized up with cramps. uh-oh. it was bad. sorry, dude. you're done! the pack sped away, and it was all i could do to keep
pedaling with those cramps, and drag my dead carcass to
the summit. i seriously thought, after all that, i was going to fall over in the middle of the road and get a DNF 100 yards from the finish line.
well, eventually, i did make it across the line, after all. as soon as i crossed the finish, i hobbled off the bike and layed down in the ditch on the side of the road, massaging my legs, until the cramps went away. i took 20th. eric got 16th.
all in all, it was one of the most thrilling, brutal and fun races i've ever done. it was awesome.
March 9th, 2003. Greenville Spring Training Series race #6 - Donaldson
Center, Cat IV
the next day came another race at the Donaldson Center. flat as a pancake, compared to the day before. this time, the cat 4s would do 6 laps for 42 miles total. again, we had about 60 riders in our field. did these guys not race the day before? it was like everyone had fresh legs, because it was fast! my legs were heavy from racing the day before, and i spent the entire race just hanging onto the back of the pack, trying to not get dropped. on the final lap, i worked my way up in an effort to
lead-out my teammates for the sprint. but my lead-out was pretty weak, and two teammates got 7th and 10th. i wound up placing 18th.
i'm just glad i didn't crash. there were two huge crashes in our race on the final stretch to the finish. i was behind both but to the side, so i managed to dodge them. it was like someone exploded a bomb right in the middle of the peloton. one second, everyone's cruising along fine, and the next second, pow! a huge tangled mass of bodies and bikes and the sickening
sound of crunching metal bike parts. that first crash was huge, it must have taken out about 10 guys. one of my teammates, james, went down. fortunately, he was ok. he and his bike were just a little banged up. there were plenty of taco'd ksyriums!