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SEASON ALREADY A SUCCESS: GRAYSON CHURCH'S 2010 SUMMARY
5/26/2010
Grayson Church of D.C.'s Bike Rack Cycling Team has had a solid start to his 2010 season... Aside from placing 2nd in the area's biggest early-season road race (and his first peak), he's already reached his goal for the year, acquiring enough upgrade points for a Cat-3 license... Here are some of the highlights of his year thus far...
CHURCH 2nd at TOP OF THE HILL ROAD RACE
Grayson Church of the Bike Rack Cycling Team snared a great early-season result, nailing 2nd at the Top of the Hill Road Race! Midway into the race, Grayson was doing a pull up a climb and there was a vicious attack from behind, and Grayson had to give it everything to latch on. He noted that was the hardest part of the day…
On the final climb, Grayson’s goal was just to be with the leaders going over. It was a hard climb, and coming over, the group was whittled to just five… Grayson was boxed in on the side of the road going into the sprint, but once he launched, he was able to jump through the group and close on 1st place, just ran out of pavement… HUGE day, great ride…
CHURCH 4th at FARMERSVILLE ROAD RACE, 5th at SOYOCO
At the Farmersville Road Race in Pennsylvania, Grayson Church of The Bike Rack Cycling Team scored a solid 4th place. The course was full of rollers, and the first lap was fairly uneventful. On the second lap, as predicted, one of the Kelly guys rolled of the front with a couple riders in tow. Grayson was sitting 15th wheel and launched and buried himself to bridge. He made it, immediately dropping one of the guys in the break, and the field caught them after 7 minutes.
The next few laps were uneventful. Some surges and the few moves were chased down by the larger teams. The second-to-last lap was painfully slow. Grayson was marking a strong rider he thought was going to attack, and he did! Grayson a few others jump with him, and Grayson thought this was the move, but the other guys faded quickly and the group caught them.
Coming into the final 2k, some rider attacked and the strong Kelly guys ramped up the chase, stringing the whole field out. Grayson made sure to sit 5-7th wheel and get a free ride. They hit the final corner and everyone jumps, 300-350m to the line at that point. Grayson threw down some gas, grabbed a wheel, waited a second, saw a clean line, then jumped, passed 4-5 fading riders in the final 100m. 4th place. Not too shabby for a non-sprinter!
At the Soyoco Road Race, Grayson took a solid 5th. Here is his race report:
“On the 2nd lap of 10, guy takes off. He's rocking 404s, but in the CAT 4/5s you never know if a guy like that is legit or just has money to burn (turned out to be the former). Group of five forms, and I hesitate for 15-20 on what to do. I was pretty sure it was too early for anything to stick, so I sat in and waited. They built about 30 seconds fairly quickly and that's where it more or less stayed. Me and a few other guys tried to start working a rotation to bring it back a few laps later, but there were only three of us really putting in any effort, so it went nowhere.
“Three of the five did end up coming back to the group, but two stayed out there. I talked with the winner (guy w/ the Zipps) post- race. Long-time tri/TT dude, fairly new to racing. Damn. Would have been good intel to have before race started. Anyway, every trip up the short climb, I was taking stock of who was strong. Came down to the final K, and typical swarming action starts. I battle to stay on the font, probably staying in the wind a bit too much here, then a guy attacks, I chase him down with a guy on my wheel. We're at the climb and it's the three of us. Guy who rode my wheel got a pretty good gap, and I was a bit too gassed to come around the dude who'd initiated attack. 5th place.”
GRAYSON 2nd at EPIC POOLESVILLE ROAD RACE
Here is Grayson's race diary:
"Took a flier early on. Concentrated on trying to push upper tempo/LT numbers and hammering around turns when I was out of sight from the bunch. After a good amount of time, the moto ref comes back to me and says, '22 seconds.' I ain't gonna lie, I had delusions of grandeur at this point, but was really trying to parse my efforts and just stay on top of the gears. Going hard, but making sure not to blow up. 20 miles solo seemed improbable...but for awhile, I thought I just might be able to do it.
"Entered the gravel for the 3rd time still with 20 seconds or so. Was sure I could take some time so concentrated on putting out the watts. Oddly, approaching the end of the gravel, I started hearing folks behind me. Thought maybe it was some guys bridging (which would have been perfect) but it was the entire field. Crap. Not sure how I lost so much time over so little distance, but I did.
"Anyway, after the catch, I sat in and rested. Settled in to what I thought was mid-pack only to hear the moto ref. Was sure he was just coming around to bark at some yellow line violators. He wasn't. The field was down to maybe 25-30 dudes.
"Then they neutralized us for 5 minutes for some unknown reason. Thought we were catching the women's field. Kind of sucks because the field was splintering in two at that precise moment. And a handful of guys re-attached, but they all looked pretty cooked so I wasn't too worried about them being there at the end.
"We start the final lap and my teammate rolls up to me and asks if I still got something in the tank. I said something to the effect of, 'Yeah...I do.' To be honest, I wasn't sure how I was gonna play my card(s?), but I was still in the rear with the gear coming out of the gravel. Not struggling, just not working to move up. That's when I started recognizing that a lot of folks were in serious trouble. Gaps would just start opening up here and there and dudes would struggle to close them. I thought, 'Dude, you gotta get up there 'cause you're not gonna sprint from 20th to 1st and these guys back here are dying!'
"So I took the inside track as we started weaving around the backside of the course, moving up pretty smoothly approaching the final little hill. The pace was pretty crazy at that point, folks all over up front just mixing it up, couple of my teammates marking moves, etc... Guys swarming all over, covering folks' attempts to get away. But a ton of folks were all over their bikes, even over small rollers. I felt comfortable and in control. Hurting a bit, but nowhere near my limit.
"Anyway, we hit that last hill that leads into a long false flat about 3k to the finish and one of my teammates drops der friggin hammer, stringing things out perfectly. The elastic was stretched extremely thin and I was able to gain 10 spots there alone with ease.
"It was single file when we hit the long false flat. I was sitting somewhere around 8th wheel at that point, trying to pick my spot where to launch. I was going to give it a go. I could see the strong Kelly dude, a GamJams guy and a Carytown guy, followed by a couple NCVC and two other guys.
"Suddenly, the GamJams guy goes to the front and guns it, rolling off with Kelly and Carytown in tow. The two NCVC dudes just fold. The two guys behind them jump around to try to catch on but implode after maybe three pedal strokes. Holy shit. I had to get across NOW. So I jumped around all of them...and absolutely buried myself. In hindsight, quite frankly, it was tough to latch on, but I did so without ever really being nervous that I wouldn't. The strength was there.
"Once attached, I looked back and the gap was substantial (later reports noted that the pack just disintegrated into 4 separate groups). So it was the 4 of us with 2k to go, motoring away from the remnants. I let everyone know we were away and we all just kept the foot on the gas. We hit the left to go to the start/finish (4-500m) and the GamJams guy goes for it with the Kelly dude on his wheel. I'm fourth wheel behind Carytown. Carytown jumps to the inside, I jump to the outside and we fly by GamJams and Kelly. It's one-on-one. I dug deep, but he was the better man today. Reports from friends who witnessed the finish said I was closing on him...not sure. Was a bike length and a half or so at the line. So. Damn. Close.
"Only regret is that I should have acted instead of reacted at the final sprint. Maybe just attempted a bullet and spun it out as much as possible. If I had half of a decent sprint I think I could have done it. That or I should have recruited some dudes before my break effort on the 2nd lap. But all things considered, I'm pretty happy. The end of that race (the final 5k or so) was simply a beautiful experience, the kind of moment/feeling you wish you could bottle and sip another time. I owe it to all of your help. Many thanks, Ken."
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