Hendersonville Crit

Yesterday I raced the Hendersonville Historic 7th Avenue Crit in Hendersonville, North Carolina. This tight flat and half mile course featured 2 90 degree turns from the start with the second turn being tight and into a little false flat uphill and a false flat downhill into the fast final 2 turns, which could be taken as one turn. Finish Strong had 7 riders represented at the race, and Mac Brennan of Hincapie was there as well. I was not the strongest crit rider at the race, so I was looking at them to control the 50 minute race. I started about 20-30 riders back because I figured people would mark me and I would waste matches by attacking early. For the first 15 minutes I just sat in and let other riders burn their own matches covering attacks. This meant Parker Kyzer of Finish Strong sailed off the front and out of sight with a roughly 30 second maximum advantage. It soon became clear for me we were no longer racing for the win and Mac Brennan of Hincapie was setting pace at the front. I began to help him by switching off one to two lap pulls and Parker gradually crept back into sight. I noticed that turn two was faster and easier in first wheel, so I decided to stay at the front from here on out. Finish Strong would place three riders between Mac and me sometimes to disrupt the chase, but I had my eye on the prize. I kept telling myself "I am racing for the win" and didn't let the small distractions get me sidetracked. We finally pulled Parker back with about 15 laps to go and gaps started opening as I was at the front. Throughout this chaos I found myself off the front of the group with Chris Uberti and Johnny Mitchell of Finish Strong. The gap was small at first, so I drove it to get away from the peloton. They wouldn't work with me because they had Ben Renkema, the best sprinter in the race, sitting back in the bunch. I felt good and figured I was at minimum getting a podium if we stayed away. Another thing I told myself was that I was putting in a good threshold workout. These thoughts helped me drive the pace for pretty much the remainder of the race as our gap back to the field grew larger and larger. With about 6 laps to go Johnny jumped and I was on that move like glue. With about 2 or 2.5 laps to go Chris put in a heroic attack that I clawed back at 1.5 laps to go. From here I launched my final surge for the line, sprinting out of every turn. Chris whizzed by me with about 50 meters to go, so I ended up taking a hard-fought second place. I am pleased with my ride and would like to congratulate Chris and Finish Strong on racing smart and taking the win. Thanks Crosstown Velo for putting on a great event. Next up for me is the Crossroads Cycling Classic in the Greensboro/ Winston Salem area of North Carolina.