The first day was a 75 mile road race on a rolling 15 mile circuit in Fork Shoals. I raced with my teammates Marcos Lazzarotto, Matthieu Jeannes, and Evan Murphy. The plan for the race was to ride smart and go for the win. In the first couple miles of the race Evan jumped into a move. That gave me the chance to sit on attacks from other riders. After Evan's move was brought back I launched my Eddy Merckx bike into the next move. This seemed to be the move of the day since Axeon, Lupus, and Jamis were represented in the split of 7 riders. I worked lightly to save energy as Axeon had two riders in the move. My Eddy Merckx bike helped me to feel fast during the break. Matthieu came across to the break with Chris Uberti from Finish Strong, a local cat 1 team. We worked well in the break, but after 2 laps Hincapie brought the move back. Evan, Marcos, and I followed some moves, but Andy Lougher got off the front with Parker Kyzer of Finish Strong. An Axeon rider also went off the front of the field. Their gap grew, and heading into 1 lap to go we made the decision to pull back the break that was 3 minutes up the road. Marcos, Matthieu, and I worked together well. It was a tough job, and with about 12 miles to go we caught the Axeon rider. There was an attack with about 7 miles to go, and the break was still at about one minute. I had to close the rest of the gap myself. My legs were screaming no, but I had Evan behind me telling me I was almost there. Evan telling me that helped me to drag back the break, but after that I was finished and rolled into the finish at the back of the group. Marcos was positioned in the group ahead of Evan. That helped Evan achieve third in a field sprint that was won by Johnny Brown of Axeon.
The second day of racing was a 60 minute crit on a tough circuit with a 20 second hill every lap. Matthieu was feeling ill from some food poisoning after camp, so it was just me, Marcos, and Evan at the crit. Marcos and I rode over to the crit in the freezing cold. My wife Sara drove over to the race, so we sat in the heat of my car with Evan until the race started. Warming up in the car helped a lot, and I attacked from the gun. My Edco wheels rolled smoothly through all the turns. Marcos countered my move, and we all followed attacks until Evan was in the break of the day with 3 other riders. After Evan was in the move we sat at the front of the group with Finish Strong to keep the pace slow and let the gap grow. We also covered attacks. When it was apparent Evan's group was not coming back, I slipped into a break with Alder Martz of ATG Cycling. I tried attacking Alder a couple times but could not ditch him. As Alder and I got the bell for one lap to go I got to watch the field sprint as Evan came second to Andy Crater by a bike throw.
It was very fun racing with my Lupus Racing Team teammates this past weekend. We worked very well together, and I look forward to racing with them more during the 2016 season. Next weekend I will be racing at the Greenville Spring Series again.
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