ToV Stage 2: Lynchburg Criterium

Tuesday afternoon we piled in the Toyota SUV and cruised on backcountry roads out to Lynchburg, VA home to Pat Robertson and his little Fundamentalismville. We got lost multiple times coming into town, but eventually, found our way to the parking lot.

It was hot, hot in downtown Lynchburg and the criterium pavement was pushing the heat into our tires. I cruised around the course a bunch of times and checked out the corners and the pavement.

The main obstacle of this course was a sharp, 90-degree left hand bend into a 50-meter power climb before another sharp left hand bend and 200 meters to the finish. There was also a nice sweeping descent into the backstretch of the course.

I received a "call up" given my placing in the TT. This helped a lot in the crit to maintain a good position.

The race started hard and was going to remain that way, given that it was only 25 laps. There were numerous ill-fated attacks at the outset of the race, but the pack was intent on absorbing anything and everything.

Before I knew it, we were at 5 laps to go. Kayle Leogrande from Rock Racing made a nice attack with 3 to go and Alejandro Barras from Rite Aid also went with 1 to go. In the end, Leogrande and Barras were both absorbed, but Barras managed to kick again for the win.

Coming into the final power climb, my teammate Mark Hardman yelled at me to "Get on his Fu#&ing wheel" which I promptly did. I was well positioned, but taken out of position when I was almost pushed to the curb on the outside. I wound up the sprint again and rolled across the line for 9th.