My wife and I drove out from SoCal to Denver to visit junior and see his 1st collegiate race - Denver City Park by DU.
This was first a visit, but having seen him in PHX last month get almost 1 min on the Cat 1 field TT, we were curious how a "real race" would turn out.
This is a beautiful venue in the middle of Denver, and it was 72-79F during the race. The field was small (30??), but the collegiate National TTT champs - CU Buffalo's were 5-6 strong and they had their crit, new domestic pro / National Champion racing. Last time/year I saw the teams race in Boulder, Air Force got them in the sprint. I doubt they cared - they won Nats, but "we" thought there would be revenge sought. Typically Collegiate As are pros to Cat 3 level (P123), so the reality of this is junior was racing about 15 guys.
The course has about 20' elevation / lap. Higher winds - 15-20mph blowing straight on on the Start/Finish. CU sent a flyer 1st lap - kinda normal, no one chased. Junior is tail gunning. N Champ goes, is reeled in quickly. Guess that happens when you got the jersey. CU sends two more and a couple others go, junior goes. 5 of them ride for 10-15 min, 20 sec off front. Junior typically was pulling about half a lap (wind at back), then is in the back into the wind by start/finish. He was pulling the most time, but easiest part (for him at least). CU starts chasing from the pack trying to bridge when they have the most in the break. I assume coach tells them not to as they stop after a couple laps. Break starts some cat an mouse with 30 min to go. Junior kicks it to 37mph (he can do that without junior gears) and holds it about 33 for a lap. They let him stay out there at around 28mph 13 laps to go (25 min). He said he went all in into the head wind each lap and soft pedaled the back side. I think he is testing them and plans to get caught, and go for sprint, that was plan B. The chase breaks up as 2 guys come real hard - 30mph+ and get almost 50 meters from junior. He sits up, looks back, decides they spent their wad, gets down and kicks it another 30+ lap. They go from a few sec behind to 20sec behind in one lap.
I might have to buy a video camera again and stop using my phone.
Photo by John Lynn (fellow cadet dad)
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