Catching Up -- Jake's Weekend in Charlottesville, Liam's 1st TT, and Bunny Hop

I missed a weekend.  Two weeks ago, I had to turn over Soigneur Dad duties to Dan Klaussen who helpfully took Jake to race the Charlottesville Omnium, with the Walton Park Crit on Saturday and the Wintergreen "Hill" Climb on Sunday.  I had to stay behind and coach Liam's little league team while Bill Porter was off running around Maryland, literally. (we won)

Jake did the Cat 4 at the Walton Crit.  We really wanted him to score some upgrade points.  Photos show he rode great, well positioned up front the whole race.  In the sprint he finished 6th, which is great.  An outstanding result, but just 1 place out of the upgrade points because there were only 39 starters.  Here are a series of photos (taken by Charlottesville Racing Club) 

Luke took 2nd in the Junior race (Jake skipped the junior race to concentrate on the Cat 4).  On Sunday Jake, Jacob, Andy and Luke spent the night at the Acorn Inn and then readied to take on the climb to Wintergreen.  You may remember I did this 6 years ago.  It's really hard, long and steep.

That's what Jake looked like running next to me 6 years ago.  This time he beat my time by 5 minutes and took 3rd in the 10-18 juniors category w/ a 40:25 time.  Jacob Slife "found his calling" and won with a 38:29.

This weekend (May 5th and 6th) Jake and Liam and I would have more fun.  On Saturday, Loren would be off to the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival with her friend Helena, from Cardif Wales, who is staying with us.  So Liam would have to come with me and Jake to the C-130 Deep Blue Time Trial.  They start out the back of a C-130 Cargo Plane.  I was also signed up, but events would interfere.

The boys and I left the house at 5AM because they give juniors the earliest possible starting times (they hate parents).  We made good time to the Air Mobility Command Museum in Dover, DE.  Liam was off at 8:34.  He would do 6 miles on his new Redline, which is actually Jake's old Redline.  He was nervous, but did great.  Here at the start (they didn't have the C-130 ready yet for them, which was a disappointment):

Here his finish: He did 21:50, which was very good.  He was 2nd (out of 2).  But he got a medal that he wore all day.


This was an impromptu "podium"

Jake raced up in age and did the 16-18 race to do longer than 6 miles.  He launched out of the C-130 at 9:03 on his brand new TT bike for 22 painful miles.  The TT bike position has some issues to work out yet.  But Jake did ok, finishing 4th behind Shane, Andy Mount, and a "boy" (18) from ABRT.  Here he waits to start after Shane (who blistered the course).

My personal credo has long been that "friends don't let friends do flat time trials," but I was hoping to at least do the race for training.  But I needed to get Liam back to Arlington in time for a 3pm little league game, so my 10:30 start time would be too late.  So I scratched (or darn).  We had a nice drive actually, stopping for lunch on the way home.

On Sunday Jake did the Cat 4 at the Bunny Hop Criterium.  I'm not a fan of this race, having crashed hard at least once and had other bad luck there in the past.  I would skip it.  The Cat 4 was the last race of the day at 4pm.  Jake, Andy F, James P, Matt C, and Jacob S would all line up as HPC's Cat 4 contingent.  Shane and Jacob Miller and parents hung around after the 123 to root them on.  Jake was very attentive and within the top 5 for the whole first half of the race.  So were Matt and James, and Andy slipped up there as well. (Some photos by Leslie Olsen)

 With 11 laps to go, Jake jumped out of the pack to take a preme (he won a book) and he just kept going, attempting a break away.  He was off the front for 2 laps.  Aiden Palmer, a jr from ABRT, was head down drilling the field into a single file to chase Jake down.  Jake didn't get any companions so his solo bid didn't last.  But then on the next preme, Matt did the same, jumping for the preme then going off the front for 2 laps.   Neither attempt stuck, but it was great to see them try and the announcer gave them a lot of credit.  Jake's effort sapped his legs for the final and he finished 24th.  Jacob did great to come from nearly dropped early on to finish 22nd.  Andy was nearly taken out in the final corner but finished upright in the field.  Matt likewise sapped from his late solo effort finished in the pack.  Here are some videos. 

 

Of course I didn't have the video camera running when Jake took his flyer.