Stony Point Circuit Race -- Podium Time

There, I gave away the end in the title.  Sunday, after much discussion with Jake and with Coach Sue (Hefler), we opted to pass on the 15-18 junior Bike Jam race in Baltimore and instead go to the Stony Point Circuit Race in Richmond and do the men's Cat 4 race.  When we got there, we saw that Jake's HPC teammate, Avery Wilson, was in the Cat 3 race.  It was cut short because of a crash but Avery scored a 10th.

The Stony Point course was cool, a multi-turned 1.3 mile circuit with a good hill coming up from a turn and then into the finishing straight.  Swirling winds added to the challenge.  They would do 30 miles.  This was going to be a hard race which should suit Jake.

Jake and I lined up for the Cat 4 race with 42 others at noon.  Liam made the trip with us and he would man the video camera, so, yes, you're going to see some video (he took 2 videos per lap).

The race was put on by Richmond Velo Sport and one of their guys, Jimmy Picard, a former college cross country runner, has won 3 straight Cat 4 races, in convincing fashion, including riding away from the Cat 4s at Morgantown RR and catching and passing most of the Cat 3 field that had started 5 minutes earlier.  I told Jake that he needed to mark Jimmy and pointed him out before the race.  With the hill and a very large RVS group, I knew that Jimmy would go at some point and I wanted Jake with him.

I haven't trained and have barely ridden for 3 weeks, so my participation mainly filled out the field for upgrade points.  I felt crappy during warm up.   I lasted 5 laps.  Enough about me.
Here are some early race videos by Liam (click on the "youtube" label on any of the videos to watch a bigger version)

Start:

Breaks were starting.

Jake was well positioned but maybe hurting a little on the hill.  He was right on Jimmy P's wheel, which was perfect.  With 12 laps to go a solo rider broke away and got a good lap.  There was a group of like 3, including 1 RVS guy trying to bridge to him.  When the field hit the turn and hill, Jimmy had punched it and Jake was right on him.  I yelled for Jake to go with Jimmy, this was the move.

Jimmy pulled Jake up to the break, which caught the solo and was 5 men with about 25 seconds.

(you'll hear this is when 4 with Jake were about to catch the solo; you'll hear me yell to Jake he's perfect and Liam is giving time splits)

more gap video by Liam

They dropped 1 guy and then another and with 5 to go it was Jake and two guys from RVS.  They worked together and built up a 50 second lead over the field.  It was really exciting to watch.  (Liam got a bunch of video where the video starts with Jake disappearing and then the gap, going from 15 up to 50 seconds of space before the field; I'll upload one of them) trust me it's jake at the split second start.

 I was worried the two teammates would start to attack Jake and they would all get caught but they worked together until the last lap.  Jake was on the front going up the hill toward the finish.

He apparently then dropped behind the 2 RVS guys at which point Jimmy attacked and Jake was gaped.  He tried to close the gap to Jimmy, but when it was clear he wouldn't, he sat up rather than tow the RVS teammate to the finish.

Jimmy came through clear for the win, then Jake and the other RVS guy came up the hill.  I was rolling video at that point, so I'll let it show you what happened.  Turn down the sound, I was yelling at the top of my lungs.

Well, obviously, I was ecstatic.  Jake was happy but also irritated that Jimmy got the gap so Jake couldn't go for the win.

We threw together an impromtu podium with Jimmy (the 3rd guy was road guarding the next race).

Jake & Jimmy Picard

It was a fun race, cool course, and RSV were good hosts.  Jake won $60, which paid for our registrations.  Me and the boys grabbed some Chipotle for lunch on the way home.

Really awesome day.  Jake got 4 upgrade points toward the Cat 3 upgrade he needs to qualify for Junior National road race this year.