Post-Hoc All American Road Race Report

This will be fast because it's a week late and there is more to discuss.  Last Saturday (April 20th) Jake, Shane & Ben Dinapoli liked up for the Cat 3 All American Road Race in Poolesville. 

Jake and Shane, bringing the art of "nonchalant" to new heights

 Generally pretty flat-ish course, narrow yellow line rule, means traditionally not my favorite course, but it gets a big turn out.  The Cat 3 race was 65 miles.  But the temperatures were chilly (cold if you were just standing there) with significant winds that would shape the race.  (side note, because this is about what's involved in getting them there, I did the DC Velo 7am ride for the first time in over a year so that I could then get Jake out to AARR; it went well, probably because a lot of people were racing AARR later; unfortunately, it was the last decent ride I did).

So I hung out in the feed zone with Tim Dinapoli and Sam Scoggin.  A few solo breaks were attempted but the wind would doom them quickly.  It was pretty (except for the cold wind)

Polo fields next to finish line

 

Blue skies over the finish line stretch

Field of yellow flowers

We had friends in the feed zone. Instead of cows at Battenkill, this time it was horses.

With 1 lap of the 8 mile loop left, there was a strong 3-man breakaway with a little less than a minute lead.  Ben and another guy made a strong bid to bridge across to them, but the wind was too much.

When the field came back around for the finish, the 3 guys had stayed away, but there was excitement behind.  Shane and former-Coppi Jordan Cross had jumped away from the field a few Km out and held on for what appeared to be 4th and 5th, then one solo,

then the field sprint.  Jake came in 9th in the field sprint, which is not bad for him, since long flat windy sprints is not his current strength (he has a 15 year old's muscles, not a 27 year old's)

 So, Jake was 15th overall, which is pretty good.  The guy who won, however, got relegated to 6th for drafting the wheel car after a flat (a somewhat controversial call) so Shane moved up to 4th and Jordan 3rd.

To top the day off, after 65 miles of racing and 10 miles of warm up, Jake hopped on his bike and rode home another 30-ish miles from Poolesville.