Fayettville Stage Race: Day One

So it was off to the Fayettville stage race in Texas this weekend, a well run race with two road races and a TT, which made me happy since I don’t like crits in stage races. With Zach's ankles still bothering him, he decided not to push it and sat this one out. He helped out with feeding--along with Buck's girlfriend Lori.

The first road race was a 115 km stage on rolling terrain, with no serious climbs. Chasing everything down all day it seemed like the Mercy Cycling Team wanted to have a field sprin. Buck and I just sat in for awhile, seeing that nothing was going to get away until the latter stages of the race. So the last lap came around and Buck and I began to attack and counter attack everything, making the pace very fast. But still, nothing. We kept trying and finally with about 8km to go I put in an attack and made the pace high for Buck to counter. He did and only 4 others were able to hang on, 2 of them getting dropped later on. The two that were able to stay with Buck were Stephen Rothe from MSU cycling team and a rider from GS Tenzing. Rothe was able to pull through but the other rider couldn't and said he would not sprint. I could see Buck's little group just ahead, hoping they would hang on to the finish. They did, with Buck showing the other two how to sprint and taking the win by several meters.

The second stage was a 10 km time trial on a pretty hilly course, so the times were not too fast. Finishing 23rd Buck did not have a great ride and lost the GC, but he was still in 9th less than 20 seconds back. I finished up the TT in 10th place, which is pretty good for me this time of the year since I usually don't start riding well until about May, even if I do go down south (a curse I was born with).

See also »
Fayettville Stage Race: Day Two
Miller wins another! Buck's second win of 2005