Originally Posted by ttusomeone

I'll follow-up Creatre's race report on River Gorge with one of my own. This was my first race as a Cat 3 so I had no idea how the race would compare to the Cat 4 RRs I've done all year. I wasn't overly concerned with getting dropped by the main group, but I really wanted to hang with the lead group over Sand Mountain. I made sure I was top 10 going into the climb and concentrated on hanging onto the guys wheel in front of me. When I would look back I could tell the field was exploding and I was very happy to make it to the top with a group of about 10 guys. We picked up two more from a break of three that formed early in the race and after the descent a couple more guys caught us, making our group about 15. There was one rider solo off the front and he kept putting time on us at every check. He ended up having a 2.5 minute lead going into the last climb. Someone told me later he was from Belgium and had been training there all summer. I did my share at the front as we made our way to the final climb. I was able to hang on until about half way up and shortly after that the rest of the group shattered. I couldn't catch the solo guy in front of me but I also had a big gap on the next guy behind me. I finished 11th overall (10th out of the main group). I was very happy with the result and gives me a lot of motivation going into the off season.