Road Bike Racing - Racing our National Champion

Well, I really don't want to talk about how well (or crappy...) I did, but today I raced against Mark McCormack in a pretty nasty road race. It was going to be 70 miles (ten laps) but because the weather was practically like a monsoon here in MA today, they reduced the distance to 56 miles (eight laps).

The course wasn't too tough, it did have a two mile long climb each lap, but it was very gradual, and drafting was still a factor on it. The course did offer enough of a challenge however to present Mark McComack the opportunity to flex his muscles and put the rest of the field into some serious hurting.

Eventually Mark broke away with two other riders, and then one at a time dropped each of them before he crossed the finish line alone to take the win. I was hurting just sitting in the chase group.

Holy crap that dude is strong...

It was pretty cool though during the begining of the race to be riding right next to the US PRO Champion, and briefly even in front of him, even if not for long.

Just thought I'd share.

- Maurizio

man, thats awesome!!

yeah, he may be strong, but i'm assuming that you're pretty damn strong, too, to be in a cat1 race :D

Um, I may be ok enough to be able to be in the race with him, but today was still pretty humbling, and made it pretty obvious how big the gap in strength between riders was just within our field. But think about it like this:

Me: I was hurting while in a chase group of about 20 riders. I wasn't doing much pulling, just conserving myself, hoping to get a ride to the finish. I was hurting on that climb and just trying to keep contact with the guys around me.

Mark: Rode all by himself, and faster than the combined efforts of several riders in my chase group, all of whom had to be feeling better and stronger than I was. Continually pulled away from my group for the whole duration that he was away to win by about two and a half minutes over the chase group I was in. I repeat - BY HIMSELF!

I think I need to train more.

Maurizio, you race category 1? Do you know Gui Nelessen?

Actually I race Cat 2. It was a Pro,1,2 race. But yes I DO know Gui. He's two years older than me, but I met him at a Regional Devellopment Camp a while ago. He helped me out, because going down a very fast hill my bike started to shake real bad (because it was broken or something), and he rode up next to me on the descent, and HELD my seatpost with his hand to stabilize my bike untill I coasted to a stop. I might have crashed otherwise. Thanks Gui!

I think that he's riding this year with one of the upstart division III pro teams here on the east coast. I haven't seen him recently.

How do you know him?

Originally posted by Maurizio
I think that he's riding this year with one of the upstart division III pro teams here on the east coast. I haven't seen him recently.


He's riding for Sportsbook.com. He's down here quite a bit, even racing on the track.

Sounds like the Veryfine - was it? I heard it was a near Paris-Roubaix experience.

Yup, Veryfine.

Originally posted by Maurizio
he rode up next to me on the descent, and HELD my seatpost with his hand to stabilize my bike untill I coasted to a stop. I might have crashed otherwise.
How cool is that?!!