Juniors Experience Stage Racing at the Nicole Reinhart Tour de FCCC

Nicole Reinhart Tour de FCCC Race Report July 17-18 Stage race

By Aidan Palmer

I felt almost decent before the Stage 1 time trial. The heat was going to
be the one big factor of the day though, since there was a blazing high of
94 degrees. The course we were riding for the time trial and road race was
very hilly and fairly technical, with several sharp corners and fast
descents. I did a hard warm up on my trainer for half an hour, went to the
rollout, and went to the line for our time trial starts. Nick started a few
minutes before me and Kevin started 5 minutes after me since he was with the
17-18 age group. Nick came in 20th place in the Juniors 15-16. He said that
he didn’t do as well as he wanted but he wasn’t too unhappy with his time
result. I came in 16th place in Junior 15-16, while Kevin came in with a
time of 11:01 for the 4.2 mi course and ended up in 6th place in the
Juniors 17-18. The organizer said there were 82 racers total and the largest
field was 22 racers in the Men’s Juniors 15-16.

Next up was the road race, which started at one o’clock, and we
knew that this race would all be about trying to stay hydrated and cool.
Nick and I started the race in a bad position, right at the tail end of the
pack, and since there was the yellow line rule enforced, it would be hard to
move up in the pack. Nick stayed with the pack for a couple laps before he
dropped out of the race, and I stayed with the group for a few laps until I
got dropped and decided to drop out of the race since I felt some heat
stroke coming on and I didn’t feel like going to the hospital. I ended up in
17th place on the GC and Nick was in 20th. Kevin was in the 17-18 age group
race. He hung with the main pack for 2 of the 7 laps. On the last lap, he
broke away from two other PA riders in his group to try and bridge a gap to
the leaders. He finished 5th out of 8 riders.

Next day was the criterium on this awesome course in a park
right next to a velodrome. This race was more exciting, with Nick and I once
again starting at the back of the pack. Our plan was that if things didn’t
go well, Nick and I should stay together if one of us got dropped. All of
the other riders were very experienced and this was our first stage race.
Nick said this was the best race course he had ever been on. The pack kept
accelerating when there was a breakaway, then slowing down once we caught
the breakaway. With 12 laps to go I was sitting right on the MABRA
champion’s wheel when I saw that he was breaking away from the pack, so I
decided to follow this pointless attack. I guess I was so deep in oxygen
debt that my brain didn’t understand that that was a stupid move. I stayed
with the break for half of a lap until my legs couldn’t take it anymore, and
I ended up getting passed by the peloton, so I decided to join this two man
group that I saw and wait for Nick but Nick wasn’t in sight. Nick said that
my dig off the front put him in trouble. So after that I upped the pace a
bit and someone told me that I was one minute behind the leaders. Then on
the next lap it was 40 seconds, then 30 seconds, and when it got to 20
seconds I knew that we would catch the bunch. And we did, with 6 laps to go
we finally caught up to them. I ended up sprinting for 11th place in the
crit, and Nick came in 18th place. Kevin was in the 17-18 group and the
group of 8 riders stayed all together until just about the end. He stuck
with another rider who also fell off the back. He said the reason he and the
other Vortex rider fell off the back was because they went for the sprint
points and blew themselves out, which he said in the end didn’t matter very
much to either of them.

We all learned a lot about racing from the Tour de FCCC. We all
think this was one of the best races ever and lots of fun.