That Familiar Burn: Success!

After finding out that I would not qualify for collegiate nats if I did not race the NCCCCCCCCC race this weekend. The Doughboy, another Carl, and I rolled down I-35 to Kansas. Saturday was a whopping 50 miles of racing on the road (2 25 mile laps), and Sunday a super long race of 45 minutes...HA!
Anyway, in the past collegiate racing has always been pretty boring, very little action, no team work, slow pace, that kinda thing. I expected the same as always this weekend, so for the road race I brought my camera along! (see pictures)
However, Mark Smelser, the one time D I national crit champ, wanted to make the race hard, he took some long hard pulls going across and into the wind making some people work. The with the wind section was very hilly and fun, and Smelly really put the hammer down here. All 11 of us stayed pretty much together, then some others attacked which dropped a few kids, a regroup, and then Sean and I started to get in the fun and try and tear things up. Another 1 or 2 were dropped. The pace stayed high for pretty much the rest of the race, the 7 of us left were on a continuous rotation and all. Then we hit the hills and people started to die. On the big hill (which had KOM points) Smelly picked it up again and the small group blew up. I felt great and got the points, and the hill I slowed down just a bit and we all regrouped. A few minutes later Sean and I decided that an attack was called for and he was hurting a bit so I took off while he tried to hold back the field. I got a small gap, but Smelly did not want to let me get away. However, the moved put everyone in the hurt bag and blew the group apart, eventually Sean and Smelly caught me and the A team flew the last 2 miles or so to the finish. Smelly started his sprint to early and died, while Sean came around the other side. I just sat on one wheel the the other, and just stayed there. Sean tried to help me out a bunch, so why not help him. We wonder what would have happened if I tried to get around him?
The race was actually fun, and despite being way to short was challenging.

Since Sean and I were working together this weekend, it was my turn for the win on Sunday. The plan was for me to go right from the line and have Sean block. Since the lap was only around a minute long my goal was to lap the field.
So at km zero, I attacked. At first there were 2 guys on my wheel, one faded fast, and the other stayed with me. I just went balls out for a good 10 minutes, and soon enough (with Seans blocking) I broke the elastic (a KU guy helped a little). One lap our gap went from 14 seconds to around 30! I just kept hammering and making the KU guy do the same. The gap kept getting bigger and soon enough I saw what was left of the field one turn ahead, that is all I needed and we soon caught the field. The pace slowed a little, which I did not want to let happen since the KU guy was hurting and I wanted to keep him that way. So Sean attacked to keep the pace high. It did not split up the group but things stayed fast. With 5 laps to go the pace slowed slightly again, I ended up shooting out the front of the group, Sean saw this and went to the front and blocked again. The KU guy had nothing left to chase, and the next 4 laps I spent soloing in for the win. It was great to be out there all along to cross the finish.
So the weekend was a smashing success, Sean and I found we can dominate the race if we work together. Woohoo!