Cheyne Captures Third in Junior Nationals!

Road and Criterium Report:

The 17-18 year old junior road race was held at 7:30 in the morning Saturday so I jumped out of bed at about 5:30 and drove to the course. I had already driven it the day before so I knew what to look forward to, lots of rolling hills. The race started down a fast descent and then made a right turn into a short uphill and then another really fast descent where a huge crash occurred. It started right in front of me and to the left. A few guys just started shaking and going out of control, they went down and I rode right by next to them and looked back to see half the field gone. Most would get back on but supposedly it was about a 20 man pile up. After that everything was smooth and an early attack launched about 10 miles in to the race and would never be seen again. Ben King the winner of the tt went solo for the win, he was really strong but also there wasn't really a chase. In any case the rest of the field was racing for second and I decided I might as well wait for the finishing climb to do anything. Nick Bax (Hot tubes) was driving the pace up the climb with myself and around 4 others in tow because the rest of the field had shattered across the climb. When he started to fade a bit I got on the front and started to drive it so we wouldn't be caught by the ten man group behind us. By the last kilometer it was myself Nick Bax and one other rider. Gaps started to form between us and I was last out of the three. 200 meters to go I found some strength and passed one. We all finished practically side by side, second place was about a wheel length in front of me.

Sunday was the criterium. Just before my late afternoon race there was a monsoon. So, the course was nice and wet with plenty of puddles to ride through. It was a 50K crit which is probably the longest crit I have ever done. We went 31 laps and the first 15 were not to pleasant for me. I just couldn't seem to find any speed in my legs. Finally about half way through I started to mix it up. I attacked about twice but neither one lasted long.

I also bridged to a few breaks but nothing happened. Then with probably about twelve to go I bridged to about 6 other guys off the front and we started working it. Some more men bridged after that and we ended up with about 11. We never gained more than a 20 second advantage over the main field but at the end of the day we made it to the finish with around 10 seconds on the main field. I put a lot of effort into the break. Because of this and a tactical error on the last lap I didn't have anything for the sprint. I rolled across 9th but was satisfied being in the break and the top ten.