Driving home from Arkansas all night is easy to do when you are a chronic insomniac. I had the pleasure of being completely awake from 4am Sunday to 4am Monday (and beyond) which provided me with plenty of time to think about what I'd include in this post. Now that I have had a chance to sit and actually write there's no way I can possibly include every last race detail or story that was part of the long, strange trip to Arkansas. So this will be part 1 and part 2 will follow, when I have the time to pound it out. I might even add a part 3 that details some of my observations and humorous musings - we'll see.
The Tour of Arkansas is a points omnium/stage race of 3 events (road race, time trial and criterium) held over 2 days. The first day is a morning 100K road race that concludes with a 10ish mile climb at 8% up Mt. Magazine (the highest point in the state of Arkansas) and that afternoon is an approximately 40K time trial - a long, hard day indeed. The field was small (something in the 17-20 range) but it was quality with representation by Advil-Chapstick and Metro VW. Because of the small numbers we did the RR with the Masters men. Now I like racing with the Masters guys here but I can't say the same about the guys down there. At one point in the race I turned around and intimated to a guy sucking wheel that maybe he should take a pull for once. His response? Roll by me and rip a nasty loud fart. I mean, I can appreciate body humor and all but COME ON. Zero class. I passed him on the Mt. Magazine climb and said nothing - to do so would have dignified it.
I was feeling decent but still very anxious about the climb then I promptly punctured. I had to wait for support to fix it so I ended up rolling in later on and scoring no points for the stage. Kristin, Anne, Kat, Lee and Andrea all had strong finishes in the RR. We had a very small amount of downtime then had to pack the cars and roll to the TT start in Paris, AR. Yeah, Paris is in Arkansas. Betcha didn't realize that, did ya?
I figured out that I still had good legs while warming up for the TT. The course was mostly flat to rolling with what seemed to be a ubiquitous cross/head wind. I was totally wired and ready to smoke that TT - and I did just that. In retrospect I went out way too hard and really suffered the last few miles but in the end my time was good enough to win - by a minute. That gave me 10 points and moved me into 6th place in the GC. I came to find out later that the Metro VW rider who finished 2nd is a multiple-time US National U23 TT Champion. She must've worked really hard in the RR and been really tired, right?
After the TT we headed to Ft. Smith where we stopped for some decent Mexican food and then on to our hotel. We had no idea what the GC standings were so we went to bed that night not exactly sure what our game plan would be for the criterium the next day in Van Buren. I didn't sleep but maybe 4 hours that night and my legs were a little sore so I had no idea what I was going to be able to do in the crit.
I found out at some point during the day that the MetLife boys back home had pretty killer results at the Monsters of the Midway crit - always great to hear stuff like that. Gentlemen, as always - way to represent!
The Tour of Arkansas is a points omnium/stage race of 3 events (road race, time trial and criterium) held over 2 days. The first day is a morning 100K road race that concludes with a 10ish mile climb at 8% up Mt. Magazine (the highest point in the state of Arkansas) and that afternoon is an approximately 40K time trial - a long, hard day indeed. The field was small (something in the 17-20 range) but it was quality with representation by Advil-Chapstick and Metro VW. Because of the small numbers we did the RR with the Masters men. Now I like racing with the Masters guys here but I can't say the same about the guys down there. At one point in the race I turned around and intimated to a guy sucking wheel that maybe he should take a pull for once. His response? Roll by me and rip a nasty loud fart. I mean, I can appreciate body humor and all but COME ON. Zero class. I passed him on the Mt. Magazine climb and said nothing - to do so would have dignified it.
I was feeling decent but still very anxious about the climb then I promptly punctured. I had to wait for support to fix it so I ended up rolling in later on and scoring no points for the stage. Kristin, Anne, Kat, Lee and Andrea all had strong finishes in the RR. We had a very small amount of downtime then had to pack the cars and roll to the TT start in Paris, AR. Yeah, Paris is in Arkansas. Betcha didn't realize that, did ya?
I figured out that I still had good legs while warming up for the TT. The course was mostly flat to rolling with what seemed to be a ubiquitous cross/head wind. I was totally wired and ready to smoke that TT - and I did just that. In retrospect I went out way too hard and really suffered the last few miles but in the end my time was good enough to win - by a minute. That gave me 10 points and moved me into 6th place in the GC. I came to find out later that the Metro VW rider who finished 2nd is a multiple-time US National U23 TT Champion. She must've worked really hard in the RR and been really tired, right?
After the TT we headed to Ft. Smith where we stopped for some decent Mexican food and then on to our hotel. We had no idea what the GC standings were so we went to bed that night not exactly sure what our game plan would be for the criterium the next day in Van Buren. I didn't sleep but maybe 4 hours that night and my legs were a little sore so I had no idea what I was going to be able to do in the crit.
I found out at some point during the day that the MetLife boys back home had pretty killer results at the Monsters of the Midway crit - always great to hear stuff like that. Gentlemen, as always - way to represent!
