Jefferson Cup

Despite the low prize money, and typically crap weather, this is the race that everyone in Virgina wants to win. I'm pretty new to the region, but it seems this is the race that cyclists want to have on their palmares. The entries list only takes a few hours to fill up. A lot of riders in the Cat 1 wanted to win it as it meant they could ride for the Nature Valley amateur team at the Nature Valley Grand Prix, so a lot was on the line.

The race was 7 laps of a 10 mile circuit (16km), or 70 miles (112km) total. It was consistently rolling, with no flat roads on the course. Though in saying that, there are no big hills. Typically this race is known for its miserable conditions, but somehow this year it was beautiful. There was a bit of wind, but not enough to do any damage, unless you're a retard who has no idea how to ride in breeze. Unfortunately there were a few of these guys.

We started the race with a neutral roll out to the start finish line before the start of racing. The Cat 1,2,3 field went first, followed by the Masters 35+ field. Not long into the neutral section I heard the sound that no rider likes hearing. Yep, I'd punctured my rear wheel. I stuck my hand in the air as I drifted to the back of the 125 rider field. When I got to the back I told the moto I needed a wheel. "Sorry, the wagon's behind the masters' race, keep riding." Keep riding usually isn't what you want to hear when you have a puncture. Why the hell was our service vehicle behind a different race? They pulled the service vehicle through, and I was given a crap wheel, with a horrible looking tyre fraying on the sides. It also had a bright purple hub. I could see my wheel right next to it, and I was asking for it, but no, I had the purple monster. As I was changing the wheel, the masters rolled past. I then had to fight my way round their race, with a whole lot of old buggers not letting me through as they tried to defend their place in the bunch. I'm not in your race you retards, just let me through. I did get on just before the racing started, so all was good.

The first couple of laps where a shit fight to stay near the front. Everyone wanted to be there, whether it was good riders who wanted to stay out of trouble, crap riders who wanted to be able to drift back when it gets hard, or muppets who have no idea what they're doing but think everyone else is trying to get to front, I should do the same. After a few laps some of the fatties started to tire, and only the halve decent riders were fighting for position, typical racing really. It was pretty dodgy trying to stay near the front with idiots doing stupid stuff.

I managed to stay out of trouble in the race, but Simon didn't have the same luck. He had a mechanical after 3 laps, and after some very slow servicing, found himself a long way back putting the grupetto further in the hurt box than they already were. With about 2 laps to go the pace began to get serious, and cracks looked like they were starting to appear in the group. I was hoping it would blow apart, but there were a few teams far to intent on ending the race in a sprint. On the last lap a group of 4 got away, and were dangling insight the whole way round. With about 5km to go they looked doomed and were almost back in the fold until someone stacked in the field. The crash was off to my right, and I luckily avoided it. The riders that were pulling the break back began to hesitate and look around for their riders. About another km down the road and break were moving away. It was no or never, so with the wind coming from the left I laid it down on the right side and began bridging up. With 2k to go I had more than halved the gap and I thought I had them. The final turn and a spectator yells, "Yea man, you got it. 8 sec". I was well in the hurt box, and dug deeper. With 1k to go, I hadn't closed the gap anymore, but I thought I had it over the bunch. With 700m to go though it was game over. The bunch round me and I was spent. I dug deep, gave it everything, but it wasn't quite enough. Looking back, I probably should have gone right after the crash, as I might have caught the break. But that's racing, you take your chance. Sometimes you ride away to glory, other times you get caught and spat out.

I don't have any photos or exact results at the moment, but will post them as soon as I get them.

Note:

I finshed 49th from 125th