Fitchburg Cat 3 race report - Roy Van Cleef - Day 1 - Time Trial 7-1-07
Nebc riders:
Jay Francis
Peter Chiu
Peter Bradshaw
Chris Hong
Julian Gent
John Broussard
Roy Van Cleef
David Rizzo
Day 1 – 6.5mile TT
It was pretty warm to start the TT but I was quite excited as I had ridden the TT course twice the previous evening and it wasn’t a typical TT course as it rose gently for 5 miles and the dropped down for the final hill. Many riders even did away with TT bikes and aero bars because of all the climbing.
Things were off to a shaky start as they decided to introduce the ramp this year and one of the cat 4 riders went off the side of it and less than a second into his stage race it was already over as he had to go to the hospital. So they removed the ramp for our race. Unfortunately Julian missed his start time by a long way and lost about 15 mins to the leaders.
I did the whole TT in my big ring and in the aero position except for one of the final climbs where I got out of the saddle for a stretch. I started off a little easier and just focused on my 30 second man who I caught after about a few miles and then I was on my own just pushing the pedals. I started to fade a little towards the final climb but then it was all downhill and I just tried to stay smooth and efficient.
They posted the results nearly straight away and I was pleased to be sitting in 8th position. Peter was only a few seconds back in 10th with bruised elbows because of the bumpy course and lack of padding on his aerobars.
Roy Van Cleef: 8th, 1:05 down
Peter Bradshaw: 10th, 1:10 down
Chris Hong: 24th, 1:40 down
Jay Francis: 36th, 2:00 down
John Broussard: 58th, 2:25 down
David Rizzo: 84th, 3:11 down
Peter Chiu: 89th, 3:26 down
Julian Gent: 112th, 19:00 down
We were looking pretty good on the gc for the rest of the race…...
to be continued…..