Pensacola Classic Stage Race – Pensacola, Florida
A good weekend of racing. Mick & Lynne made the trip down as did Alan, Drew and Jacques came over from Mobile.
This race was done as a stage race, which meant that the over all was based on finishing times. Saturday started with the Cat 4 doing two laps of the the 25 mile course, the Cat 5 did one. Drew & Alan took on the Cat 4 field which was around 50 riders. Not too far into the race two riders went off and put a nice gap into the peloton and were out of sight. Alan couldn’t let this happen and tried to pick the pace up, but no one was willing to help in the effort, after several miles Drew was able to make it up to the front and he and Alan worked together to finally get the peloton moving. After the climb of the first hill about 15 miles in we had the two leaders back in sight and was not long there after the peloton was able to swallow them up. Things stayed together till the hill and Alan was of the back, after spending the next 3 miles chasing hard he was able to catch back on. With 2k to the finish the peloton was down to about 30 riders, with 1k attacks starting to happen and finally with 200m things took off. Alan & Drew did what they could and were both respectable. Drew was 14th Alan 15th
In the Cat 5 race Mick kept himself at the front and out of trouble the entire way. This was Mick’s first road event since early this year do to some leg surgery he had, so he was feeling his fitness out to see where it was. He felt good and stayed near the front the entire way and had a real nice finish of 7th. The field was nearly 70 riders strong so a 7th place was awesome. This was Jacques first event ever and he learned a lot and finshed 57th
Saturday afternoon it was of to the beach for the 3.1 mile TT Cat 5 saw Mick take 34th and Jacques 47th – In the Cat $ Alan was 6th and Drew took 16th
Sunday was the crit. The Cat 5 saw around 50 riders and was a quick pace right from the start. Mick was hanging with the lead group when a rider went down in front of him causing him to break up and loose the wheel. HE was able to group up with several other riders and take 18th. Jacques riding in hs first crit finished which is great, he cam in 40th. The Cat 4 saw about 40 riders go off and Alan did what he loves to do and go for the first lap lead, which was accomplished and much more. He kept the pace high and fast. He then took the pream and continued to hammer. Half way through he settled in and got in line to wait for the finish. When the sprint came he thought he had grabbed the right wheel but it was not and got boxed in and finished 12th. Drew had a tough day but still had a nice finish of 24th.
OVER ALL – Cat 4 Alan 2nd Drew 18th Cat 5 Mick 16th Jacques 37
