I knew I couldn’t come home until it was done. After a spring with good form, and hundreds of miles in attention getting, but all too often doomed break-a-ways, I needed to accomplish the reason every cyclist races: I needed a big result!
Impressive road race performances from the US women and men
After a day of rest and reconnaissance on the road course, the junior men and women set off for 85k and 136k road races respectively. The road race course was similar to the time trial course. Many of the same roads were used on both courses, including that same tricky descent. The road race course featured more wide-open flat roads and difficulty with a ~2500m climb before hitting the hard ascents of the time trial course leading into the finish.
The women’s race was nothing short of perfection for the USA cycling contingent, placing three riders in the top ten. The race was heavy on the attrition meter. The front group trimmed in size each of the five laps around the 18k course. Walking the last kilometer of the course, we were led by one of the favorites also walking up on the sidewalk. She had crashed, twice, once on the problematic descent from the TT and a second time on the more than 90deg final turn, about 1500m from the finish. The road was increasingly off camber the further to the outside of the exit of the turn.
The day before the time trial, I had the pleasure of being led around the course in a Citroen Picasso by Tom and Lawson. This was Lawson’s 7th time around the course, and he had done his homework. Questions were along the lines of, “Do I ride to the left or right of the cracks on the road on this section?” And, “How late do I lean into this turn?”
The course deviated significantly from the projected course profile we had been using to model pacing, training, and positioning, but was none-the-less stunning. The terrain was aggressive. The technical level of the course was frightening, but entertaining. Driving these roads, let alone riding them on a built-for-speed time trial bike, would take a steady hand.
The Offida TT course proved to be technically challenging.
The 2010 Junior World Cycling Championships in Offida, Italy has been on the Durata radar for two primary reasons. First, Durata athlete Lawson Craddock, who’s among world’s most talented young riders, would be competing. Second, it appeared to be the type of destination where, if an opportunity to visit were declined, one would regret it for the rest of their lifetime.
In 2009, as a first year junior at the international level, the goal for Lawson was to simply gain the strength necessary to ride at the top-level day-in and day-out. However, along the way he progressed into one of the best junior time trialists in the country, and the world. As soon as Lawson locked up an automatic qualifier spot for the 2009 world championships in Moscow, his training focused on doing the best possible ride as a 17 year old. We knew he’d be competing against kids a year old than him, and would have one more year to compete as a junior himself. Moscow was Lawson’s first start at a world championship event and would serve as his preparation for the 2010 junior worlds time trial.
Craddock, Silver Medalist, 2009 Junior World Cycling Championships
Monday August 02nd 2010 ,
6:58 am
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Race Results
It was only 5 years in the making, but I finally secured a 70.3 win. Wait; that’s not entirely true. I did win Racine 70.3 in 2007, but of course, it was not technically a ’70.3′ yet. I guess you could say the wait was well worth it, as yesterday at Steelhead, it all came together and it felt amazing.
Kelly takes her first 70.3 win.
I had been in Salida, CO (~7,000 ft. elevation) prior to this race. Derick and I decided to escape the Austin heat for a few weeks, and found a small, outdoorsey town that we both love that would suit us well. The cycling out there is incredible, but I found after about a week, my quads had a constant ‘ache’ to them which was due to the huge climbs (and inescapable false flats). Needless to say, when I flew to Indiana from Denver on Thursday, I proceeded to take 2 days entirely OFF going into Steelhead. Not typical for me, but my body was quite tired and I felt it needed some extra rest. Point being, I had no idea what to expect from having been at altitude coming into this. My cycling felt strong, but I had been swimming solo (and missing the awesome UT Masters group) and my running felt it was missing some leg turnover. That said, I was excited to race having taken 5 weeks away from competing since Coeur d’Alene.
Beautiful Bend, Oregon hosted elite nationals in 2009 and again in 2010 with a venue well suited for a team vacation to the alpine desert town. The mix of amateur racers at elite road nationals ranges from full-time cyclists (perhaps working a part-time job to support themselves) to mid-level professionals and full-on executives. The difficulty of competition is designed to suit any Category 1 cyclist older than 23 who’s able to balance bike racing with professional and personal obligations in order to ride and race roughly eight to 15 hours per week. (Read: The founding members of Super Squadra.)
Buffalo Springs Lake is a special place for me. It is the venue where I qualified as an amateur for the 2007 Ironman World Championships. So, coming back this year, I knew the course, fondly remembered the canyons, warm water and steam rising from the asphalt…I knew this course and I loved it!
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