The team forgot a camera, so this is an edited version of Jeff, Adam and Bill
Prepared by Jeff Davis
The CBR Cat 5 group went to Huntsville for the Alabama State RR championships. The Cat 5'ers were Bill Swain, Adam Weinbaum and Jeff Davis, with Ben Weinbaum there for the Jr's race.
The Cat 5 field was capped out at 50 riders. The route was mostly flat with a few rolling hills similar to Sunshine Road beyond the bridge. At the beginning of the race I was worried and thought I was in for a long day, as we were going 28 mph the first few miles. I thought I may have accidentally entered the Tour de France. Luckily, it slowed down to a manageable pace after that. We ended up averaging just over 24mph for the 33 mile route.
It was also a bit sketchy at times too. Some guy hit my rear wheel so hard on the first climb it almost knocked me down. Now I know why some guys can't wait to cat up to the 4's.
The pack stayed together for the most part, as the hills were not significant enough to split up the group. So, it basically came down to a group sprint in the end. I found myself in the 15th spot or so with about a 1/4 mile to go and had a good position on the center line. The guys on the shoulder took off early and the guys in front of me couldn't respond, so I had to wait a few seconds for the 200 meter mark to go across the center line. I picked up a handful of spots in the sprint but the guys on the right just got too much of a head start and I crossed the line in 10th.
It seemed that most of the pack didn't understand the center line rule with 200 to go. They were unaware they could cross it for the final sprint, despite that fact that our Starter clearly stated this at the line before our race. That really kept the field tight and kept some of the guys from being able to sprint for the finish. Adam took major advantage of their ignorance and came from the back of the pack all the way up to finish 19th. Bill got pinned on the inside and couldn't really make a move without putting himself at risk and finished 27th.
We all felt like we had some gas left in the tank after the race. The consensus among us was if we knew how to work together better and understood the tactics of road racing a little more, we could have really left a mark for CBR on this race.
Ben Weinbaum entered the juniors race and had a tough day. There were only 10 jr's and one was a 16 year old that had just won the US Jr. TT Championship the week before. He is classified as a Cat 2 men's rider and also had three teammates with him. He was also wearing his National Champion's jersey which had to be intimidating. A 12 year old against a Cat 2 just doesn't seem fair, but Ben showed alot of determination in finishing the race and can chalk this one up as more experience. He did not many 12 yr. olds to race against, so they combined his group with the older kids. Ben did not beat the 16 yr. olds, but won his age division and took home Gold medals in both the crit and Road race.
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