Carolina Cup

Posted by Dan on 28. September 2010 18:44

by Frank Cundiff

Right after Hampton Bay Days I drove to Richmond to visit my ailing grandmother, and family.  My Mom told me there was nothing that could be done, and that I should just go about my weekend as usual, and she would call me if anything changed.
So on that note, I drove down to North Carolina for the infamous Carolina Cup Sunday morning.  So used to looking at flier for Cat 4 start times, I unfortunately showed up three and a half hours early for my race.  So I grabbed bite to eat, put my bike together, and laid a towel out in front of my parking space, and took a nap with my legs up for 45 minutes.  The weather that day was perfect.  While back in Hampton Roads it was rainy and dismal, in NC it was 80 degrees and sunny.  I lined up for the my start, and was a little perturbed by the fact that they did not allow us to do a lap on the course prior, b/c they were behind schedule following a crash in the Cat 4 race ( another reason I’m stoked to be a 3).  I had to do a double take, for half of my field it seemed was juniors.  There was something like over a dozen of them in this race, and I’ll tell you what these kids raced like there life depended on it.  It was kind of cool to see people putting it all out there, but what also comes with it, is the dream of doing something big.  Nobody wanted to work, b/c they all fancy themselves sprinters and didn’t want to burn matches… whatever.

I started the race in the back, b/c I missed my clip in.  I chilled in the back for the first lap, getting to know the course.  I do not enjoy my first lap on a new course being the first lap of a race.  So I took it easy.  Eventually I made my way up to the front, and when I got there I could see a break of two or three up the road.  I gave chase, and quickly reeled them back in.  For the remainder of the race I made sure to stay  in the top ten to fifteen, and to minimize my time on the front.  It worked perfectly; I had managed to stay in the front without much work for the rest of the race…… or so I thought.  We came around for the one to go, and I was sitting fourth wheel.  The only thing going through my head was, “I can win this!!”  That is until we passed by the announcers booth, and I heard him say, “Here comes the main group, the breakaway is a minute thirty up the road.”  Are you kidding me?! I asked the guy next to me what was he talking about, and all nonchalantly he said, “Oh yeah, there are four or five guys up the road.”  I immediately sat up, furious that I had not been privy to this information, this important information.  No longer was I only not going to win, but I wasn’t even racing for any money now.  I decided not to sprint, b/c, well honestly, I’m better than that, and I wasn’t going to risk injury to myself or my bike for 6th place.  I ended up finishing 13th anyway, and I can live with that. I still believe that had there not have been a breakaway I could have won that race.
After our race, I changed, and packed up my stuff.  Grabbed some of the free fruit, and sat back and watched the pro race.  It was pretty cool, to see them make my efforts look so futile.  Oh well, better luck next year.  Only one more race on the calendar left.