I rolled to Charlotte Saturday afternoon, to take in the high dollar Presby Crit. If you haven't been to these races, you are missing out what American Crit racing is all about.
Let's back up...
As some of you know, the trip up I-77 is possibly the most boring thing on the planet. It's just this side of listening to a verbal re-cap of a bike race...from a bike racer. Anyone, if you set the cruise @ 80-ish, the trip gets knocked down more quickly, and you are relatively sure that you won't run afoul of the LAW.
In one particular section, the speed limit drops to 60, and it's always rife with Johnny Law. Just as I slowed to about 68, I saw a non-descript, dark-colored, Ford sedan on the shoulder...hazard lights on. Hello Occifer!
About the same time, a large Silver SUV streaked past me at a rate of speed that can only be described as HIGH. Easily 85-90mph...Hello Occifer!
The aforementioned sedan came off the shoulder like he was leaving the pits at Darlington, and ran down our Yankee friend. Oh yeah...NY tags on the SUV. You aren't talking you way out of this one pal. Speeding AND reckless, as the Yankee was easily 15+mph over the limit.
Did I have a camera to take a few pictures? Nope...
Just thinking about the ticket the driver received makes my right butt check hurt. Why the right butt cheek? That's where my wallet resides...
I arrived in Charlotte about 75 minutes after I left...w/o a summons, and made our way to the light rail station to ride into Uptown. Lots of attractive women, and interesting characters on the train.
Did I have a camera? Nope...
The races were both fast and furious, and I don't mean that in a Vin Diesel sort of way. Nothing will shatter a pro crit faster than throwing $250, $500, or $1000 premes every 4 or 5 laps. Only the strong survived each race.
The women came down to a bunch gallop. Don't know who won...don't care. It was a great race, and the women gave their all. Those who dared toe the line were winners...
In the men's race, the purse was $50k, with $12,500 to the winner. It was just crushingly fast for all 90+ minutes. One of Charlotte's finest was on hand with a radar gun. The bunch was regularly tipping 33-34mph UP the rise on the front stretch.
Joe Lewis from Hincapie Devo got away with about 12 to go. He was 40 seconds up at one point. And then the obvious happened. Mike Tamayo keyed the radio button, and United Healthcare's Blue Train came to the front. Shit got REAL after that. Carnage, mayhem, broken legs and spirits were in abundance over the last 10 laps.
They caught Lewis with 2 to go, and then blitzed the leadout. Unreal...
We were standing with another REAL DEAL professional bike racer who said, and I quote, "I glad I'm not racing tonight...."
Hilton Clarke took the W. What remained of the field trickled in over the next two minutes or so. BLOWN UP!
Did I have a camera? Nope...
Sunday morning, I rolled up to NoDa for the races. Good course, good crowd, great community support.
Big fields in every category. Hell, the juniors had over 30, and the 4s had 70!!!
Hero of the day? The grommet in the Hammer Nutrition kit in the Junior race. 9 years old. The smallest Tarmac one can buy with Ultegra Di2 and Ksyriums. And before you scoff, and say, "Spoiled little fucker", I can tell you that he was a happy-go-lucky kid before the race, and after the race. No BS baseball-dad antics from his parents AT ALL. They were super nice folks, and uber-supportive.
Anyway, when he strapped on the helmet, it was GO time. Sure, he was smaller, and got popped out of the main group pretty quickly, but dammit, every time he went thru the last turn, onto the finish straight, he turned his head, looked over his inside shoulder, and sprinted out of the corner. His turns, and bike handling in general, were EASILY in the top 5% of all racers on hand in NoDa. The kid was a straight hero to the crowd. He got the biggest cheers of the day, period!!!
In 12-15 years, when there's some young pro, kicking everyone's ass, and they say he's from Charlotte, NC, it's probably this kid!!
Did I have a camera? Nope...
In Charlotte over the weekend, you had Dilworth, Presby, and NoDa. Two full days of great Pro/Am racing, and a high dollar PRO crit. All were well organized, and supported. Take a lesson Columbia...
Speaking of racing...
Here's the last 5km of Amstel Gold.
Remember our previous conversations about saddle to bar drop...?
Reminder to self : Put one of the point and shoot cameras in The Beast. Leave it there...
It's kind of "Meh..." out there today. Make an effort to survive it, if nothing else. It's only a Monday. You could be in Fargo...
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