Collegiate Cycling Nationals Road Race

This past weekend I traveled to Lawrence, Kansas with the University of Notre Dame cycling team to compete in the collegiate cycling national competition. The team did not have a strong showing in the TTT, and I did not compete in the criterium (im not much of a sprinter), but I did have great results in Saturday's road race.

The road race was 84 miles long - three 28 mile laps around lake Perry. The course was relatively hilly, and became ever more challenging by the addition of 1.5 miles of gravel road every lap, and temperatures in the lower 90's. I started in the division II mens race, along with 3 of my team mates, and 116 other riders. The first two laps of the race were relatively uneventful, other than the mayhem that took place on the stretch of gravel. I decided to take my time through the gravel section, even if this meant falling off the back a bit. This turned out to be a good decision, as I avoided any flat tires or crashes that ended the race for many of the other riders.
The end of the second lap saw the first successful attack, with 8 riders getting about a 20 second lead on the peleton. The peleton pushed the pace through the gravel at the beginning of the third lap, which lead to a massive pileup. Two of my ND teammates were involved, while I narrowly escaped, and was able to form a chase group with about 6 other riders, one being my teammate Matt. Matt is a strong sprinter, so I drove the chase pack ever harder in an effort to get him into the lead group. We eventually integrated with the leaders about 4 miles later, forming the final pack of 14 riders that would ride to the finish.
Notre Dame was one of two schools with 2 riders in the final 14 , and thus some responsibility to do work for the group fell on my shoulders. I ended up doing most of the pace setting for the pack in the remaining miles, in an effort to keep the group together for my teammate. At one point, I pushed the pace up one of the climbs on course, and found myself with a gap, that I exploited, riding about 200 meters off the front for a few miles. The heat and tough course had taken a toll on my legs though, and I made the decision to sit up and reintegrate with the group.
We all stayed together until the final climb just before the finishing straight. I was unable to stay with the leaders in the final surge, due to cramping legs, but managed to beat one rider, taking 13th place, while my teammate took 8th place. I am elated with my 13th place finish! It was my best performance on the collegiate scene to date. Training lots of volume during the season in preparation for Ironman did not always leave me fresh to race on the weekends. Pre-Nationals I took a week of rest, and finally all the long rides and hard training paid off on the longer course and under tough conditions. My next race is the Mooseman Half Ironman in a few weeks. I am training ever harder, and am hoping for some top results.


~Mike