May 7-9, 2010
http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/usa-cycling-collegiate-road-national-championships-cn
written by: Alister Ratcliff
Alister Ratcliff- 3rd overall Division 1 Omnium, 6th Road Race, 11th Criterium, 3rd Team Time Trial
While the team assembled at the Joe Martin Stage Race, I attended the other big race that was going on at the same time, Collegiate Nationals. Although, Joe Martin would be a far superior race, I still wanted to give it another shot at a good result at Collegiate Nationals even though the race is somewhat of a crap shoot.
Wake up call for the road race was 5:30 AM sharp, another great reason why I should have chose to go to Joe Martin, but I have to learn the hard way! On the start line it was maybe 40 degrees and raining at 8:30 in the morning, I was extremely psyched and ready to race just so I could warm up a little bit. After surviving the neutral section with 140 of the best collegiate racers in the country, not the greatest bike handlers around, a lot of my nerves went away.
Nothing serious happened until the third lap of the race where a group of 5 guys went away half way around the course. I decided I would bridge up to the break on the climb that we were doing every lap. This is exactly what happened, except I took one of the teammates with me and once the field found out who we were that went up the road, the entire field started chasing like mad. So, as soon as we made it to the break, 5 minutes later, the field caught us and we were altogether again.
More attacks went up the road, half of them probably coming from myself but anytime it seemed as if I would try, the entire field decided they were going to chase. Eventually 2 guys went clear of the field when everyone was eating food and looking at each other (Another reason why Joe Martin is a much better race!). I waited until the final time up the climb and went as hard as I could. It was down to just a couple of guys including my teammate when we finally hit the finishing climb. Near the top, one of the followers attacked me and my teammate. I couldn’t hold on any longer but managed to hold onto 6th place.
The collegiate nationals criterium wasn’t that much different from the road race the day before. Any time my teammates or I would attack, the entire field would decide to chase us because they thought we had a good chance of going somewhere. So I once again decided to wait, I tried to position myself and my teammate as best I could on the last lap but it was a bit of a crap shoot and the line on the other side of the field was going much faster than the outside line I chose to take. I best I had managed on the day was 11th place and I thought I was going to die from the risks I took almost too many times!
The Team Time Trial was hoped to be our best chance at winning all weekend. We eased into the effort as best we could and all gave it our best shot at winning. However, our time was only good enough for 3rd place.
