Bend, OR
Alister Ratcliff takes 5th Place
http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/usa-cycling-junior-u23-elite-road-national-championships-cn-1/day-3/results
I felt pretty good and I was super motivated with this being my last crack at a U23 nationals event. I was one of the first people to go down the start ramp which I believe was to my advantage. I didn't have a whole lot of fast riders around me in the start order and therefore no one was able to catch me, instead I caught a whole string of riders just on the way out to the turnaround. Alex Howes (reigning criterium and road u23 national champion) was my 1 minute man and after the turnaround I keyed off of him to judge the rest of my time trial. I rested as much as I could on the downhill stretch after the turnaround and I hammered it as hard as possible on the climbs on the last loop of the course. I almost caught Howes on one of the last rollers of the loop coming in to the finish. I knew I had posted a good time but I was disappointed when they held everyone around for a few minutes after my finish telling us they needed to keep the top 3 on the standings. I was sure I was going to be a part of this at least for a short while, but they called out 3 numbers mine wasn't one of them. I rolled back to the car in confusion and disbelief that Howes could have beaten me. (He was one of the numbers that was chosen to stick around.) Anyways, I didn't think about it much longer until later that afternoon when I saw the results. I was 5th! and I had 5 minutes drive back down for the podium awards ceremony!
