AFC's Sugar Hill

Full Results

2nd place in the Men's Elite race 
(Racing on Superfly Single Speed)

This year Adam and I had a huge help from Mike Caputi (as always), Jen Blandford, Bill Blandford, Matt O'Byrne, and Tom Schreck for race directing and everything.  It was so nice to have 50% less work to do than usual... still a lot of work but much much less!  I can't thank the whole team enough.  Our whole team seemed to be out volunteering and helping in some way.  AFC is truly something special, I am so lucky to be apart of it.

We were able to raise $6k or more (waiting for the final numbers) for the charity.  That money will go directly to DESTINY Diabetes and Kupenda For the Children.  Adventures For the Cure (AFC) is our nonprofit cycling team and we have 0 overhead costs.  100% of what we raise goes to our charity efforts.

Sweet setup with the AFC tent, Hub tent, and moon bounce

Race Report:  I was registered for the Expert (Pro/Cat1/Elite or whatever you want to call it) category, racing on my single speed as always because I tried riding on gears and I kinda really hated it a lot... SS is just so much freggin fun!!

I knew that from the start I would be at a disadvantage, compared to the guys racing with gears, on that first road section.  I was worried I might be last or mid-pack going up the huge waterbars hill and therefore almost immediately not where I wanted to be.  In years past when racing SS in the Elite field that is how it went down and it was very demoralizing.  

However!  Somehow I managed to spin my face off, or maybe the start was slower than usual?  On the road someone behind me gave me a motivating "Don't stop spinning" and I thought to myself  "Yea!  I can handle this!  I can hold this position and not fall back!"  Whatever happened I found that I was in a very very good position at the start of waterbars.  

At the very top of waterbars just before it gets ridiculously rocky I knew we were going slow and I used that as an opportunity to make a jump to get ahead of everyone I was with and slip into 2nd place behind Greg Capelle (who won the prime at the top of the hill).  I didn't want do bury myself to catch him and win the prime... he was really moving!

I felt strong so I really threw it down to try to establish a small gap on the field and/or catch Greg (who already had a small and growing gap).  It worked!  Somehow it worked!  I heard the bike noises / breathing / voices of my competition slowly diminish behind me.  I dared not turn around to look with all of the technical riding ahead of me, but I knew I was establishing a gap and I could also see that I was slowly gaining ground on Greg.... 2nd spot was more than I could hope for this early in the race...

Photo thanks to AFC Member Ty Long.  More of his photos from this race are here.

I was going a little harder than I should so I scaled it back a bit. 

I glanced behind me and saw Chris Beck was there, but didn't see anyone else.  On the flat open field of Morning Choice Beck passed me says "Nice gear choice" and zoomed ahead to catch Greg.  I kept my pace.

Once Beck caught Greg he just sat on him (using no energy at all and enjoying the free ride) while Greg was digging deep.  I wanted to yell at Greg... "don't let him sit on you like that" or "why don't u come back here and give me a break for a bit".  Eventually Beck left Greg, in commanding fashion so that Greg would not get a free ride, and I was able to slowly real Greg in and pass him on Ridge.  

Onto the 2nd lap I was about 15-30 seconds behind Beck with no one in sight behind me.  I kept digging deep but not so deep that I might make a mistake on a technical spot.  Always just riding on the limit, but never over.

On the 3rd lap Beck was out of sight, with a lead that extended to over 30 seconds.  At that point I did start making a few mistakes and I knew that I must be getting tired so I scaled it back just a bit more.  2nd was a fantastic finish and I did not want to loose that spot due to a flat or major crash!!!  2nd place would be a dream come true almost :)

In the end I was able to hold my position and finish 2nd and just over 1 minute ahead was Beck.  Behind me Capelle held his 3rd place and Ryan Fawley finish only seconds behind him rolling through the finish with a flat rear tire.  After Ryan was Jon Gdowik (also racing on a SS) and then Ron Harding (my 100 mile SS competition but opting for gears today), Jordan Kahlenberg (x-AFC team mate and all around mountain bike stud), and then Lance Byrd!!! (Team AFC and also on a SS!!!  SS4Life).

After the race I was crazy hungry.  I have no idea how I can get so hungry from riding my bike for only 1hr 45min.  I had 3 PROBARs, CeraSport, and some New Belgium beer (we had 2 kegs so I had to have some).

It was a great day :)