7/12/09

Stage 4 finale







Last stage today. A .98 mile crit in downtown Youngstown. Nice course, but the back side fast section was in pretty bad condition road wise. Only 1 crash in my Masters race (Jim Yankush MVC) and that was on the last lap which was really fast. He slid out in one of the corners which caused me to lock up and go high to the left of him which opened up a slight gap which I could not close and we were so close to the finish that I could not move up in placing. My fault anyway because I should have had better position going into the last lap. I ended up finishing 11th. in the race and slipped from 6th overall in the GC to 10th and that was the final standings. My good friend Phil Hines MVC won the stage today and I couldn't be more happy for him, he deserved it, he worked his ass off this weekend and got the win he deserved. I made some money this weekend and feel I raced agressively and had a great 4 races. My team did a great job in all races and represented Bike Authority and Team Lake Effect well.


Tony finished 11th overall in the Cat.3 GC but lost several spots today as well due to a DQ. He grabbed my bike on the back side of the course after a flat instead of getting to the pit first then grabbing my bike. We were both unaware of the ruling and after the ref explained it to us it makes perfect sense and he was right with the DQ ruling. Basically the same as the cyclocross flat rule. You have to get t the pit to change rather than have outside help on the course. It was a hard pill to swallow but a good lesson that we both will never forget.


Dan and Erin Quinlan, Sam House and all of the Carbon Racing Team and all that were involved did an EXEPTIONAL job with this whole race for the first year, it must have been a logistic nightmare. This race can only get bigger. I think the word will get out that this is a must do event, better than professionally run and everyone was very accomodating and very nice, a truly great stage race.


Thanks Carbon Racing.

1 comment:

lunasphere said...

I agree on all counts about how well run the event was...!!

Glad Phil did well on Sunday...nice job Phil if you read this.

Nice weekend and good racing with the Marut clan over the weekend...

Nate