Reston Town Center Grand Prix

Another weekend, another race. This time Joe Siegel and Andrew Stroup made their way out to the Reston Town Center Grand Prix on Sunday for the Cat 3/4 race. This was the first time either of them had ridden in a combined Cat 3/4 field and Andrew's first race, since his broken left hand and the addition of three titanium screws (aka weight weenie cheater)!

To fully appreciate the events at the race, notice should be taken that both Joe and Andrew didn't sign up for this race until 11PM on Thursday, an hour before the closing of online registration. Being new neighbors and drinking away the heat, a gentlemen's agreement was made, which ended up with two registrations for a Sunday beating we like to call road racing.

Andrew in the RGP, Cat 3/4

The course was a 1.25km crit w/ 8 turns, half uphill and half downhill, making this a fast and technical course. Straight off the whistle, the field went off sprinting, stringing the group out and forcing everyone to dig  into the pain cave early to maintain the pace. Unfortunately, between the brutal pace and the inability to negotiate the turns effectively because of his hand, Andrew found himself off the back and ended up pulling himself.

Joe in the RGP, Cat 3/4

Joe was able to hang on to the back of the group until a few laps to go, where he slowly moved his way up the group as the pace slightly eased. Towards the last couple laps, several racers attempted to breakaway from the group. One racer created an 18 second gap, the largest throughout the race, with 3 laps to go, which was where Joe laid down the hammer and broke away from the group and bridged the gap. Joe was looking for racers to work with him to maintain a breakaway, but quickly found himself in the group and ended the race in a bunch sprint, finishing 20th overall.

LCBC is once again well represented by Joe and Andrew and we look forward to finishing up the race season strong this year w/ a couple more races in our cross hairs.