Sunday, June 17, 2012

Tour of Washington County

After almost a month long break from racing, LCBC came out for the Tour of Washington County with Joe Siegel racing in Category 4. The Tour of Washington County was a two day, three stage race; consisting of a RR Saturday morning and a TT and crit on Sunday.

Joe in the Tour of Washington County Road Race, Cat 4
Joe had an impressive Saturday morning, finishing 3rd in the RR, keeping him in contingency for the GC. Even though the finish was close, there was still a lot of work to be done on Sunday, since time bonuses were being awarded. To make the fight for GC an even greater challenge, a lot of time bonuses were being awarded via prime laps during the crit, requiring careful strategy on how to manage Sunday's effort.

On Sunday, Joe finished third in the TT and was able to move up to 2nd in the GC. This still left him 38 seconds behind the TT winner and now leader in the GC, and 4 seconds ahead of third entering the crit in the afternoon.

Joe Siegel, 2nd place, Tour of Washington County Cat 4 General Classification
As expected, the crit was brutally fast and several racers were out to make up some time and win the primes. Fortunately, Joe was able to position himself well and snag the first and third prime bonuses, each one second. On the last tight turn leading into the finish, two racers went down right in front of Joe, forcing him into the grass and losing his position in the front as fifth wheel. Recovering quickly, he rejoined the group at around 30th and grabbed the wheel of the 3rd place GC racer. They were able to move up past several racers before the finish and crossed the line together, finishing 18th in the crit and maintaining 2nd place in the GC.

This weekend was a great showing by our newly minted Cat 4 racer Joe and a solid representation for LCBC. We look forward to more races as the we reach the backside of the racing season. There are several races the team has started teeing up within the next couple of months and with Dave Cohen at almost 100% from his surgery and Andrew Stroup finally back on the road from his broken hand, we're looking forward to some full-on team races near term.

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