UNCA Race Report: Conference Championships

FROM JED:

Hi Folks,

With the end of school in sight and finals on our minds, 7 UNC Asheville road racers traveled over to Brevard this weekend for Conference Championships.
The weather on Saturday was perfect, and the course consisted of mostly flat roads with a mile long 13-15% grade hill right in the middle of each lap. The Men's C race was two laps for 31 miles and the Men's A was four laps for 62 miles. As we suffered up it on the last lap I was wondering if it hurt or helped us, but one thing thing is certain and that is it helped Lee Meroney as he road away from the whole Men's C field to solo his way to a Conference Championship by close to three minutes. Drew Cistola also road really well finishing 4th. Dave Peter did not have such a good day because he tried to help a rider who lost his chain and then that rider swerved into him and crashed him. Not a nice way of saying thanks.

In the Men's A, a break went away early, and Travis Fender tried to go with it, but did not quite have the legs. He then got gapped by the group but managed to time trial his way back to the field. The field was over 50 riders of mostly Cat 1 and 2s.
It was a tough day where Lees Mcrae and their 12 riders dictated the field, but Travis and I hung in there for the field sprint and he ended up 13th and I was 20th overall. We were both in the top 10 in division two schools, and scored points for the team. Mike Small helped with some pulls but I think he got frustrated with the antics of these young brash riders, and Brendan Dillow did not have his best day after suffering from sickness the previous week. That seemed to be the story of the season.

On Sunday, Drew Cistola came out firing in the Crit and he and Lee Got in a 4 man breakaway early in the race, which stuck, and he won the sprint with Lee finishing 4th. So, UNC Asheville won both days in the Men's C race.

I road the Crit on sunday, and we went from the start. Man was it fast, and the field was stretched out single file for the whole backstretch at about 30 mph. I was in a full sprint and still could not get to the front. Not my best day, but a good learning experience, and I road hard the whole race.

We now are just waiting to find out if any one us qualified for Nationals, and there is a good chance that two of us did.

All and all a good season and we had a lot of fun and learned a lot.

Jed