I drove to Cour d'Alene on Sunday with Brian Williams to compete in Vertical Earth's Muddy Huetter roubaix race. We met up with Josh and Sarah and Shaun at the Vertical Earth shop for the 5 mile group ride out to the race start. The weather was acting like it was going to rain, but it ended up staying dry. The course was on mostly asphalt farm roads northwest of Cour d'Alene. There were two sections of dirt/gravel that were fairly smooth and fast. I remember two small hills on the mostly flat 10 mile circuit. Race officials changed the circuit due to a recently graded road.
I joined the A group to get additional miles (didn't really feel like driving 5 hours for a 25 mile race). There was an attack within the first .5 mile that Brian responded to. Shaun responded to the next attack and Josh and I hung with the group for several laps. The wind picked up as the race went on and portions of the circuit saw some pretty severe echelons as riders tried to stay out of the wind. After hanging in for 3 laps, there was an acceleration at the beginning of the 4th lap and I cramped up and was dropped like of box of rocks. I rode the last two laps alone. :(
Afterward, I learned that Brian attacked at the start of the 5th (last) lap and rode the last 10 miles alone for the win. The chase group that contained Josh caught up to Shaun's group for an uphill bunch sprint with Josh finishing 3rd and Shaun finishing 5th! Wow! Quite the NRO presence! Also, Sarah finished 2nd and had a great time in her first ever road race.
Thanks for all the encouragement, guys! NRO rocks!
-Joshua
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