Rock Hill Cycling Classic

Mark Briercheck was on the road this weekend, in a big way, clear down into South Carolina.  Official Results are Pending... but here is his story:
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Sunday April 11, 2010 - Rock Hill, South Carolina.

While Fabian Cancellara was busy winning Paris Roubaix today, I took place in the 2010 Rock Hill Cycling Classic Criterium in Rock Hill, South Carolina (http://www.rockhillbicycleclub.com/RHBCRaces.php). I raced the Cat 123 Masters 35+ race. I believe we had 30 riders in my race of a 20 miles. The course was a mostly flat 1 mile loop around a beautiful lake on the campus of Winthrop University. During the warm up i noticed lots of college girls laying out for a tan by the lake! And then there was the WInthrop University Girls volleyball team practicing outside as well!!! And we're supposed to race in the middle of this?!??!?!!

Once the race got started. It was all business for the 20 miler. Being a single rider with what looked to be some well stocked teams in the crit presented its own set of problems. I made a break at two separate occassions but couldn't get anyone to come with me. Two other times I chased breaks down and spent the rest of my energy. With 2 laps to go a 5 man group made a clean break and had 100 yards on the rest of the field so basically I was done and finished the race mid pack.

After the race was over I learned that actually a solo guy went off the front early in the race (don't know how I missed that) and he pretty much time trialed the whole race and left everyone in the dust. Ouch.

Overall though it was a beautiful warm day (high 70's) and a well organized event. Throw in the fact it was a crash free race and I'll say that for my first race of the year it went quite well. A good day indeed!