Joe Martin Stage Race begins!

The first day of Joe Martin Stage race in Arkansas had us racing a short, hill-climb prologue in the Devil's Den state park. This morning we went for a short spin to turn the legs over then prepped our road bikes before driving to the course. Mancebo posted the fastest time of the day at 8 minutes flat. The field here is smaller than other NRC stage races at 96 riders, but the quality of the field is still very good as most of the most of the pro teams are present.

Danny's View

Uphill TT's are not my favorite thing to do but everyone secretly enjoys time trialing no matter what they say. The pain must be good for us. Before the start we were all chatting about the tailwind that we would have for the majority of the climb, and knowing that our Specialized SL3's were well under the weight limit anyway, Sleece and I thought what the heck we will throw our discs on for the TT. Initially interim director Papa Leece agreed with us but upon arrival seeing we were the only two with discs he wasn't so sure. It was time to throw caution to the wind and hammer that TT.  Since it was such a short effort by the end I had absolutely know idea how I had done. All I knew was it hurt. My time of 9 min 14 sec put me at 63rd overall. Lots of room to move up in the next few days.

Stephen's view

It's amazing how much better my legs felt after coming down 5,000 ft. The weather in Arkansas has been beautiful although we've had a couple quick showers and even some thunder this evening. After a long warm-up, I hit the course hammered all the way up it. I had the privilege of being the last rider out of the gate as papa Leece had the lucky draw in the director's meeting so now I can say I've been the last rider to start a tt in an NRC stage race. Unfortunately I didn't defend my position and ended up 55 seconds behind the winning time. We're all excited for the racing tomorrow as all the teams will be gunning for it and we're ready to be in the mix.

Hubby's view

The talk has already started for tomorrow. The boys are fired up to make the days break and get a good ride in. For me the tt didn't go to plan as it was my dream tt uphill and not to long, unfortunately the legs were absent and I was left creeping for the last 2km when the road kicked up.  I caught my minute but then began to fade. (If I had a disk who knows where I would I could have finished?) Na more to the point I made a big stride in my recover from the poor health I have been having!So onwards and upwards, can't get much worse so only positive and I am looking forward to racing my bike tomorrow with the my great teams mates sleece and heeley. P.S it looked like Heeley was lugging a fridge up the climb today, he has put on some extra pounds!