Today we raced stage 2 of Joe Martin stage race. It was a 110 mile day of rollers and one long but gradual climb about 2/3 of the way through the race. The beginning of the race was very fast as many breaks tried to get established. After a long time, a break of two got away. Realcyclist kept the pace up to the climb. Going over the climb, however, Realcyclist faltered a bit and Mancebo was alone at one point when a breakaway of four went up the road. Realcyclist reorganized on the downhill though and worked to bring the break back in for a sprint finish back in Fayetteville.

Sleece's view

Loved the racing today and I had good legs. Early in the race the three of us went with any moves that looked promising but Realcyclist was pulling anything back that was remotely threatening. Going up the climb I felt good and was up there with the big names. I followed a move by Ben Jacques-Mayne when Mancebo was down to just one teammate on the front but of course they worked to pull us back in. Mancebo is definitely strong but I think today we saw a chink in the armor of Realcyclist as a team. The finish was all power with a couple pitches right before the end. I tried to position well and ended up 22nd on the day which moved me up to 33rd on GC. Again very excited for tomorrow anything could happen. \

Danny's View

We all started today fired up looking for the break. It ended up another one of those races where the break doesn't go for 70kms and it ended up being only 2 guys not threatening at all. The scenery is beautiful in Arkansas with rolling hills covered in green trees and today the race got nice and hard as we climbed back up the stair step hills to Fayetteville. The race leader was down to only a few teammates and the field was down to fifty. All that was left was the 35mile an hour run into town which was awesome fun. Me and Sleece were working together positioning when at 3km to go I hit a bump and ping broken spoke. I tried riding it in but with the breaks rubbing hard I was loosing position all over so I went for a wheel change knowing that I would get pack time.(we are still waiting on that decision) The big plus on the day is that we moved up 4 spots on team GC for only 3 guys thats awesome. Sleece should be top 40 and if I get my time back I will be around 44 tickling the money places! On to tomorrrow.


Hubby's View

I was stoked to see the improvement of everyone today as we all through it down from kilometer zero, trying to sniff out the early move. A big improvement for a NRC race. Looking forward to see what this racing has done to our fitness. Unfortunately for NOW ms nothing went our way today and our attempts were brought back. Once the move of two did go we played the waiting game and stuck together until the final climb when things started to heat up. I was swinging on the back and just made the selection over the top missing my feed. It was a fast run into the finish from there, Danny and Steve were looking great for a top10 stage placing when lining up the field sprint Danny broke a spoke. This was pretty gutting to see as Danny is our go to man for the field sprints. Personally for me I rode better again today and am enjoying the rode back to form!(Better every day) Excited for tomorrow!