MO State RR Champs

David Neidinger - Team Colavita/Parisi : MO Cat 4 RR champion - props.

Made the decision friday to race on sunday. Left saturday eve for Sainte Genevieve, crashed in the hotel, registered and rolled out at about 9:15 on Sunday. It was myself and fellow teammate David N in the 4's, britton and matt in the 3's, and lone 5 rider phillip w. 2 laps of a 33.5 mile course. 67 miles total.
Pace was fairly calm for the majority of the race, no one really tried to hammer it in the flats. The large number of hills though served to break up the field quite nicely. Going into this race I was thinking "sweet, hilly course, I should do well." Was managing the course just fine, sticking it on the climbs, and hanging on downhill and in the flats. David and I spent the majority of the race near the front. We came up to this long climb where they had the KOM set up and it was a long, sustained climb, quick descent with another climb right away. this part ate me up. I was off the back of our elite group of 10-15 riders. Caught a nice wheel though and got back on quickly. It was frustrating falling off like that though. It's been awhile since something like that has happened and I knew next time around I probably wouldn't have the legs to hang on again. All the hills inbetween there were short enough that I could manage. Entered the second lap and I was stuffing gu and water, trying to keep my energy up. Rolled up to that hill again and got shelled off again, though not as bad as the first time. there were maybe 2-3 miles until the finish and I could not bridge that gap. The lead group stayed off by maybe 100-200 meters the whole time. I just didn't have any power left.
Rolled into the finishing road which had some rollers and a small climb and I was toast. Sat up for the most part and limped the last 1k to the line. I could see the lead group finishing in the distance and David N. sprinted to a 2nd place overall, 1st missouri finisher: MO state champ.

I finished 14th out of just under 50 starters. 2 guys passed me in the last 300 as I was soft pedaling.
Good race, tough competition, nice course.

I'll take this next week hard and get a week of rest before Tour of KC and then Tour of Lawrence July 4th weekend. I can already feel that after this week of training a week off is in order.

Matt P. took 2nd place in the 3's race. Britton placed somewhere near the top 15. Phillip was in the top 20 in the 5's.

5 Colavita racers, 1 MO Champ, 2 podiums, all top 20 finisher - not bad.