By Curtis Luckett

The first race of the year is always interesting for several reasons, but it is always about making the unknown known. How’s my fitness? How’s everyone else’s fitness? Today we lined up at the Crosswinds Classic RR, put on by CARVE. This race is so different because of the complete lack of shelter from the winds, as well as the minimal elevation change. The 1/2/3 race started with the biggest field I can ever remember at Crosswinds. On the first lap the race started very easy, but soon picked up as we turned north. The break formed, but guys were coming and going for a bit. The gap stayed relatively small, 100 meters or so.  Village Volkswagen out of Tennessee was working very hard to bring the move back, however they couldn’t finish the job. The small gap did allow Will Frank (Tyson Foods Cycling Team) to jump across.

When the break had finally solidified it contained Hunter East and Tony Steward from OKC Velo, Will Stoeffel, Patrick Walle, Ryan Dupree (Soundpony) and Will Frank from Tyson Foods Cycling Team. With representation from several large teams in the break the move was gone.  As the digs and time in the gutter increased the main group got smaller and smaller. Coming into the last lap the break had 6 still, but the main field was down to 15 or so. Various attacks were going on in the field, but nothing stuck. I spent some time off the front with Brice Jones (Walmart/BMC), but to no avail.

In the break, Steward opened up about 2 km from the finish, Dupree closed the gap setting up Hunter East for a win in his hometown race. Will Frank (Tyson Foods) ended up 5th. Behind the main field was rolling in 4 minutes down. Tyson Foods Cycling Team threw in few last minute attacks, trying to avoid a field sprint. Local rider, Mark Griesse (Tyson Foods) teamed up with a rider from the Marx-Bensdorff team in a dangerous move. However Soundpony worked to set up the sprint for Bryan Duvall, who won the field sprint. Other NWA riders, Josh Estes (Experience Fayetteville), Art Huff, Johnny Purvis, Jake Schneidewind (Tyson Foods) were all in the main field.

Numbers:

Will Frank 5th Place 1/2/3’s
Avg Pwr: 317w – 24.5 mph – 2 hrs 36 min

Note: Photos taken by Robin Grunnagle from the 3/4 race.

PRO? Not PRO? Confession, these are my legs. Caught a little grief for this…

Team caravan. We had about 13 members race.

65+ for the 3/4’s.

Neutral roll out (3/4’s).

Not where you want to be on this stretch of road.

Glad to have the first race of 2016 under my belt. As Curtis said, the unknown became known. Time to go to work! But for now, Let’s Eat!