2009-07-28   West Virginia Rocks (and so does the Oval)!-- An excellent day of racing Saturday down in rural West Virginia at the Lost River Classic Road Race. Excellent turnout, well organized, very friendly locals, great course. McCrea and Milbrandt did the cat 4 race, which was 3 laps around a 10 mile course with two big climbs per lap. The lead group split after the first major climb to about 15 riders, but never got any smaller than that. McCrea impressed everyone on the course with some fearless descents down a very steep ~1.5 mile drop on narrow bumpy roads w/ blind turns and rollers. Both riders pushed the pace hard, working their own paceline for large portions of the flats and finally browbeating the others into some semblance of a working pace line on the last lap. The finish was an all out sprint up a 1 mile climb of 6% grade which topped out at 9-10% in the final 200m. McCrea and Milbrandt hit the hammer hard, being bested by only one rider from Philly (Team Cippo) and leaving the others in the dust. In the end, Milbrandt took 2nd and McCrea a very close 3rd. 

Earlier in the week, the UPMC Blue Train rolled through the Oval at the Wed night B race. The killer leadout train delivered a 1-2 punch, with Milbrandt taking 1st and Crawford 2nd in a photo finish between the two. With these placings, we again took command of the B series team title. Five more races to go... lookout Steel City and Iron City!