Breakaway

August has been a rather uneventful month on the cycling front, and though the month started out slowly, the pace changed on the 20th.  August 20th was my first day of college, and ever since, cycling has taken the back seat to learning.

I raced twice during this past month, the Appalachia Visited Road Race, and I must confess, it turned out to be one of my favorite race courses of all time.  I finished first in the junior category and won a shiny Cane Creek headset for my Cannondale CAAD10!

My other race in August, the Mt. Davis Challenge, was a fun race too.  Since I missed out on this year's edition of the Tour of Tucker county, it was by far my most difficult race this season.  It was a lollipop style course, that passed over the highest point in Pennsylvania, descended the ridge, climbed over it again, and then had a sweet descent to the finish.  It wasn't but three miles from the start that teammate Derek Clark and I attacked on the first hard climb.  We opened up a huge gap and spent the rest of the race catching people from categories with earlier start times.  I was holding on fine until the penultimate climb when my legs said 'enough.'  I continued at a slightly reduced pace for a second place finish, while Derek got the win.

As an added bonus, we made the paper!  (For those of you wondering, my name isn't actually Jonathan Switz.)

Next up is the Appalachian Time Trial, I'm so excited about it, that I actually built up a TT bike!