...that we call San Ardo. Who would have thought I would like this one? Did it two years ago in the 3's and it was snoresville, and ulimately very frustrating. Ended with me out of position in a mass sprint as Jack Rector showed his mass sprint magic. I had to learn than from the results later since I couldn't SEE the finish. Got caught in the back of the pack over that bridge.
Anyway, cut to two year's later and a different field, what a difference. It was John W and I, and we are looking at all the pros that showed up on the start line thinking wtf? Slipstream, Navigator's, Kodak, Jittery Joe's. What are they doing in dust town?
Pretty active race from the get go, with Cal Giant and some other guy (Arete?) off the front the first lap. I was snoozing the first lap and had to be informed that this was the case. Actually heard the Cal Giant guys making annoying comments like 'if *I* had missed the break I'd be working too'. So, when Spine and Lombardi made a bridging move 1.5 laps in, I went with. Worked some, but it ended up being easy to catch the two, who were hidden ahead of the 45+ 4/5 field in front of us. Things got messed up though, cause that field decided to jump on our wheels on the way past. No amount of shouting could discourage them from this endeavor, and really, if we had the speed we needed we should have been able to leave them right? So no surprise that we were caught pretty soon afterward. Funny thing about the CalGiant guys, cause both times in the break they seemed determined to kill it. I guess that's a tactic, since they have so many guys waiting to sprint, but it's unfortunate. Keep saying 'slow down', 'you'll get caught anyway', what kind of an attitude is that?
Which leads to the next break. Another was off for lap 3 that looked threatening, but was caught, then last lap through the rollers, CVC and someone else hammered the last rollers. I jumped on and all of a sudden we had seven riders and a gap. CalGiant, CVC, LG, AV, me, Lombardi, and out-of-town team that I don't recall. Anyway, some couldn't work, others wouldn't work, CalGiant was determined to sit in (blamed it on me for going too hard he said). Me and a couple of other riders drove it, cause I figure you're out with 15 miles to go, give it a try right?
I actually attacked the break at one point, cause the pace was such that we were going to get caught. Sped up JUST enough to make by seconds. Another 500 yrds and they would have been on us. As it was we let a Slipstream rider bridge up Jared so that he could win the thing (caught us with about 800 yrds to go), CalGiant jumped me (no surprise there) and Matt from Lombardi has a good sprint (worked pretty hard too, so kudos). 4th in an RR is new for me, so I was happy.
John got to sit in all day, which is great. Almost cracked the top ten (11th), so must have been top three in the field sprint. Definitely will be winning one some time soon.
Really nice day out... just don't think about the five hours of driving being longer than the actual race.
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4 comments:
That was a really dominant performance - breakthrough ride if you ask me, even more so than the M35 1/2/3 win from last weekend, which was breakthrough in itself.
I was trying for breaks on the last lap as well and even more so after reading this my takeaway is that if you want a break to work, you've got to make it work.
Are you going to right up day #2 of the weekend? I want something fun to read after that geri-juice/ensure feed I handed up ;-)
i'm a fan of San Ardo ... you can make it as hard as you want to - which can be VERY hard.
it takes awhile to learn how to win out of a break like that ... or inhuman legs like that kid barryO.
you keep hitting those winning moves brother, it's kickass to see!
Tough Mike isn't it? To know how much to commit to a break? On one hand, your own commitment can contribute to the success, but the others have figured out you're willing to more than your share, so they may do less!
On the other hand, you find those others that, either because they are riding single, or just cause they love to kick some ass, will give it up as well. That Jonathan guy from CVC was one of the latter, very valuable.
I guess one lesson is: you need to be willing to get into more than one if there is a chance to succeed, or be really good at picking the perfect one. And doing the former makes you better at the latter, so...
Oh, and on University? Same list of pros showed up (and then some), it's one of the hardest climbing RRs of the season, I'm not in climbing shape, I was toast from Saturday.
Any more explanations to getting lapped three times? I can only say: ouch...
John made it a couple more laps than I did before getting dropped. One year I would like to take this race a bit more seriously.
BTW, was cool to watch Parks, Phipps, and Casey duke it out in the Master's. Casey couldn't hang after a while and looked like Parks was just marking Phipps. If so, it worked out in the sprint as Parks took the win.
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