First of all, We do need to have a talk before the race to at least discuss who is feeling good, and what roles we might have in the race. 

Once the race starts if you are going to have any real part in a short race like these in the park, you need to be in the top thirty for the first few laps while attacks are flying left and right.  One of the major flaws I saw today was that we tended to only have one or two guys near the front at a time.  If that one guy follows an attack, there needs to be another guy to follow the next one and a third one to follow the next.  

Three people tends to be a critical number in bike racing--In order to make a concerted effort at chasing anything you need three people, one to be chasing, one to be ready to go, and one to be recovering.  

Next up, keep your head up and watch what is going on up the road.  It's important to see who is attacking, or who's in the break.  You can also watch for hand signals from you teammates this way--I often do an overhead point up the road when I need someone to cover something that I can't.  You might be the strongest guy in the race but if you don't know when to use your power, it doesn't do much good.

Finally, Take a teammate with you--It is important to consistently move up in the group, and while it isn't that hard in these wide open park races, you should encourage any of your teammates that you pass to follow your wheel up to the front. And if you see a teammate go by, you can pretty much bump anybody off their wheel and take a free ride up the group.  

About today's race:

The group that went of the front today was basically a field split, more than a concerted effort at a break.  The fact that we only had one person in the 16 should tell us something about our positioning in the field.  

That said, I think there is no question that we try to bring that group back.  And I did as much as I could with Jules and Jeff to bring it back, but we didn't have the horsepower.  We also tried a few attempts to get Eric across, but one chasing 16 are not good chances.  One of my favorite tactics in a situation like this when you know you can't actually bring the break back on your own, is to just continue to blatantly attack and try to keep the field animated.  Sometime you can bring the break back with a bunch of surges by the pack.  

I think the discussion of the 16 man break is being oversimplified.  You'll are saying it is either taking our shot in a 16 man break or a field sprint, but what we really wanted was to bring that break back so a different break could go up the road.  We wanted to reshuffle the deck.  

I agree with Marc's point on the odds, Although I think I put my critical point at 8.  If you have 1 in 8, then you have a good shot at a top 5 finish.  So if we had one more rider in the 16, I would let her go, but 1 in 16 unless you have a straight uphill finish for Ryan or Cavendish to finish it off for you, is a no go.

Enjoyed being back in a race.  Hope to do it again soon!

I know the field sprint is not what we were working for, but by working we were increasing the likelihood of it happening. And by my counts, we have a grand total of 2 top 10s all season in all 123 field sprints. Those are shitty odds if I've ever seen them. 

Why not block and frustrate people, keeping JP and Ragot ready to jump on a bridging attempt?  Why are we the team to chase when many others had 1 in 12 or 1 in 16 odds? 

Why waste our energy on a chasing attempt that we knew we could not actually pull off? 

I don't mean to insult anyone, but seriously, if we knew the firepower up the road enough to know Ryan was in a tough spot, we also had to know we weren't capable of bringing it back or even close. 

If we're going to make the switch from an "all for one, one for all" mentality to a group that plays the odds, we need to make that decision together. The reason I started getting some results and some confidence in these races is because my teammates gave me, then a cat three with 0 results, a ton of support even when I got into breakaways that had really terrible odds for me. I started by getting last in all those breakaways, but eventually started figuring it out and delivering for the team. If my teammates didn't give me that shot to prove myself, I'm not sure I'd be as successful as I am now. 

So the decision yesterday might have been textbook, but to me it doesn't seem like it fits with our history. 

Make no mistake about it, I really wanted to get across to the break. Further, I had just pulled Stokes and Vollbach up to the front as I started to feel better. I saw the split start with a little attack. I told Jules ahead of me to follow (I really must speak louder to him) and looked to my right to see Ryan up front and then following. Dale followed too. We then had two in the split from what I could tell. I got swarmed a bit and faded a bit.

The split established itself and I was trying to get a gauge on how much time it had. Dale wanted to get me across - a good idea. I didn't think it would work, but I gave it a couple of tries anyway.

So what am I trying to say? 1. yes, we should talk to each other beforehand. 2. We should not work for a sprint unless we have someone who wants it and a group willing to make it happen with a leadout. 3. We need to decide on playing the odds or following our history of letting our riders develop.

I also want to point out that last week, I was slaying myself to make it across to Mike's break to improve the odds. Often when he, Ryan and I race, this is our tactic - get one of them up and I'll come across. But I'll be damned if my move fails to get me across, I am going to encourage chasing so that I can try again. 

yacks

I just don't think, given the situation and the people that we had that day, that chasing it back would've increased our odds because - with the confluence of all that day's factors - the most likely outcome was we'd have created a field sprint.

On another day maybe it would be different.

In the end - whatever. It didn't happen.

I think the larger point that is emerging is: we need more people who consistently ride at the front and mix it up. 

Race report: Yesterday was a completely new experience for me, and one of the primary reasons why I joined Kissena. To experience what it is like to ride with a team and how it effects my racing. So my primary goal was to help Pat maintain the KOM jersey and to mark his main competitor (Louisgie Shoy) and hopefully steal away any points from him. Within the first lap I rode up to Pat and he promptly pointed out Shoy to me. So for the rest of the race I just followed him. Not the greatest person in the peloton to follow simply because he's a grinder. Big gear, big guy, from the school of Jan Ullrich. So basically a lot of rocking on the bike. Ok no problem I'll just spin conserve my energy and follow him around. He's a smart rider and takes shelter within the pack and stays about 20-30 riders back until we get to the bell lap for the KOM. At that point he uses the hill to gain position and moves up about 10 riders. He stays there until we get about 1K from the finish line then he promptly uses the far right side to move up to the front and then proceeds to give Pat the hairy eyeball and starts to mark him. Alright so far so good, I'm in position we're are now heading up the hill the pace picks up we hit the turn and BAM!! I cannot match this guys explosive power and he sails away with Pat attacking him on the side. DANG IT!! Alright I latch back on to him again and basically it's a rinse and repeat. Same exact tactics and position. 2nd KOM, this time I'm gonna flush this guy out and force him out and hopefully he'll go too early and Pat can come around him. So just after the finish line I put in a big attack going into the hill. I decide to throw everything I have and see if this works. I'm out in front with a small gap heading up the hill, about 2/3 of the way up, POP! I'm out of gas race over. I see Pat chasing Shoy up the hill and find out at the end that he managed to stay in front. Arggh!!

I have to say it's never fun getting mud thrown in your face and disappointing not to be able to execute the plan, but there is still plenty of racing left and we'll crack this nut. Takeaway, I need to work on my explosive power and increase my 15s power. Shoy can really turn it up super quick allowing him that gap that is impossible to close at race pace. KUDOS to him...

Pat I'm hoping I can make our training sessions. I think it would be great for all of us to try and ride together. Thanks for being the captain out there and organizing us!!

Keep at it!

@Wes  

I get the subterfuge angle, but from experience it's best to be straight up about what your intentions are: "lets work together until the last 200m" is better than saying you'll let them beat you... that's a forfeit. Remember you'll likely be riding with these people more than once so your word matters. 

Also, you did great getting into the last lap break, but — and take this with a pinch of salt — the plan was “golden lead-out”. To contribute to that effort you’d have been better off marking the break and jumping them for the W or connecting with Brendan if you were brought back and getting him in position. At the end of the day it’s all good learning, the team aced all it’s goals and is becoming more and more cohesive thanks to General Grehan’s strategery.

Thanks!!

First, the specifics of the request to chase from me.  The break was already out of sight.  Could we have closed the gap entirely while saving two guys to attack?  Not yesterday.  Could we have closed it enough to make a bridging attempt possible?  Possibly--the size of the split was such that there were almost inevitably passengers and these guys often frustrate and slow down a break.  Further, at that size, the break's mindset is they're off for good, and they usually back down their effort a few notches.  And there were others who were trying to chase.  The guys did the best they could and I took it from there.  BTW, the teams that had similarly bad odds either didn't have the legs or the brain power to do more than they did. (the Brands rider had a teammate behind who was ready to ride across; we just went too late.  WS United had two riders in the break. Major Taylor had no other options. Mengoni, as usual, wasn't doing much)

Dale is right that we weren't well represented enough.  And he probably should have gone farther to state that the moment Eric came back, we should have started trying again.

Marc, I think, wasn't as clear as he could have been.  I believe that he was writing about chasing to close the gap.  I think Ryan mis-read Marc.  

Ryan, likewise, wasn't terribly clear either, at least not to me.  It seemed like he was writing that the guys weren't strong enough to do anything.  I don't think he meant that.   

Also, suggesting that Mengoni knows what their doing is probably unwise.  Their season thusfar has indicated otherwise.  Besides, with the three guys they had in the field, only one could bridge and the other two don't have the mindset to coordinate a chase. 

Vlad is hitting on a solid idea; stepping our efforts up.  If we're going to have 8-11 guys in 110-rider park field, I think we could well have the firepower to do more.  At least, we should try.  

I disagree with the idea that chasing efforts at that point would have necessarily increased the odds of a field sprint.  If it had regrouped, unlikely, another attack would have gone. More likely, in my opinion, is that the pressure from behind would have forced the break to ride harder.  This, paradoxically, might have made it easier for Ryan, as he wouldn't have had to worry about riders attacking, and the pace would have shelled the weaker riders.  When guys are worried about being caught, they're less likely to skip pulls and less likely to play games.  

Patrick & Brendan sorry I didn't show up. I slept through my alarm on Sunday morning. I woke up at 5:54, jumped out of bed and realized I was not going to get dressed, and to PP start/finish to get registered and pinned in 6 minutes. I fed the cats and went back to bed. 

(my head is spinning)