Okay, this never ends well for me, but here goes:

5 sec 916
30 sec 518
1 min 441
2 min 350
3 min 324
4 min 308
5 min 299
10 min 275
15 min 267
20 min 264
30 min 258
40 min 256

Talked to Setanta guy last night and it appears they will have seven guys there to wreak havoc. I would suggest heavily marking Graham as they will be aiming to deliver him to 1st place and looking to shut down Lance. The goal is simple: be in front of these two at the finish.

For some strange reason I am off sailing in a regatta this Thursday—Saturday. Mike P. is out of commission too with a wedding. Good luck and enjoy the beers tonight!

Cool intel. If folks that make it and can stick to Graham like glue, go for it. Just stick stick stick to him and do nothing. Kinda a dick move, but it is exactly what the field has been doing to me for 3 or 4 weeks, so he can have a turn in that awful red jersey.

I think WDC will be there. Hopefully some other folks can get down. If not, no big deal. As far as strategy goes, I say let Lance run free, it can be Setanta's job to deal with him. Let other breaks go (Try to have a man in it), and make Setanta work to bring them back. That's what they all made us do last week.

Then I will have 3 weeks to do what I can do, maybe I can recruit Keith, Ragot, WDC and some other 3s to sandbag with me. If Scotto's is doing it, what is stopping us, pride? Bah!

i will be there tonight

questions:

1. does this graham have a sprint?

2. what does he look like/ride?

food for thought:

G.S. Mengoni completely controls the Tuesday night Floyd races. A big part of how they do it is by ALWAYS having two men in the top 10. Always. They facilitate this by the following method: when someone up front is tired, they raise their hand to the sky. Another Mengoni moves up and relieves them after a verbal communication/acknowledgment of the exchange.

It sounds like our plan is to let Setanta do the work tonight, but that still means that we need to be close to the front to get in the breaks. I suggest we use the technique above.

Nice Mengoni tactic to copy William. I've read about always having two "pawns" at the front, while the "King" stays top 10 but not the idea of rotating them out. That's smart.
Graham has a sprint, but not a specialist by any means. Here's Graham who solo'd 4 laps last week to win (ouch):

I've always thought Graham was rather unassuming on the bike. Last year in a Floyd race I was out front solo for about a lap when he bridged up to me. He was riding unattached in a plain white jersey and black shorts. I let him rest for half a minute thinking he would need it if he was to be an assest to our break. We then proceeded to trade pulls for about 4-5 minutes until he moved to the front on one and rode me off his wheel. He looked back once and I just shrugged (which drenched my shoulder in the drool that was running off my goatee). He went on for 3 laps to win solo as I was gobbled up by the field. Seemed like a nice guy though!

He rides a white specialized with deep carbon reynolds wheels, and ruggedly handsome facial hair. Hopefully they make him wear that red jersey.

WDC Woijciech and others attending: I like the team tactics idea but fear we will be short handed to pull it off.

I plan to be out there.

Oh and his sprint isn't amazing. I've beaten him in 3 of 4 breakaway sprints, so that doesn't say much. A field sprint is a great option to limit his point gains, even though we are not huge fans of that.

Posted By: mperlbergruggedly handsome facial hair

i'll cover him!

[giggles]

[[blushes]]

Do you think this guy has any idea that there is a love-in, centred on a picture of him that someone smuggled in, on the FBF Thursday Race thread on the Kissena site?

Ah, semi-competitive amateur cycling. Not gay.

I think the gratuitous crotch-centric aspect of the picture adds a lot to gayness.

Absolutely smack bang in the centre of the image.

I just had fluid drained off my knee so I'm going to give it a go.

Dancing on the fine line between tough and stupid,
-j.

hmm

seriously dogg - rest up

it is going to be several kinds of unpleasant out there tonight

Ryan just informed me that 7-8 calls for severe thunderstorms, high wind, and hail. SWEEEEET! Mix in the dive bombing remote control airplanes, badgers, and man-eating plants. Oh, and a few dangerous riders and a heat wave.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_3TlrZLpQ0

This thread is the best. I Kissena.

OK, I'll be at GAP from 6-6:05 if anyone wants to caravan. Unless there is large hail. Big caveat.

i might be a bit late

wait up?

-wm

917 572 3741

OK. 415-341-4470

Just got a call from Delta, they canceled our flight. Floyd Bennett Field here I come.

I'm meeting Jeff at Eastern Parkway and Bedford shortly after 6 for anyone who wants to do that. Mike we can get you at Lefferts if you like

Will you do some kind of Haka like the All Blacks before a match while singing that song? That might impress some Setanta riders and others.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/db/Allblackhaka.jpg/450px-Allblackhaka.jpg

We won!!!!

(ducks)

Yup. that is pretty much how it went down.

Seriously though, I would have loved to duel it out with Graham and Setanta. They brought their whole squad to support Graham's 2 point lead in the overall competition. We had arguably our strongest squad of the year: Jeff & Jeff, WDC, Wojciech, Ryan, Myself and Carl.

Unfortunately the weather gods that canceled my flight to Chicago also canceled the race. It would have been very nasty to race in.

That leaves 3 weeks to regain the lead from Graham. I'm pretty confident we can pull it off.

Michael

Bummer!

I guess the Rockleigh organizers are a bit more carefree - we raced in the stormy rain. :p

I think I got Rich in for this one. Anyone else? I would love some assistance.

Any ideas for how to strategize? Down 2 points to Graham with 3 races to go. His team grows and gets stronger by the week. They will likely have to control some early stuff.

Mike

i'll be there on thursday

strategy: get a Kissena in every break, and make it CRYSTAL CLEAR that we aren't doing ANY work to bring ANYTHING back

if setanta wants the jersey, they can work for it

during the race, you just tell me what you need and i will be all over it like Oprah on a Baked Ham

we'll get those points back

Having signed up for Catskills for whatever reason, Harlem has been demoted to training race. I'll plan to be there Thursday.

I think a valid question is, should we let Graham get into early breaks if he's brash enough to get in them? If we have a strong enough squad, we could leave him dangling off the front long enough to set Mike and maybe someone else up for some serious counters. The risk, of course, is that he'll be able to hold off the whole pack alone for infinity laps again.

Basically, I'm proposing we give him a little leash and let him attack himself out if he so chooses.

Also, for the sake of argument, what if we didn't race a Kissena race? What if we just literally let everything go that didn't have a point threat to Mike? What if we didn't get in ANY moves in the first half of the race? Would Setanta step up? I bet they would. Are we willing to let the win ride away for the jersey?

Open questions.