I'll be at GAP at 6.

me too

short report:

Ryan Johnston goes solo for the last 1.5 laps FTW!

2 guys surf the PRO123 field to snag 2nd and 3rd.

I grab 5th, John 6th in the sprint.

Carl was 7th or 8th I think.

Graham 0 point, we are now tied for the lead.

Here is the long report:

preface: Racing with the 3/4 crew this season has been awesome. We are planning strategy, racing like a team, and doing some ass kicking. It is also really amazing to see things pay off after you lay out the plans before hand. 4 guys in the top 10 tonight - awesome!

Guys who were up at the front can probably explain things a bit better than I, but I'll give it a shot.

The race when down pretty much as planned. Ian and Jeff white were all over early moves. As they got tired, Ryan J and Wojciech (who was doing double duty covering Graham) were all over the next set of moves. A few breaks got away -Kissena in them all- I made a couple attempts to bridge but the field was watching and eventually everything came back together.

A United guy from the first break attacked soon after he was caught - and John got right on that move. The field was toodling around at a pretty leisurely pace - until Graham would attack and Kissena would swarm him, Owens sticking too his wheel and Ian, WDC, and other making sure I was right there.

Fast forward to 2 to go. RJ rolls off the front with 1.5 or maybe 2.5 to go. Dangles off the front. Pro123 main pack catches us while he is away, at first it seems like guys attacking on the left so the 3/4 is all over it, and then it is pretty clear "don't mix in with them" etc. A scottos guy and organic guy attack at this moment. They draft the field and take 2nd and 3rd, but RJ holds on for the win.

The sprint lead out is really slow - total cluster fuck because we aren't really stringing it out since RJ is off the front. I loose John's wheel and go wide left before the turn. He sprints early and I follow a few wheels up to him. A foundation guy blasts past me in the spring. I catch John and come around him at the last second for 5th. He gets 6th.

The officials took our protest on 2nd and 3rd place but do nothing. They remind everyone to follow the rules.

The Scottos guy was more in the right than the organic guy. The organic guy literally followed the P123 field as the snaked back and forth. The Scottos guy did kinda stay to the right and only was in the draft when they came to the inside, but he did attack when the rest of the field respected the neutralization. Whatever.

Ryan needs to post a complete report with his version.

-Mike

Bush Leaguery: Jumping on the other field with 2km to go—we were definitely jacked. Should have been 1,3,4 Kissena.
Karma: We probably were the cause of the field catch with all our blocking and shutdowns.
Upside: it allowed Ryan to stick his breakaway. Mike back neck and neck with Graham.

I'm pretty sure I can post a teaser for Ryan's upcoming report: "I attacked, and then I was like, fuuuuuuuck."

I did my time for the first 20 minutes with Ian, riffing off each other covering stuff. We let a lot of guys go and we responded to the moves that mattered, following wheels when possible. We didn't talk much during this time, but when I saw Ian burn a match to drag the race up to a move, I made sure to get the next one done. And lo and behold, Ian responded to things when I slipped back a bit. So we burned only two guys controlling the entire first half of the race.

Props to Mike and WDC for barking out clear orders from somewhere behind from time to time, or simply screeching "Kissseeeeenaaa!" when they wanted someone other than them to close a gap. Really, everyone kept the faith and stayed out of the wind for the first 20 minutes, which I choose to interpret as a vote of confidence for me and Ian.

The rest of the race, in all honesty, I was just struggling to stay in position. Didn't do too much except get to the front when one of our attackers went away and blocked. Basically rode the front at 235 watts, hard enough to let the gap creep up yet stay on the front.

Speaking of watts, here's the opening volley of this week's edition of Power Wars!

5 sec 721
30 sec 505
1 min 395
2 min 325
3 min 301
4 min 300
5 min 292
10 min 281
15 min 267
20 min 267
30 min 257
40 min 255

Entire race (56:09) 250

Norm power for the entire race: 270 watts for 56:09.

we did a really good thing tonight!

ian ellis, jeff white, jeff owens, michael, wojciech, john malcolmson and myself COMPLETELY controlled this race.

we had a kissena off the front at almost every point, held the field back to give Ryan room to take the win (chapeau!) and got perlberg back into 1st place (albeit, tied with Graham). Poor Lance and Graham had so many Kissena's on them every time they attacked, I'm surprised they didn't pull out and demand a refund.

a very fun, exciting night - congrats to all!

next week, more of the same!

p.s. disappointing about those two HACKS not getting DQ'ed - whether or not they were technically in the 1,2,3 field draft as they passed, they used the confusion and the complete self-neutralization of the rest of our field to make their separation. Brian Fackler (rhymes with HACKler), from Scotto's was especially a bitch about it - i'm going to have my eye on that dude.

ALL THAT SAID . . . winning is the best revenge!

Forgot: Props to Wojciech for snagging the prime!

Agree with you William, we had Lance and Graham seriously befuddled.

Hell yeah, RJ, and hell yeah everyone!

I'll echo what William said, Kissena really controlled this race. It was really fun to have a plan and a group with the legs to carry it out.

It's funny, at no point until the final lap would I have thought winning solo was a remote possibility, but I guess sometimes it just works out.

My intention was to help Mike and follow orders. My role was to hide out until about 20 minutes, and then assume responsibility for attacking and making things hard. It didn't exactly work out that way. About 3 laps in I rolled up to the front, just to start getting some better position. There was an attack and William barked at me to follow it, which I did. After dying on a Scotto's wheel for about a mile while the break established, we were away, and there were five us. Wojciech was one of them, working like a horse, as usual.

Honestly, I was dying in that break, and anyway I was told early to be in breaks but not work, so that's what I did. Standard bitching and moaning from some United guy about me not pulling through, which I ignored until he persisted and I calmly explained to him that it would help if he would rotate over and slow down a little so everyone didn't have to sprint to get around him.

Anyway, we were away for 3 or 4 laps maybe, and when that got reeled in with 5 or 6 to go I was pretty gassed, so I sort of started hiding out to see if I could get some legs back to help lead out what looked like would be a inevitable bunch sprint.

So with three to go I felt better and started moving back up. I saw John on the front unprotected so I figured the best thing to do was get up there and get him out of the wind. I accelerated up the left side on the windy stretch thinking I could just lift the pace and string things out, but no one followed and John was still on the front, and I had a small gap. I looked at John to see what he wanted from me and he seemed to indicate, "keep going" so I did. It really wasn't an attack at all in that I wasn’t trying to get away, just make things harder. It just sort of happened accidentally.

So, I settled in, not at all thinking I could make it stick, but I wanted to make a respectable try, and stay away as long as I could for the training. I think I was lucky to have a perfect storm working in my favor - me not mattering in the overall, everyone marking the usual suspects, a field that was a little worn out, and a bunch of teammates going just hard enough to make no one want to make it harder, but not so hard they would bring me back.

It really wasn't until I made the second to last turn (onto the windy stretch) on the final lap that I thought, "holy shit, this move could actually stick." I still had a decent gap and I figured that if I could somehow maintain it across the windy stretch and make the final right turn out of the wind and onto the finishing straight, I'd have a chance as long as I still had a few seconds.

Crossing that windy stretch hurt like hell. My Garmin wasn't working so I have no clue what my HR or power was. I just know my legs were on fire and I felt a nauseous. I took my final look back right before the turn. I had the gap I wanted so I took the turn as fast as I felt I safely could and then stood up and just hammered out of it, never looking back. A few chasers were closing (see other reports re: 123 mixing bs), but I won by a good length.

The funny thing was that I was so tired, and honestly so surprised it had happened, that I didn’t even salute because of the creeping feeling I had messed up and there was still a lap to go! Let’s just say the lap counting and flag waving on Thursdays isn’t quite what it is on Tuesdays.

Anyway, big thanks to the guys who sat on and let me stay away, and I’m super glad to have gotten the win while we still got what we wanted (well, almost) for Mike. By far my best result as a 4 – never in a million years would I think I could win at FBF, let alone in that fashion. I’m pretty psyched about it; I can’t lie.

Nice work everyone - let’s get out there and smash ‘em up again next week!

Ryan is the MAN!

Great team work. I almost felt sorry for Graham. There was at least one Kissena on his wheel the entire race. And his team just isn't that strong, except for a couple of guys. And he's super nice.

Scottos and Organic guy weren't DQ-ed b/c....oh, b/c the organizers said it was "sketchy" since our field got caught. Well, then why haven't they returned to using the entire course instead of cutting it in half when there's no puddles in sight? Disappointing b/c it cost Mike a lot of points. Those guys should've known better. They're not dumb, they had to have heard 50 other people saying "let them go, that's the 123 field." But Ryan still won, so woot woot.

Oh, hopefully the Organic guy is calming down. I tried to put in some good karma and help clean up Lance after the race with the homemade first aid kit. Took a tumble and will have some nasty road rash on his hip and leg. He said next time to bring vodka! That guy rocks.

WDC great job general-ing. Although, at one point early, Lance went up the road and Wojciech went after him and I thought you and mike might have been saying JEFF JEFF, but I was basically tunnel vision with marking Graham the whole race. Maybe I should have launched up too?

Anyway, great job. I love it when a plan comes together.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DH5ZiA1ZLQ

You did a great job, Jeff

Savor that $10 bill ... Saaavor it!

Great team work today, though next time I request a more "active" position :P

Early on I was in a group of 5 or so with Ryan. It was me and Breakaway working the most. I got pissed that no one was working and went solo for a lap to get the prime. Lance nor graham was in the break so I though it would be fine to work, even if only to the next prime. Ryan kept telling me to take a break, I wanted to pull our group for the next 8 laps. "hehe"

Final lap we did get combined with the Pro123 (or was it earlier) but I didn't notice Scotto and Organic catching a ride with them. On the cross section I was on the inside when I felt someone touch my side, it was the Floridian Wonder wheel guy. At that point I had this feeling... Sure enough on the final corner he takes it a bit too fast and goes into lance. I was right behind him but managed to brake hard enough to just fall lightly as I came into contact with him.

I talked to a bunch of guys after and no one noticed Scottos and Organic mix in with the pro123's. I'm not saying whose right or wrong here as I didn't see much myself, but a lot of people seemed to think Kissena just wanted to salvage every possible point.

I think there's one big take-away for the next two races in this series: Unless some key people were no-shows tonight, Setanta really only has three strong guys, including Graham. So we should de-emphasize marking their team and just make sure Graham is covered. Frankly, Organic made a much stronger showing with only like four guys.

How does this affect our strategy? Not a whole bunch, but in the first half of the race, it most definitely does. We don't have to follow every Setanta up the road. We can just let them go. Why not? The whole point of marking Setanta jerseys and ignoring early breaks that didn't include them was to make sure the onus was on them to defend their leader's jersey. Guess what? They didn't defend their jersey. They didn't even try.

And so what do we get out of ignoring them? White (me!) and Ian, or whoever is responsible for the first part of the race, can mostly follow wheels rather than closing down gaps alone. So maybe we can burn two guys in exchange for 30 minutes instead of 20.

So we can mostly ignore Setanta as a team, focusing only on Graham (unless they produce a lot more riders in the last two races). Lance is now out of the running as well since he crashed out tonight, so we can ignore Organic. In fact, since the pack is so accustomed to responding to Lance's attacks, we can actually block for him and then follow others' wheels back up, burning matches that aren't ours.

So here's my take: We don't have to worry about Organic, Setanta, or Lance anymore. We just have to: 1. Get Mike points; and 2. Destroy Graham.

Ideas welcome.

I think people may have been thinking we were bitching about salvaging points b/c:

A: They lost

B: They weren't paying attention to see those guys suck off the 123's

C: We got the win anyway

I heard some people say, "You got the win, why do you care?" And in one sense, I can see what they mean. But they don't understand that the entire endeavor is to weasel a free frame! (and race as a team) Not get a random win. It was nice, but Mike getting points was the main focus. And I was at the front for the last two laps to see the whole thing. I have without a doubt, no problem with the protest. Those two guys cheated. Flat out. They knew what they were doing and they used a full lap to establish their break. It was bullshit and weak.

Posted By: Wojciech PGreat team work today, though next time I request a more "active" position :P

I think you did awesome work considering the position you were in. Your early break was looking good - guys in the field were really complaining about us and Setanta blocking saying "aw why don't we just go home if we're not going to race" etc.

Posted By: Wojciech P
I talked to a bunch of guys after and no one noticed Scottos and Organic mix in with the pro123's. I'm not saying whose right or wrong here as I didn't see much myself, but a lot of people seemed to think Kissena just wanted to salvage every possible point.

I watched it happen from 3rd wheel. All of a sudden I was on the front because of the move they made. I could have gone with them, but I didn't because I try to be a good sportsman. Their move was total bullshit.

I will say Scottos guy was less wrong (still wrong) than Organic. Organic was sitting on the back of the 123 field as they moved around.

After the race I was talking to him about it and he was a total dick. I'm sorry to say that. He started yelling and did the poke me in the chest while yelling thing. Like a drill sergeant dressing down a private. I asked him not to poke me, and he flipped saying, "you got a problem with poking? I'll poke you if I want to poke you." etc. Total dick. And he has man boobs. I should have squeezed them.

Power Peaks

Peaks between 11seconds and 55 seconds all lifetime bests.

5s (978 watts)
10s (956 watts)
20s (918 watts)
30s (758 watts)
1min (551 watts)
2min (399 watts)
5min (315 watts)
10min (296 watts)
20min (263 watts)
30min (255 watts)
40min (250 watts)

should we downgrade him to a 5?

Uhhh, 20 seconds at 918 is pretty insane. Was that your sprint?

Man boobs ! He clearly doesn't understand that wearing lycra is a privilage not a right.

Check the calibration

I actually did zero before the race.

Shablamo!

Winner!

Winner!

Eeerr trying to upload a pic of RJ but forum doesn\'t seem to want to play along.

sweet,

sweet nothing

keep trying

alternately, send us the link and we'll do it for you

@ Jeff White:

The peak 5 sec-1minute peaks are all leading up to and in the sprint

Just read the updates on the June 16th race... congrats Ryan, and to everyone on some fine racing!