Helluva report and a result nonetheless Wump.

You are a hard man JP. Well done

Yesterday's race was one of suffering. Mike suffered to hang onto that break. I suffered just finishing and did all that I could to help out JP.

Kudos to Mike for making the break (more on that in a second), Vlad for helping JP set pace at the front when I couldn't, and JP for riding himself to the breaking point.

By way of background, my training has been hard, my racing the same, so I'm a bit ground down now - the opposite of JP and his rest week. I can feel the tiredness in the last two weeks of racing - everything hurts in ways it shouldn't. I even got dropped from a group ride last weekend. So doubling up was going to be hard no matter what I did.

At Saturday's L&C Race, the whole team was towards the front and nothing got away, so it was coming down to a field sprint. On the bell lap, Al Barough lit it up on the hill and made it hard. As we were strung out heading up the hill, i was picking my way around guys blowing up and unfortunately, one of them was JP, so that left the sprint up to me. Keith showed up at the end, but I needed him near me and when the argy-bargy started by the parking lot entrance, I eased up. Didn't feel the best, but was fine.

JP wanted help for Sunday's SS. I somehow roused myself. 5am and I was beat. I knew it would be a bad day.

From the gun, I find myself setting pace up the hill and Mike comes up to a small group I'm pulling. Next thing we know we've got a 9 man break with a field not interested in chasing. Mike says "I know its early, but lets do it." Or something like that. My legs just hurt. No other way to describe it. Hurt hurt hurt. Just very tight. While I was in it for the long haul, it would have sucked.

Time passes, we cover moves, nothing gets away. Then I'm riding up front protecting JP (just be in front of him, let him find you as he needs you). Sitting second wheel behind a Jordan rider. Lance Leneer comes up to him as we approach Lincoln Rd. I say "Lance, you want in?" Instead, Lance told his guy to attack!

I jump after him and am just dying. Crest the finish line rise and keep chasing as we've got a gap. I am slowly closing the gap, but I'm simply just not going as fast as I ordinarily could. Before I can close the gap, Mike comes up with another guy and I simply can't even jump on his wheel my legs are so blown. As I slowly ride up the hill watching the break go away, I see JP near the front and guys bridging across. He was playing the thinking game, I was hoping he was going to jump across because Breech and Dahloff were already going across. JP didn't go as he explained and that meant we needed to keep it close.

My legs were toast, so I made appearances at the front to help keep it close, but Vlad really helped out in that department. I made some friends in the back. Eventually, as we wound down towards the end, I made my way to the front to do whatever JP needed. A split happened in the field and it took a couple of laps to close. I practically rode myself into the ground pulling on the top of the course, but we eventually brought it back together.

So, bell lap. I'm toasty all day long, but somehow stay at the front up the hill to protect JP who admits "toast" and I start following and jumping across to little splits and generally getting ready for the sprint. As I'm staying toward the front, I see an opening on the right and yell at Vlad to punch it. he gave it what he had, but must have been spent by then. I then was able to get through there.

The sprint opens up and I'm basically in the second row of the sprint as it wasn't pointy. Someone clipped out just after Lincoln Rd. and that killed the sprint by the second row. Top 20 sounds about right when you include the break.

I don't know how I got myself to sprint with my legs, but I did. So, I think that means good things will come when my legs come around.

Orchard Beach on Sunday. Let's have fun.

Spring Series 28/04 - cat5.

My second race (mass) back having raced the day before, legs hurting, felt like crap. I had a goal for the weekend, stay upright, finish, sprint on Saturday (which I did to 4th place) and attack Sunday.
After the carnage of Saturdays 4's sprint I was done with sprinting so firmly wanted to stick to the plan of attacking. Saturdays race saw Foundation doing some great team work attacks, they were there again on Sunday, different dudes, same mentality.

Off the gun one Foundation rider went up the road right away. Ive always wanted to do that so 10 seconds into the race I thought well fuck it and gunned it out the pack and up the hill to breach up to him by the top of the hill. As I blew past the field I heard multiple people groaning which spurred me on.
As I came up to him I immediately pulled through, we had a good gap on the field and we exchanged a few words about going for it and working together, 8 laps to go lets do it. We did for a lap but got pulled back by the start finish of the next lap. We were going hard though so the group must have been working hard to pull us back. I dont think we ever had more than 30 seconds but we did give it a good go. I went straight to the back to recover and then tried it again on lap 3, no real deal. To the back and tried it again on lap 5. No deal again.

Foundation and CRCA continually tried to thin the pack, almost successfully on a number of occasions but everyone was hanging on. Lap 7 into the start of lap 8 I fired out of the pack mid way on the back straight, had a small gap which a Foundation guy came with and sat on my wheel, went until the start finish line but he didnt come through and pack caught on as we crossed the line for the last lap. All bombs were dropped by foundation up the hill on the last lap, still everyone holding on but only just.

Leading into the downhill everyone is gearing up position for the sprint. I still had in my mind I wasnt going to contest and with the multiple efforts I had expelled I wasnt going to have the finish either so figured I had one more go in the matchbox.

As we get to the bottom of the downhill and around the corner a big Foundation guy taps me on the butt and drops a megawatt coming through, he went from 10 or so riders back and I went with him. I was more or less all out to go with him, I dont think ive ever been so fast on the flat, he was drilling it, after the initial 1k watt burst for 10 seconds I was doing 450w just in his wheel and I looked around deciding if I should come through and use the last of my matches or not, we had a gap and the peleton was shattered in pieces so I went for it, came through and drilled it alone with the Foundation guy hovering on my wheel groaning, my data shows 67.3kph on the flat, hovering around the 500w mark but dropping like a stone. All I could think was.....this isnt going to last long but I kept going as hard as I could knowing everyone is going to suffer at that speed praying that Foundation dude would come around me and give me a break but he broke and went out the back.

David Yang Yea the 2 guys off the front in the last 1k with a gap, that was us.

I looked around and was on my own but I was totally in the red, not enough of a gap as there was still at least a minute 30 left in the race. Saw a small group of what was left of the peleton, maybe 12 riders coming, I stopped my effort and let them roll through. As they came through I saw the rest of the peleton about 10 maybe 15 seconds back so I used what I had to get on the back of the select group sprinting into the finish. I hanged on until the end sitting up during the sprint and taking the back of that pack. I guess 11th, 12th or 13th? Dont know how many were in that group. 

So opportunity cost, I raced aggressive and made it hard for everyone several times and didnt place. I know if I had sat in and sprinted at the end I could have placed but I dont regret it for a second, I had a lot more fun attacking, making everyone suffer and coming back of the small pack than doing nothing all race and showing my cards at the end.

I still felt a bit dodgy in the pack and think that might take a few more races to get used to again but all in all  happy racing!

@ashleyB

I thought you had attacked first off the line!  It wasn't until the south side that a small group of crca/manpower guys hunted you down.  They actually had a little gap on the field too and I had to bridge across to join them.  Interesting to think of the break that could have been if we kept hammering and you two joined in.

Enjoy mixing it up in the 4s!

I went from the back of the pack to the front and watched the Foundation guy roll away, I kept going so I cant take credit for making the first move but it probably looked funny going from back to breakaway in 15 seconds. 

Thats where the concept of blocking becomes useful, if we had the amount of riders we had on Satuday we could have had them all on the front while Foundation and I opened up.

back on march 31 i signed up for a spring series race, but did not attend.  it is now listed on my racing record as a DNP.  is that correct?  it kinda bothers me it's there, but if it's standard i'll just leave it.

Not placing insinuates that you actually started and so will count towards your 10 races upgrade, I would think you would get a DNS if you didnt show.

Race promoters do that to help 5's upgrade.  If you don't show up or don't finish, you'll get a DNP, as long as you're registered to race.

that's interesting.  doesn't do much to ensure that only more experienced, safer, riders find their way into the 4s...

This is bad because we need to differentiate between DNF and DNS.

i'll email AVD.  i would rather get my ten races legitimately.

Last year, I got a DNP in an L&C race, funny thing because I was in DC that weekend.  But it didn't feel right that I did 10 races with 3 DNPs, so I finished another 5 races before requesting an upgrade.

@Mark - i don't think it will make a difference if you contact AVD (he prob won't do it anyway).  Just finish another race.  As far as I know, its not an automatic upgrade anyway (you have to request).  

My local USAC official wouldn't grant my upgrade to 4 until I'd won Battenkill... that jerk.

The Right Honourable Mark Clifford

AVD ostensibly offers refunds on all his races no questions asked. You're supposed to just email as late as the night before. I tried to take advantage of that on two occasions with emails sent a couple days in advance of race day. I didn't get refunds or any reply. I just got DNPs for the two races. He did send out refunds for the race at Floyd that was cancelled

@Rick - Yep, same thing with me.  Though he removed me from the start list so...I didn't get a DNP or DNF for the race.

I just checked my USAC account.  There is a significant amount of races (maybe like 10?) that are missing where I just finished with the pack.  The only ones I see are from when I actually placed in top 5 in 2011.

Whatever...

@David - AVD only places the first 7 guys or so.  As far as I know, he doesn't use any fancy camera or video to record the finish (all by hand??).  It's one of the many complaints about him as a race promoter.