QCW Cycling — Winner of the 2010 PA BAR Team Competition

Rob–6th, 2nd in PA
me– 7th, 3rd in PA
Nick– 14th, attacked the field on the last lap
Jimmy– 15th, won the field sprint

I came into this race feeling strong and wanting to do well. A win of course would have been lovely, but above all else I wanted to make the break and leave it all on the course. We were active from the start, with Ross, Tyler, Rob, and I covering early moves. Nothing really got any kind of leash, though. The first few laps of the race were fast, with all the attacks, and the fact that the attacks were getting covered quickly. Around the end of the third lap, I believe, Tyler came up to me in the middle of the field and told me that the elastic was breaking, to look for a move to go soon. I moved back up to the front and got ready for business time. On the descent after the main climb on the fourth lap, Jacob Mueller got away with one other guy. Shortly after, Brendan Housler attacked to bridge up, and I got his wheel. We bridged up (ow, ow, ow, Brendan is fast) and got a good
rotation working. Jacob was holding back a bit, as his team wanted more riders in the break. We still got a max gap of around 1:15. I think four more riders bridged up over the next couple laps. A couple laps later, Brendan flatted, and two riders (the eventual winners) rode away on the climb. I saw them go, could have buried myself to get
to them, but thought that Kelly Benefit, with two riders in the break, would have a guy chase, but no such luck. Afterward, I learned that they were working solely to ensure Jacob the PA State Champ jersey; the two who rode away were out-of-state riders. With two guys up the road and Kelly not concerned about chasing, and Brendan on the side of
the road, our gap diminished quickly, and the field picked us up shortly before the last lap. A large group including Rob countered as we were brought back. I was pretty sore at having spent so much time and work on the break, only to have it come back. I decided that I needed to end up off the front of the field, whatever happened. One
guy attacked early in the last lap, with Rob’s group out of sight; I saw the field lackadaisically give him a large leash, so I attacked and bridged up to him. I figured that the group ahead of us was well- gone, so I worked with him for a couple miles, until I saw the group ahead of us come into view. Conveniently, I informed him that I had a
rider in that group, so it was on him to get us up there, at which point I would start working again. He took it upon himself to try to rip my legs off on every slight incline, but I managed to cling to him for dear life. We caught the group on the last time up the main climb, with two off the front, in sight (I learned later that the two who attacked my original break were also off the front, but out of sight). Minturn set pace up the climb, and I was all like, “wah wah wah, this hurts, you skinny a-hole “. Hunter was sharing my pain, as we
dangled on the very back of the group. Fortunately, the descent arrived just in time. The two guys ahead of us were just out of reach, but Minturn was turning himself inside out regardless, props. I lent a few pulls but stopped once I saw that the gap wasn’t really changing. Every incline I prayed to not get dropped, but I guess most everyone
else was hurting similarly. With about a mile to go, there were a couple attacks (including the patented “Hunter” gently sneak off the front move) which I covered. After that, it was time to jockey for the sprint. Rob and I slotted in behind Jacob Mueller and his teammate,
but the sprint was messy– lots of people launching at different times. I think Jacob, Rob, and I were the only ones who sprinted to the correct finish line– and we took 5, 6, 7 and 1, 2, 3 in PA. It was really rewarding to want to do well here, crush myself to do it,
and succeed Unfortunately, we had a few guys flat and/or have bad days, but on the whole, I think things went well. Thanks to Ryan, Josh, Jessica, Jackie, and whoever else (Lighty’s wife?) helped with feeds.

A bit of power geekery– For the 2:48 my powertap recorded data (the wired mount popped off, so I put the powertap in my pocket to keep it safe) my IF was .89 (probably not much different for the entire race duration, 3:23. So, my normalized power was about 90% of my FTP for over three hours, OUCH! (Yes, torque was zeroed).

Me– 4th out of a break
Nick– 6th out of a chase group

Eight corners, many of which were tight, single file affairs. It was a really technical, fun course and definitely conducive to a break. Our plan was to stay near the front and monitor attacks, looking for our own counterattacks. Dave Casale attacked from the gun and Kyle bridged up, taking a beer prime while they were away. Once they were brought
back, Nick went, but took a wrong turn (turning left one block before turn two, I think). We tried to keep it chill to hopefully allow Nick to get back on, but couldn’t see what was going on back in the pack. Eventually Lighty went with Jamie and Ross and the three got a decent gap, 10-15 seconds. We covered a few counter attempts; eventually Ross started coming back and I attacked to bridge up, with Robin Carpenter and Geron Williams (Lighty’s teammate) coming along. We rotated for a couple laps and eventually got up there. I was feeling comfortable fitness wise, but a little uncomfortable carrying the speed through some of the corners; I skipped a pedal once or twice and it put me off a little. Lighty got popped with 10 or 15 laps to go, and our gap kept growing despite Iggy Silva and Shane Kline chasing because of some stellar blocking back in the field. At some point, Nick got away with John Minturn and the dude who won the Cat 3 race. I was planning on attacking with a lap to go because I didn’t fancy my chances against three of the best sprinters in the region. I never got more than a handful of seconds though, and got hung out to dry a bit after I was caught. Jamie countered my move and I was gapped briefly, but chased back on. Jamie led into the last corner (still on the front after his
attack) and led out, and still won the sprint, with Robin coming on fast, Geron behind, and me floundering in their wake. In retrospect, I probably should have conserved and fought for good position in the last corner– with such a fast sprint, their advantages over me might have been somewhat mitigated.

Had a blast– the Navy Yard is a fantastic venue for races. Thanks to Charles for promoting a great race and everyone who lent their time to help out!

First of all, I just have to point out that this is probably the manliest, most epic named race I will most likely ever race.

Short story:  I grabbed 2nd, Rob with a top 10 (8th or 9th?)

Long story:   I showed up about half an hour before my race was supposed to begin and Lighty yelled to me as I was parking that they were starting in 5 minutes after the 4s finished in a lap and a half. Crap.  I still had to readjust my set screws and most likely adjust my rear derailleur (I had been riding around with two cassette spacers on my training wheel all of last week!).  Ran over to registration, ran back to my car to grab my license, and registered while Lighty pumped up my tires. Alec pinned me up while I put my shoes on.  Rode over to the start line as everyone was lining up and did a bunch of back and forths behind the field making sure my derailleur was working properly (surprisingly it was!). The course was quite simple – a three quarters of a mile oval test track with a slight elevation rise (with the finish about 1/3 to 1/2 way up) with a tailwind going up hill and a head wind going down the hill on the back stretch (probably a two to three percent rise max).  Quite a few people registered day of including Ms. Van Gilder, Egan, Minturn and Rahn, Iggy Silva, Lighty, and his new fast teammate, Geron Williams (won Rodale two weeks ago). Several other women day-of-ed as there was no W/1/2/3 race that day. Perhaps 35 or so starters?

The race started off and proceeded sort of strangely for the first half.  It was not very fast but some semi-field splits occurred that would always get brought back without much effort by everyone caught behind because of the somewhat relaxed pace.  I surfed around throughout the field hitting the front and the back at times without too much concern as I saw Minturn, Iggy, and some other fast people doing the same, even when a gap opened up between portions of the field.  I’m not sure what happened, but at some point pretty early we dropped around a 1/3 of the field.  I put in an attack fairly early and dangled 5 or 10 seconds off the front for a few laps before being reeled in by the field.  More of nothing happened for the next 10 laps or so. Iggy got to the front and strung it out up the hill at one point but sat up at the top and the field ballooned.  With around 25 to go (I think we did around 45 laps), I attacked hard coming down the hill from towards the back of the field. No one responded and I established a pretty big gap immediately and within a lap or two I was out of sight with a 20+ second gap.  Five laps or so later I saw someone attempting to bridge but was hanging steady just in sight at probably 15 seconds (from post race discussion, I believe it was Minturn).  A few laps later, I saw two riders slowing gaining on me.  When I saw that it was Iggy and Geron, I eased up to recover and take on some fluids and jumped in with them when they made contact.  We worked smoothly to retain our lead (around 30 seconds) until the final lap.  At the top of the hill the three of us sort of sat up to begin a cat and mouse finish.  Iggy jumped first and got a pretty good gap going down the hill.  I responded and Geron made it on my wheel (unsurprisingly considering my lack of jump).  I slowly reeled Iggy in going down the hill and as I passed him as the pitch turned upwards I opened up my sprint.  Geron came around on the inside and got about a half bike length on me which he held steady the next 150 meters or so to the line.  Although not a win, I was pretty satisfied with my riding today and it’s actually the best mass start result I’ve had in ages (discounting the SJ Training Crit last year, back to May of ’09 with Smoketown and Mem. Hall as a cat 3). Afterwards when I was talking with Iggy he mentioned I should have let Geron chase him down.  Seems like it could have worked as the downhill into the wind preceding an uphill sprint should have favored me as a bigger guy over Geron who is a smaller more explosive rider.  However, the risk would have been Geron waiting too long/thinking I would chase or him failing to close the gap soon enough and Iggy would have won. (Also, I should have pulled back to the inside of the course right after passing Iggy to force Geron to go slightly further to the outside and up the slight banking.)

My report: about a quarter of the way through a few guys got off the front, including the 2 guys to watch (Egan and the Shirks guy who won Iron Hill 3/4). Figured that was the move so Dan Lavelle, me, and a couple stragglers bridged up. Move ended up being around 10 with 4 or 5 of us consistently working, the rest sitting on. Egan attacked, I quickly bridged and we worked well together getting a good gap on the rest of the break. With 6 or 7 to go our gap was plenty big, and Mike I guess was on the rivet. He told me I could have the win if I didn’t attack. Very classy dude. With 3 to go we lapped the field and all the breakaway guys went to the front and put down an impressive TTT to keep the pace fast enough that the rest of the break wouldn’t catch up. Sitting behind that watching our guys work together so well like a team was really great, very proud to race with those guys.

Lined up with Ross and twenty-ish other guys for 34 Thursday-night-style laps. John Durso was on the pre-reg list, but not at the line, so the only two people I was really worried about were Mark Light and Ryan Pettit. At the gun, Keith Gerber from Caffeinated Cyclist rolled off. Shortly after that, a Heart House rider bridged up. Those were the two largest teams, so I figured at the very least, a break with those guys would get a long leash and set up a good counter opportunity for Ross. I gave them a lap alone, then jumped and bridged up to them over a lap. Shortly after I got up there, the original
Heart House guy dropped out, but I could see Ryan Pettit behind us. Ryan caught us and we rotated a bit, but the field was close. I saw Mark Light in between the field and us, though, and knew if he could get to us, the move would have staying power. He got up there and we were choppy for a few laps, but eventually smoothed things out nicely and set about putting time into the field. About halfway through the race, we started getting time checks counting down to the field, so we decided to ease off to avoid mixing it up with them…but the field slowed down even more, so we closed the gap and re-integrated. I was keeping a close eye on Keith, Mark, and Ryan. The field was very surgey, and at one point, when the four of us were in the back, pretty much the entire field save Ross and Steve Blackman (Keith’s teammate) went up the road. I told Ross and Steve to go back to the field, since it could look like they dropped back to us to lead out Keith and I, but we were unclear on the rules and the field was a bit too far up the road. With two laps to go, Steve Blackman started pulling hard at the front. I knew I didn’t stand a good chance in a straight up sprint with Mark Light and Ryan Pettit, so I started to think about how to get away. The field was messing around on the last lap, so Steve was actually bringing us up to them. I realized that if I could get around the field before Light and Pettit, I could maybe use the cluster-f effect of the field to my advantage. About halfway through the lap, as Steve reconnected to the back of the back, I jumped through a smallish
gap between the field and the curb and made for the line. I felt great after sitting in for the last half of the race, and had a good gap on Light and Pettit. Unfortunately, I came into the last corner at 35 mph (just checked the power file) and clipped my inside pedal trying to pedal through. I saved myself from crashing, but lost five seconds in the save/reorientation, and most of my speed. I sprinted with what I had left, but Light and Pettit passed me 10m from the line; Pettit took the sprint. A bit of a disappointing end to what was a great race, but I feel good about my fitness and a lot better than I have in the past about my tactical savvy going into Toona, so I will be gunning for the best I can do there.

We mostly all know the course, across from the T-town track. 1 mile loop, 35 laps, zero corners, several rounded smooth turns, riser less steep going counterclockwise, with 1st half of it tail wind, second half head. They actually forgot to flip the lap card the second lap, I noticed. Don’t know if they ever rectified it. Will have to look at powertap file later to figure that out. Only 20 pre-reg’d but another 30 or so did day-of.

Looking at the results, we had a decent day. 4 guys in the top 15, with 4th to Kyle, 9th to Brett, 11th (bitch spot) to me, and 14th to Rob. Some 3s also hopped in, incl. Coyle, Jeff, & Ryan, and they did admirably, esp. considering it was their second race. Jeff is gonna be a beast.

The race was a bit of blur–but what I recall is that we raced very well as a team. We were aggressors for sure. We raced like we wanted to win, and unfortunately it didn’t happen–3 very fast sprinters filled out the podium spots, so 4th is a damn fine placing.

From the start, everyone did just what was expected of him. We took turns countering each other’s moves, following chasers & smart bridge attempts, trading off so that when one guy was tired he’d go too the back to recover and 1 or 2 others would move up. If there was a move without us, we brought it back.

Nick was his usual aggressive self, and was able to capture a couple primes from 2-up sprints. I also tried to lead Brett out for a prime but Ryan got him. Unfortunately Ryan got 2 primes and Nick 2. Nick got water bottles and cycling caps. Ryan got cash. Bastard! Unfortunately, Nick had just gotten pulled back when a series of counters went off about halfway through the race. 5 guys got up the road without us, and so Rob drilled it and got up there solo. This was remarkable, especially considering when I followed 2 guys bridging, including Shebelsky, without pulling, it was f-ing hard! And it took almost a full lap to make contact. This blew the field apart, with 4 of us making it but Nick caught out. Ultimately it was a field split–the second one of the day by my reckoning, but this one had a good proportion of all the players, and so it was gone. It then became an 18-person race, and we had favorable numbers, but it became very clear that the sprinters were gonna have their day. No single attack lasted off the front for more than half a lap until 2.5 to go. Warren & I pulled that lone guy back as the bell rang, and the sprinters were to have their day. I recovered ever so briefly then latched on about 10th wheel, but wasn’t to move up any more. We blazed through the last lap, Rob on the front, and at 40 mph coming round the final turn. He sits up and everyone goes outside. Perfect, I think, as the inside is way faster, if you can handle it at speed. But my legs couldn’t handle the speed. Kyle’s could. He tells Rob to give him just enough space, and I follow him through at an increasing distance as he raced to the front for the sprint. I kept the inside clogged enough to prevent anyone from coming round me, but I could only pass 1 or 2 guys and got 11th. Brett was part of the train that took the outside, so I missed what happened over there.

Nick ended up playing super teammate and keeping anyone else from getting up to the field split. With a few to go, there were 3 guys gamely pushing onward trying to bridge or take 20th place as part of a chase. Nick decided he would spoil their day, and with Jamie Clinton bridged to them easily, dropped them, and then outsmarted and/or out sprinted Jamie Clinton for the top spot for those caught out.