QCW Cycling — Winner of the 2011 PA BAR Team Competition

Super fun race today, definitely the most amount of work I’ve ever done in a race before and thankfully it paid off thanks to good luck, teammates, and timing (not necessarily in that order).

Lots of early moves as people were antsy, but the course was pretty fast and open with wide corners so most moves were brought back as lots of people were frantic to chase early.  I forget how the break du jour formed (Nick can elaborate), but I’m pretty sure he attacked with Egan and took a couple people that eventually Matt and Aaron bridged to until it was maybe 10-12 strong.  They hovered about 10-15 secs in front of the field for several laps and the rest of the QCW folk (myself, Mike, Steve) patrolled the front to mark moves and hold back the pace.  Finally, the always entertaining Keith Davies attacks with me on his wheel and we have a slight gap on the field and wants me to pull through but I’m hesitant since I don’t want to bring the field up to the break, but he figuratively called me yella, and when I looked back and saw our gap was pretty big I bridged to the break (dropping him in the process of course ).  But once I reached the break I was gassed and they were working together HORRIBLY.  Pretty sure Nick was in rage mode, and I immediately regretted my decision thinking “dammit, we have 4 riders up here and we are the only ones driving this break.”  We never really had a great rotation going, but somehow we fended off the field for the rest of the race.

The middle third of the race was kind of a blur and mostly a ton of frustration with people sitting on, letting gaps open and the break generally doing pretty poorly.  Matt, Aaron, Nick, Egan and I were basically the only ones consistently pulling through so in the final third or so we started pulling through harder and getting slight gaps and wearing down others until with about 4-5 to go, I attacked near the top of the riser before the final straightaway.  Once I cleared the first turn I saw Egan chasing with Matt not too far behind him and the rest of the break further behind Matt.  Egan caught me and we traded pulls and Matt eventually latched on by the next lap and we started rotating and putting distance on the field.  At the beginning of the last lap, Matt put in what I would like to dub a “nasty attack” and gapped Egan and I big time.  Egan of course had to follow so I stayed on his wheel but it was soooooo painful.  Finally as we came up the riser at the end, we had made contact with Matt and the pace came to a slight lull and I felt awful but knew I had to attack even though I felt awful.  So I put my head down, “attacked” (powerfile would say otherwise *cough*) and Matt says Egan hovered a couple feet from my wheel until about 100 m or so, where he apparently popped and I stuck it for the win.  No salute for me, I was basically just crying and praying inside the final 400 m “please don’t pass me, please don’t pass me, please don’t pass me, o god this hurts, I want to go home wah wah.”

So obviously HUGE thanks to Matt for some textbook teammate work at the end, but also to Aaron, Nick, Mike, and Steve for being active and smart racers from beginning to end.  We came in expecting to get a team win, and by god that’s what we did.  Tour de Toona here we come!

We got it right today. Short summary: Ross with the WIN, me 3rd, Nick
5th, Aaron 11th.

Emrick is a roughly mile long, D shaped course with the s/f on a flat straight; turn one goes into a downhill, turn 2 into a flat, then the course bends around into a decent uphill grind, and bends again into the s/f straight.

We showed up with me, Ross, Aaron, Nick, Coyle, and Steve. The plan was to be active, and force a selection/break with more than one of our guys. The first half of the race was very active, but nothing stuck. Each one of us took turns attacking, trying to soften up the field. About halfway through the race, Nick attacked, and Michael Egan and a CCV rider got up to him. The move had a handful of seconds and was looking better than anything had all day. I saw a Dynaflo rider edging out of the pack, so I moved over to his wheel and caught a free ride up to Nick’s group. We started rotating, and every lap, a couple
more riders would trickle up to us; Aaron joined shortly after me, and Ross bridged up solo a few laps later, giving us four in a move that at its largest, probably had 15 or so riders, basically a field split. With all the riders, tons of people were sitting on; me, Egan, Nick, Ross, and Aaron were driving the pace hard, with a CCV rider occasionally taking a token pull. It was getting pretty frustrating to drag around a lot of dead weight, so with six or seven laps to go, I attacked, hoping to thin the break. I was caught after a lap by Egan, with Aaron and another rider in tow. We started rotating, and eventually Nick and Ross got back up to us in a significantly reduced group. A few laps later (3 to go?) Ross attacked, and Egan jumped up to him. I wasn’t close enough to Egan to get on his wheel, but I knew that with the (growing) gap they had, that was the winning move, and we needed another guy up there. I looked around and saw tired faces, so I figured I could get away clean. I swung across the road, jumped, and didn’t see anyone trying to come with me, so I put my head down and started to bridge. It took a lap of very hard effort, Ross and Egan were cooking. When I got up to them, I sat on for a few rotations, then started pulling, as it looked like the second group was chasing…but they eventually gave up. I sat on for a bit shortly after, then tried to get Ross to sit in, as our gap was pretty safe.
With one lap to go, I attacked, to force Egan to chase with Ross in tow. I never got more than a few seconds, but I kept looking back to make sure Egan was putting himself all out there, so that Ross could counter. Egan caught me with 400m to go, and Ross immediately countered, perfectly executed. Egan tried to follow, but faltered. In the rest of the break, Aaron led out Nick, who almost took the sprint for fourth, but was pipped by a guy who sat on pretty much all day. Pretty fantastic race.

Gretna Race Ave: another rectangular crit.  Clockwise race action with a false flat up from turn 4 to the finish.  Turn 3 turned into sketchy pavement was fast and occasionally some people took not-so-great lines, but everyone stayed upright.  A mere 30 starters and only 22 finishers.  Needless to say, a decently fast race at ~27mph.  In attendance: Brett and myself.  There were a good number of primes up for grabs, which was nice to see – typical cash prizes ($20-40), sunglasses, a YMCA membership, and (wait for it)…yup, a month of free yoga.

Through what can only be described as mitosis, Alliancewas there with what seemed to be twice their normal numbers. A few breakaway attempts went off the front towards the beginning, but to no avail.  Eventually a breakaway of 3 riders formed — including Ryan Shebelsky (the only rider ahead of Brett in the BAR standings) — and they pushed a big gap quickly and eventually caught the field and sat in.  I went for a cash-money prime and thought I had it in the bag with a big gap on the field when some dude zipped past
myself and the rider I just free-wheeled off of.  Next thing I know Robin Carpenter (BikeReg-Cannondale) is right behind myself and the prime winner yelling “GO!”

In my head “Eh, why not?” completely forgetting and I had busted my hump in a break 24 hours earlier.  I figured the prime winner would have tacked on as well…nope.  It was just Robin and I.  Crap…but I soldiered on with the lightning-fast 19 year-old none the less.  According to Brett we maybe got 20-30 seconds on the field but the lead break we were chasing was an additional 45 seconds ahead of Robin and myself.  I kept it going with Robin for 4 laps or so until my body threw a coup and completely shut down.  I apologized to Robin in a yelled format and took a lap of steady but decent paced cool down and reintegrated back into the field.  Robin got caught 2 laps later after sitting up.  I felt bad, but I didn’t have the cajones to pull of a stunt like that two days in a row.  At the very least, Brett told me it gave him a chance to recover in the field (he seemed to find himself on the front quite a lot before that).  Blah blah blah, yada yada yada… field sprint at the finish for 4th.  Big gap opened up in the final sprint that I bridged across for 9th – yet another chronic case of good legs at the finish and poor placement and getting caught behind the jump.  Brett came in at 12th.

NewBethlehemCriterium: rectangular big-ring crit with one very small incline in turn 3. You could pedal through every corner with ease.  Turn 2 was an off-camber turn with a bumpy section in the turn as well as after, the best line for which was the inside with as much carried speed as possible.

The 2/3 race had maybe 40 people at the start line. Wearing the Breakaway race blues were: Matt,Tyler, Nick, Jimmy, Marc V. (doing is second race of the day, I might add),Colton, Peter, and myself.  Needless to say, we were a substantial portion of the field.  The plan for the day was to try and deliver Tyler or Nick first to the line through whatever means possible, be it a breakaway or field sprint.

The way the race played out has some decent comedic elements, at least for me.  Before I get to the in-race details, I can be quoted in the strategy emails as saying “Breakaways have never really seemed to be my thing for one reason or another…” so begins the comedy…

After the customary first-lap-everyone-go-fast-but-do-nothing lap, we roll through the start/finish, one guy attacks off the front and another goes to catch.  There was no reaction from the field, so I attack from maybe 7 back in the hopes just dragging the field up and keeping any break from forming sans Breakaway riders.  Next thing I know, I’m off the front catching the second guy’s wheel and soon forming a breakaway group of 3 – this is 2.5 min into the race.  After a few laps, Michael Egan (Zen Masters), Eric Salzer (Chester County Velo), Nick Roeder (Tri-State Velo), and Dave Dawson (Caffeinated Cyclists) bridged up to the group and somehow the two original breakaway members with me pealed off.  Within a lap or twoTylerbridged up, and the breakaway was now 6-large and we were the majority team…and that’s pretty much all she wrote.

The rest of the team in the field did what I heard was a fantastic job of covering attacks and setting the pace.  45 seconds was our max gap, but it was enough to play a little cat-and-mouse the last three laps.  Eric and Nick both let gaps open up towards throughout the race with the sketchiness of turn 2, and having to close those numerous gaps is likely what drained the tank to E for the final sprint.  Unfortunately, a quality result from the break wasn’t the cards for Tyler and I that day, and we rolled in 5th and 6th, respectively.

It’s likely you see the comedy now.  For having never been in a breakaway for any longer than 5-10 minutes before, I suddenly found myself OTF for nearly 54 minutes.  Some may call it amazing…I call it more awe-strikingly stupid that it actually succeeded until the end.  Sometimes you just have to flip on the “inner Jens” and go for it.  Although, having a super-organized and awesome team doesn’t hurt either.

1 km, six corner crit with some bumpy pavement and fresh, squishy asphalt on the inside of one corner. Lots of day-ofs, lots of fast guys, a lot of fast NYC guys.

Tough race. Started out HARD, being mid-pack didn’t help. Positioning was super, super critical. We started with seven? guys and finished with just me and Charlie; I was 14th and Charlie 17th. 65 total started, and I think 25 finished. I was pretty sure that I would be dropped in the first third of the race, I felt awful. The home stretch was particularly difficult, as every lap I was coming around people falling off the pace. Eventually a break of six (originally larger, I think, see below) went and the pace relaxed a bit, so I started
recovering; I took advantage of a lull shortly after to move up to a wheel or two behind the AXA train, who were chasing because their riders crashed out of the break. This part of the race was AWESOME. I really enjoyed the course– we were going fast but it was very smooth, railing all the corners single-file. I held my spot behind AXA for most of the race; I was hoping the break would be caught, as my legs had recovered and felt wonderful, and I was in a fantastic position to counter. AXA brought the break within sight, but couldn’t close past 15 seconds or so. In the last two or three laps there was a flurry of attacks, but I managed to surf the front and at the bell lap, I was fourth wheel, feeling great. The pace dropped though and riders flew up both sides, and I was boxed in; by the time I got out, I had lost about ten wheels. Passed a person or two in the sprint to get 14th, next to last money spot (ironically same as the day before at Pitman).

First, I have to give some serious thanks to a friend of mine from my old internship at DVRPC, Ellis, who loaned me his (pre-moistened) bibs when I realized that I had left them along with the pile of my spare socks and extra race apparel on top of my couch in Philly.  That was a lifesaver, since riding 55 miles in baggy plaid shorts was my other option.  Matt came through with an extra pair of socks which was also clutch.  Next time, I will pack and then DOUBLE CHECK!!!  This is the first time since the infamous TTT in 2007 that I’ve forgotten anything for a race, so I was probably due. Overall, I’d highly recommend this race to anyone who has one Y chromosome to his name, there were only a men’s 4/5 field (which saw Josh Cantor take second, and Pete Esposito take some skin off) and a Pro 1/2/3 field which had 70 or so starters of which about 8 or 9 guys who had just ridden in the Philly pro race last week.  No women’s fields yet, but they say they’re working on that for next year.  Most notably was the team Champion System crew which had all kinds of firepower.  Tyler called it early, “Team ChampSys will take spots 1-5” and he was almost right, they took 1,2,4,5,and 6.  Now that the spoiler is out of the way, the race recap: The race is basically 51 miles around a 3 mile circuit which resembled an isosceles triangle with the very end of the nose cut off.  There are two hills in the race, which were decent for launching attacks, but not big enough on their own to make anything particular happen. Lined up at the front with Tyler, Nick Matt, Mike Coyle, D-Cupps, Darco and Kyle.   Within the first 2 laps there were a number of small stinging attacks off the front, but nothing stuck right away.  Then, going into the first of the two hills, a group of about 5 guys, with a couple of the ChampSys guys was just off the front. This was definitely to be the winning move and just as I was about to attempt to bridge up, I saw Tyler flying by at probably 35 miles per hour. Rather than jump and bring more guys up, I sat in and let him cross over, which he did with relative ease.  AXA, Champsys, Somerville and QCW all represented at the front, so Matt, Kyle and I just sort of sat around in the first quarter of the pack and let things roll off.  I was a bit bummed that I didn’t make it into the break, but Tyler was looking strong and I had faith that they’d stay away.  After the race Nick commented on how he overheard other guys in the pack complaining, “Seriously, you guys are going to let them go, COME ON!!”  But that is the true beauty of riding with a team; when one of your teammates is up the road it’s your JOB to take it easy! The next 6 or 7 laps were alternately insanely easy, or insanely hard.  Matt and I took turns making sure that nothing bridged across without one of us in the group.  In retrospect, I wish that I’d been a bit more conservative at this point, and saved a bit more for the end, but I tried hard only to follow good wheels, my issue was mostly that whenever I did so, the rest of the pack identified my wheel as the good wheel, and snagged a ride.  I need to work harder at getting early separation from the pack, or more likely, just marshalling my resources better and making fewer, harder attempts.
With 4 laps to go, it seemed that the break was gone, with a minute up the road, but then with 3 to go they were a mere 15 seconds away. From Tyler’s account, the Champion Systems guys just kept attacking the break time after time, and totally crushed everyone else in their path.  We saw that the break ahead had shattered, and readied for the counter.  Note: always expect a counter when something is getting caught. As the catch occurred, Matt hitched a ride with Iggy Silva and I followed up a few seconds later.  Now the situation was about 8 of us on the road with 5 ChampSys guys away still.  Despite a phenomenal amount of ‘grab-assing’ in our group, we had left the main field behind.  John Minturn attacked on the last lap and I caught on with another guy but was totally gassed.  I foolishly pulled through once and then Minturn attacked again.  Whoops off I go.  Back to the chase group where matt and I lagged in for 14th and 15th place. So, in summary of my novella here: we raced well as a team, and while the results weren’t stellar, they reflected a mostly smart strategy of sending a guy with the early break, covering bridge attempts back in the field, and then sticking 2 in the chase group when it counted. Compared with some of the previous races in which we’ve just been overconfident and underpowered, this was a good showing.

The hardest I have ever raced for 14th, I think. Tyler was in the main break of the day that was initiated maybe 1/3 of the way into the race. Him, Wyatt, an amateur Champ Sys rider, a Team Somerset rider, and then three or four pro Champ Sys guys (some from the Philly race, I think). They held 45-75 seconds for most of the race, though it was apparently not very smooth, with the pros attacking the break regularly. Eventually the break blew up with the pros and the Team Somerset rider staying up the road. As the gap started coming down, with 4 or 5 three-mile laps left, Nick told me to go to the front and look for the counter. Sure enough, when we started passing riders dropped from the break, Iggy Silva and John Minturn went, and I caught their wheels. We were rotating, albeit a bit unevenly. Through the home stretch with I think three laps to go, Aaron and a few others joined us; I was very glad to see him, as I was bleeding out of my eyeballs at that point. We had ten guys in this secondary move, with the remainder of the day’s break 15-20 seconds up the road. Initially we were rotating very well, but as it became apparent that we would not catch them, the rotation broke down. I was worried about being caught by the pack– how we were not, I do not know, there must have been some good blocking happening back in the field. Things got cat and mousey on the last lap; Minturn attacked after I had pulled through and got away with maybe one other guy, leaving the rest of us to sprint it out. Having both done more than our fair share of the work, Aaron and I were gassed in the sprint and came in at the back of our group, but still in the money (last two spots). I think we raced intelligently, but just didn’t have the legs at the end.

Wow – that was the most challenging TT I’ve ever done and definitely a change of pace from TTs I’ve done in the past.  Probably more a test of skill and mettle than it was of strength.  Wet cobbles (both ascending and descending), frost heaves, pot holes, expansion grates, inches of standing water, and tight turns everywhere.  Handling, braking, cornering, and conserving speed was the name of the game here for the most part.  I probably saw just as many road bikes as I did TT rigs.  I saw guys with disc wheels and trispokes and I saw pro riders with alloy clinchers.  Road helmets and aero helmets; skinsuits and jerseys; shoe covers or not – the gamut was run with regards to bike and equipment choices.  For me I went with my Fake08 front at a tad under 100psi and a Fake08 rear with wheel cover at somewhere around 110 psi (both 22mm Crono II’s) with my TT bar setup on my double duty road/TT bike.  Luckily my start was after the
torrential downpours earlier in the afternoon although the course was still soaked.  The course started off with a slight downhill into a left hand turn onto a narrow one way road that was tight and twisty without very good sight lines and through a couple sections of inches deep water.  I was on my base bars the majority of this section.  It dumped you out towards the bottom third of the cobbled Monkey Hill climb and you descended the cobbles until you crossed over a bridge to the other side of the park.  If I had fillings in my teeth they would probably have been rattled out.  I heard horrible cracking noises emanating from my bike/wheels as I coasted down the hill with my saddle unweighted.  Watching some of the later racers I was amazed to see some guy pedaling down the cobbles!  The other side of the creek was somewhat easier and I spent a good portion of it in my TT extensions.  After crossing the bridge you ended up climbing slightly through a lightly winding park road before switching back and coming back down the same grade along a straight city road bordering the park.  A quick zigzag down a pretty good grade brought you back closer to the creek where it was mainly flat. Crossing over a bridge my rear wheel skipped out a very disconcerting amount after crossing an expansion joint.  You then made a left across a larger bridge that was open to traffic with just one lane available to bikes – if you overcooked this you were headed directly out into oncoming traffic! After crossing the bridge you made another left and headed back along the river on a mainly downhill section that had some more rough pavement. I think it was here when I was seated and hammering that I tweaked my bars and saddle after hitting one too many of the numerous, unavoidable bumps, divots, and undulations.  And that was even after torquing everything down extra tight – probably within fractions of a foot-pound of stripping the bolts!  I don’t think it had a real effect on me though and before long I was making the right hand turn up the challenging Monkey Hill!  I’m not sure the exact length and gradient, but I would say it’s somewhere between 1/8th and 1/4 mile long at maybe 8%-10% average gradient but made harder by the constant pounding of the cobbles.  It’s comparable to the cobbled section of Port Royal although the pave is much more consistent.  A couple of my Delaware friends had braved the elements to drink and cheer on the racers so it was nice to see and hear them ringing cowbells and running alongside me up the hill as I finished out the TT.  I ended up 27th out of 51 with a time of 7:06.  The winner had a time of 6:11 – almost 13% faster than I was! Times and placings were all over the place for such a short course with some very fast time trialists being nowhere near the podium spots. I would like to point out that both Aaron and I beat the dude that absolutely crushed everyone in the Millersburg TT last year (and was the 2010 Masters 30-34 TT champ) who came in a mere 33rd place in the P/1 today… Anyways, on to tomorrow where the sun will be shining and the temps will be in the mid to high 70s!

So I lined up for the 1/2/3 atTekParkas the only Smurf.  I did not have a good feeling about this race after hearing stories about it yesterday and after my (lack of) performance at Turkey Hill (yet again).  Plus an all-you-can-eat buffet at Victory earlier in the day for Mother’s Day probably did not help and added a few extra pounds to my already considerable heft.  This was NOT the course across the velodrome and this was NOT a flat office park crit (as I had assumed after I found out that it wasn’t at the fitness park in Breinigsville).   A few miles away from the course as I was driving down 222 lo and behold, I passed Bobby Lea and some other guy riding to the course.  When I pulled into the parking lot, more strong riders- Jamie Clinton, Minturn and Lighty (Mark Light fromLiberty).  Miller doubled up as well.  So much for an ‘easy’ course with ‘easy’ competition… Thirteen pre-regged riders turned into twenty plus starters at the line.

The first lap was pretty chill but things picked up shortly afterwards with Minturn testing the field on the climbs. The two hills were definitely putting a sting in my legs and I was worried about my performance over the rest of the thirty laps.  A couple small breaks rolled off but were kept on a tight leash.  As I was on the front helping to bring back a semi-large break of around five guys or so that had five or ten seconds on us, Bobby bridged up going up the first hill.  I didn’t really have anything more to give at that point andClinton, Lighty, and Minturn were still in the field so I just kept soldiering on hoping that things would come back together with the help of the rest of the field.  Clintonattempted to bridge up next and I think he might of made it, but ended up dropping back shortly afterwards.

Soon it was the break up the road and out of sight, then me, Minturn, Clinton, and some Dynaflo guy.  Everyone else was off the back or had pulled themselves (including Lighty surprisingly!).  Minturn put in some semi-hard digs up the climbs but never really got any separation.  Not sure how he was feeling today or if he wasn’t attacking all out as under normal circumstances he should have dropped my ass immediately on the climbs if he
put in a full on attack.  Eventually the Dynaflo guy dropped from our group, followed shortly byClinton.  I had sort of resigned myself to riding for 5/6/7th (wasn’t sure exactly how many were in the break) and figured I’d work as best I could with Minturn to put as much time into Clinton, Dynaflo and anyone else still out on course (we ended up lapping a large group and several solo riders at least twice).  I wasn’t having much trouble sticking on Minturn’s wheel when he was in front climbing, even if he got out of the saddle and seemed to put in a harder effort, but whenever he did the same when I was up front when heading up the climbs, I would get gapped pretty good and would have to chase back on.  I think my natural disposition for climbing hills is to go slow and I only push myself when I’m following someone so when someone attacks around me and gets a gap, it’s hard for me to motivate myself to close it down, especially considering that I’m not exactly a fast hill climber to begin with, especially when having to close a gap created by a climber.  Anyways, the second or third time he came around from behind me (with around twelve to go?) he got a much bigger gap than before.  I continued my tempo up the rest of climb and hoped to make up ground on the downhill and flat sections.  For the first lap or two I had closed it somewhat, but then the gap grew and he was out of sight.

I continued on all by my lonesome for the next 7 or 8 laps at a hard effort to make sure I wasn’t caught by a chase group.  With about 3 to go, Lea and some other guy passed me. Lighty was shouting from the sideline that a large group was just up the road that had a couple guys in it that were on the same lap as I was.  With around two to go, they came into sight.  It looked to be the same group that I had already lapped once as I saw the
unmistakable stature and kit of Jason Wood so I wasn’t really concerned and relayed my thoughts to Lighty as I passed him going up the final climb on the penultimate lap.  He reiterated that some guys were in there that were on the same lap I was.  What the hell, I’ll get up there and get a sprint in on the last lap, even if I didn’t really think anyone was in there that had been up the road (they were moving at the same pace as when we had lapped them earlier).  I caught them on the downhill of the last lap and a rider or two tried getting away on the first climb but to no avail.  We were catching up to Lea and the other rider who were starting to play a cat and mouse game.  Heading into the short downhill before the final climb to the finish, we basically caught them as riders from the ‘lapped once/twice’ group started sprinting as well.  Someone at the back of the group yelled “Let them sprint it out” so I think a bunch of people actually listened to him. I kept going reasonably hard and ‘won’ the sprint out of the lapped group without even sprinting. Come to find out, there was at least one guy in that lapped group who had been ahead of me and just joined in the double lapped group.  He (and possibly another rider) must not have know that I was on the same lap as them as I had rejoined them on the last half a lap! After two revisions to the result sheets with much discussion amongst officials and riders, including some disbelief from one of the riders who I ‘outsprinted’ in the multi-lapped group, I found out that I was fifth!  Colin Sandberg put in a great ride and must have been in no mans land between the Lea/2nd place dude and Minturn.

Lesson for everyone to take away from today – try to keep track of lapped riders that you’ve passed and know who’s up the road.  If you’ve lapped a large group, don’t assume that’s the rest of the field and just sit in and assume no one else is going to catch up with you, especially if the group isn’t exactly setting a blistering pace.  I picked up at least one place, and possibly three places through their lack of judgment/knowledge and my sideline reporting.  I was initially listed as 5th (with Minturn as 10th), then revised to 8th, then back to 5th after they determined that I had not been lapped twice.  It was definitely a challenging course and according to MapMyRide, each lap had 194 feet of climbing <http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/566615> so 5820 feet of
climbing over 39 or so miles.  Ouch!