Well, I guess it falls to me to write the Cat 3 race report for Vance Creek. As usual, I’m well aware that nobody has actually requested a race report, but why do you think I care? In any case, I’m eating my breakfast as I write, so it’s not entirely wasting my time.
About 72 of us (not all from Apex Racing, of course) lined up under the shadows of the nuclear cooling towers for the 80 mile race. We had me, Lyle, Ben, Olivier, SteveO, Greg and Jay. Not a bad team, if you were to ask me. I think maybe Recycled might have had similar numbers. We rolled out and within about 300 meters SteveO had a mechanical. I guess he thought those front skewers were merely ornamental because he didn’t bother closing it tight. Anyhow, it took him a few miles but he was able to chase back on. Although, he would break a spoke on the following lap and have to drop out altogether.
The first lap was nothing too difficult. There were a few surges and attacks but nothing really stuck. At the start of the second lap a break formed and I hopped on a wheel of a guy who was bridging up. It seemed early for a break to go away and stick, but you never know. And in any case, I like to pretend to be useful…occasionally. Soon we had about 6-8 guys from several different teams. It actually seemed like the sort of combination that could work well together and not get chased down right away. Not so. We were chased down with a few miles. Too early in the race, I guess. Later that lap a group of three got off the front and Greg launched after them. They already had a pretty good gap and were working well together otherwise Greg would have been able to bridge up. It was painful to watch him trapped up there in no-man’s land …but that just happens sometimes. Once it was clear that he was coming back to the main group, Ben launched a perfect counter attack near the bottom of the climb. He passed Greg and eventually caught the three-man group at the top of the hill. They stayed out there for some now unrecollectable(not a real word) length of time… that is to say, I don’t remember exactly. Btw, me not remembering people, events, time and distances and generally getting ‘facts’ wrong will be an ongoing theme in this report (and in my life.) And as usual, it will be written from my limited perspective. I’m sure the other guys probably performed numerous heroic deeds and maneuvers that I didn’t notice, have forgotten about or just ignored.
Anyhow, back to the race. Over the first 3 laps Ben was in a break as was Olivier. In fact, after Olivier’s break was brought back, I heard a guy tell his teammate that Olivier was really strong in the break. He seemed relieved that the break didn’t succeed, clearly fearing being dropped by Olivier. A few miles from the end of the 3rd lap my rear tire started to thumpthump. I thought it was going flat so I found Lyle in the group to ask him to have a look at it. He said the tire was fine (a blatant lie!) and that the thumping was probably just from the road surface. As we got near the top of the climb I started worrying that something was really wrong with my tire and that it might blow up on the fast descent. About 30 seconds later at the top of the hill, it blew up. I was relieved that it happened there at probably the slowest spot on the whole course. My wheel change was kinda slow so I probably lost about a minute. I didn’t really have much expectation that I could close that gap and get back with the pack. After a mile or two the wheel car caught up with me and tried to pace me back on. It was a nice idea but in my experience the drivers never let you actually get close enough to the car to get a proper draft. So, I almost blew myself up just trying to catch the wheel car. Just as I was convincing him to slow down, he had to pull over to help some other guy with a flat.
The pack seemed long gone by the time I reached the bottom of the hill but I figured I’d at least chase for one full lap. And I did. And it sucked. I slowly closed the gap and after that flat stretch past the farm roads I got within about 40 meters of the back of the pack… but I just could not close the distance. So I sat there so-dang-close for about 4 miles, at my limit. For me it was the pain cave that Herriott liked to talk about. Finally somebody crashed in the pack and the wheel car pulled up and said, “Here’s your chance, go!”. I tried to accelerate but not much happened except the pack accelerated. Finally I was able to close that last bit of distance and got back into the pack right at the bottom of the hill. I’m not sure how fast we went up the hill but I’d had no time to recover. I made it to the top just on the back of the group but then some smartass punched it across the flats on top and I came off the back. I just couldn’t imagine catching back on again after that. I was cooked so I pulled out.
I think the acceleration at the top of the hill was a response to Greg getting into another break. I think he went on the hill and eventually two other guys hooked up with him. I was sitting at the feed zone hill when they came around the next time and they still had a decent gap on the field. Apparently since Recycled didn’t have anyone in the break, they put all of their guys into chasing Greg. It was successful in both pulling back Greg (with 5k to go) but also in blowing up their entire team. So I think their best finisher ended up 32nd place. So, Greg set things up perfectly, basically destroying a whole team in the process. With Recycled out of the way and our guys being able to just sit in, both Lyle and Olivier were able to get in great position for the finish. It seems that a Lenovo guy jumped early and was able to open up a 20 meter gap and held it to the line. One Starbucks got in the gap but Lyle and Olivier were right there and finished strong in 3rd and 4th place. Jay rolled in with the group and Greg came in just a little ways back, smiling. All in all it was a great team effort, with great results. I think a win, one way or another is just around the corner.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Walla Walla Cat 3 Stage 3 2009 Race Report
I am feeling the guilt of not reporting so here is what happened atWalla Walla sunday RR.
The conditions were great to race: 75 to 80 degrees, clear sky andonly moderately windy.The first part of the race was relatively mellow with a few attacksand a couple of guys sticking to the front for just a few miles. As wearrived close to Walla Walla the pace increases as we were gettingmore exposed to the wind. Greg made an appearance to the front andstretched the pack even more as he took one “beast of a pull”.
As we arrived close to the hill on the back side 3 guys were up thefront from 3 teams: IJM, cucina and hagens. Greg took another strongpull and I knew that was for me. I decided to go for it as I had beenriding quite conservatively over the weekend. I launched an attack andbridged the breakaway, dragging another cucina guy with me. Therewere 5 of us now. As we went over the hill, it was clear that we werenot a great match as far as strength goes. That’s when the cucina guy,Matt, and I dropped the rest of the guys. With 50 miles to go, it mayseem like a mistake but the other guys were surely not moving fastenough!
The road going to Waitsburg was torture for the 2 of us with roughpavement and head wind. With a gap of 1min 30s, we knew we had a goodshot for the KOM but were quickly running out of steam. We agreed tosplit the prime and tempoed up the hill. As we made it through theline we decided to stop our effort and waited for the pack. It lookedvery lean and dispatched as it passed us but the pace slowed downdramatically after that. Perfect for recovering! I spotted Lyle, thenJay and Greg but no Ben, who I learned had been fatally isolated onthe backside downhill.
The decisive move happened before the feeding zone as 3 guys, amongwhich figured the stage and GC winner, a Whitman racer, took off. Thepack did not react and it took a while before the leader of the racestarted the chase (with no teammates). The pace picked up on thebackside before the hill; we were single-lined as suddenly a nastycrash occurred from the front of the pack. 2 guys were entangled onthe pavement and another 3 or 4 had to stop for mechanical issues.
As we got to the foot of the last hill, it was the usual mess ofeveryone trying to get positioned. The firework was initiated. As wetook that right turn 2 guys just in front of me went down for no otherreason than being hypoxic and brain dead. I blocked my rear wheel andthe guy behind me leaned on it but we both managed to stay upright.As the pace steadily accelerated a group of 30 guys, then 20 stayedtogether. In the last km several guys attacked and I could see Lylevery well positioned. I was happy my screaming legs could take me tothe line without too much damage and finished 19th about 15s behindthe leader of the group. From the breakaway, only the Whitman guysurvived with a 30s gap, which earned him 1st place on the GC. AsScott mentioned, Lyle had a great race and finished 6th! Greg and Jayfinished a bit later.
What a fun but draining weekend! There are surely good riders on theeastern part of the state! As Greg reported, it would have been niceto have a better start and loosing Steve was disappointing. But we didnot come back empty handed: tires, KOM and sprint prime, top 10finish. Very promising. I cannot wait for Vance creek on sunday!
Olivier
The conditions were great to race: 75 to 80 degrees, clear sky andonly moderately windy.The first part of the race was relatively mellow with a few attacksand a couple of guys sticking to the front for just a few miles. As wearrived close to Walla Walla the pace increases as we were gettingmore exposed to the wind. Greg made an appearance to the front andstretched the pack even more as he took one “beast of a pull”.
As we arrived close to the hill on the back side 3 guys were up thefront from 3 teams: IJM, cucina and hagens. Greg took another strongpull and I knew that was for me. I decided to go for it as I had beenriding quite conservatively over the weekend. I launched an attack andbridged the breakaway, dragging another cucina guy with me. Therewere 5 of us now. As we went over the hill, it was clear that we werenot a great match as far as strength goes. That’s when the cucina guy,Matt, and I dropped the rest of the guys. With 50 miles to go, it mayseem like a mistake but the other guys were surely not moving fastenough!
The road going to Waitsburg was torture for the 2 of us with roughpavement and head wind. With a gap of 1min 30s, we knew we had a goodshot for the KOM but were quickly running out of steam. We agreed tosplit the prime and tempoed up the hill. As we made it through theline we decided to stop our effort and waited for the pack. It lookedvery lean and dispatched as it passed us but the pace slowed downdramatically after that. Perfect for recovering! I spotted Lyle, thenJay and Greg but no Ben, who I learned had been fatally isolated onthe backside downhill.
The decisive move happened before the feeding zone as 3 guys, amongwhich figured the stage and GC winner, a Whitman racer, took off. Thepack did not react and it took a while before the leader of the racestarted the chase (with no teammates). The pace picked up on thebackside before the hill; we were single-lined as suddenly a nastycrash occurred from the front of the pack. 2 guys were entangled onthe pavement and another 3 or 4 had to stop for mechanical issues.
As we got to the foot of the last hill, it was the usual mess ofeveryone trying to get positioned. The firework was initiated. As wetook that right turn 2 guys just in front of me went down for no otherreason than being hypoxic and brain dead. I blocked my rear wheel andthe guy behind me leaned on it but we both managed to stay upright.As the pace steadily accelerated a group of 30 guys, then 20 stayedtogether. In the last km several guys attacked and I could see Lylevery well positioned. I was happy my screaming legs could take me tothe line without too much damage and finished 19th about 15s behindthe leader of the group. From the breakaway, only the Whitman guysurvived with a 30s gap, which earned him 1st place on the GC. AsScott mentioned, Lyle had a great race and finished 6th! Greg and Jayfinished a bit later.
What a fun but draining weekend! There are surely good riders on theeastern part of the state! As Greg reported, it would have been niceto have a better start and loosing Steve was disappointing. But we didnot come back empty handed: tires, KOM and sprint prime, top 10finish. Very promising. I cannot wait for Vance creek on sunday!
Olivier
Friday, April 17, 2009
Walla Walla Cat 3 Stage 1 2009 Race Report
We had 6 riders at Walla Walla. Jay, Ben Olivier, Steve, Lyle and myself. There was a field of 105 riders probably fewer than 1/2 from western Washington. There were teams from Montana, Idaho, Oregon, and Canada, Spokane and the tri-cities etc.
The first race was a little hectic at the start. The line at registration was long we didn’t get there early enough. The first I saw of most of the team was lining up for the race. Lyle was getting his numbers pinned on while the referee was giving her spiel. But the race started we were there. The 65 mile race had three climbs on each of 2 laps ( 700 ft over 7 miles, 400 ft over 3mi and 600 ft over 3 miles) and between the hills there was head wind. It took a while to realize we were on the first climb. It wasn’t that it was easy because it was starting to get very uncomfortable. But it was hard to recognize it as a hill since we were doing about >20mph. By the top I was way over threshold. This was the beginning of the end for me. The next 15 minutes was a succession of more climbing, chase into a strong headwind, serge hard to stay on wheel. POP.
So there I was alone in a headwind with 45 mile to the finish and only another 3000 feet of elevation gain in front of me. It was going to be hard to conserve for the next 2 days of racing.
Soon Steve caught me and we rode together. Steve said he was feeling bad. He took a neutral Bud Light feed in the feed zone and downed part of a beer. It seemed to give him a bit more go. Pete Banko caught and passed us say something like lets loose those suckers. It took Steve and I working together another 3 mile for us to catch Pete. The three of us rode for a long time. Eventually we started reeling people in we passed some, some stuck with us. We lost Steve. We passed Jay; He couldn’t hang on. The Banko express was going full steam. We finished with a group of about 15-20 in 60th place, 7 minutes behind the lead group of 38 riders.
It was a really hard humbling day. Olivier and Ben had stayed with the lead group. Lyle was 2:00 back he wasn’t feeling well either. Steve felt so bad he left after the first day.
-Greg
The first race was a little hectic at the start. The line at registration was long we didn’t get there early enough. The first I saw of most of the team was lining up for the race. Lyle was getting his numbers pinned on while the referee was giving her spiel. But the race started we were there. The 65 mile race had three climbs on each of 2 laps ( 700 ft over 7 miles, 400 ft over 3mi and 600 ft over 3 miles) and between the hills there was head wind. It took a while to realize we were on the first climb. It wasn’t that it was easy because it was starting to get very uncomfortable. But it was hard to recognize it as a hill since we were doing about >20mph. By the top I was way over threshold. This was the beginning of the end for me. The next 15 minutes was a succession of more climbing, chase into a strong headwind, serge hard to stay on wheel. POP.
So there I was alone in a headwind with 45 mile to the finish and only another 3000 feet of elevation gain in front of me. It was going to be hard to conserve for the next 2 days of racing.
Soon Steve caught me and we rode together. Steve said he was feeling bad. He took a neutral Bud Light feed in the feed zone and downed part of a beer. It seemed to give him a bit more go. Pete Banko caught and passed us say something like lets loose those suckers. It took Steve and I working together another 3 mile for us to catch Pete. The three of us rode for a long time. Eventually we started reeling people in we passed some, some stuck with us. We lost Steve. We passed Jay; He couldn’t hang on. The Banko express was going full steam. We finished with a group of about 15-20 in 60th place, 7 minutes behind the lead group of 38 riders.
It was a really hard humbling day. Olivier and Ben had stayed with the lead group. Lyle was 2:00 back he wasn’t feeling well either. Steve felt so bad he left after the first day.
-Greg
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Volunteer Park Cat 3 Race Report
Someone sent me a link to pics from the cat 3 race at Volunteer Park. There are tons of pictures here, maybe too many to wade through ...but if you were in that race, it's probable there are at least a couple of pictures of you: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gravitysalad/sets/72157616673792496/
The race itself was pretty good. Reports were that the avg speed was 26.3, so pretty fast. We had about 8 guys in the race and pretty much everyone contributed one way or another. Olivier was very active in the first part of the race, going in breaks and also taking a prime. Greg was busy at the front as usual. He had the power and poor judgment to take a prime for an ugly maroon colored t-shirt. He opted to skip the $100 prime because, you know, "mo' money, mo' problems". Ben however got in a break and beat out a Rad Racing guy for a $50 prime. He probably did that kid a favor as he would have likely just wasted the winnings on video games. Ben, being older and wiser, knows it is money best spent on drugs and strippers. Lyle and Steve both took strong pulls up front too.
For my part, I tried to stay in the top 10-15 as much as possible, hoping to be useful. I did my best to take a couple of turns on the front to pull back breaks. Nothing stayed away very long so the race came down to a sprint. Lyle and I were both in decent, but not great, position going into the last lap. But Lyle got pinched out in the bottleneck by the water tower and was forced towards the back. Jay was at the front nailing it down the hill to string things out so we could move around. It was the right thing to do. I felt really great the entire race but I should have been about 4-5 spots closer to the front on the last lap. Trying to move up on the hill before the sprint I got caught in some traffic behind guys who were fading. I can't make excuses though, I should have been in front of them already. I got around those guys after a small delay and did my best in the sprint but had too much ground to make up and ended up about 13th. It's frustrating to feel so good and not suffer in a race and still end up with poor results... but all in all our team had a solid, active race. Fun, no matter how you slice it.
Good luck to those of you racing Walla Walla this weekend. Scott
The race itself was pretty good. Reports were that the avg speed was 26.3, so pretty fast. We had about 8 guys in the race and pretty much everyone contributed one way or another. Olivier was very active in the first part of the race, going in breaks and also taking a prime. Greg was busy at the front as usual. He had the power and poor judgment to take a prime for an ugly maroon colored t-shirt. He opted to skip the $100 prime because, you know, "mo' money, mo' problems". Ben however got in a break and beat out a Rad Racing guy for a $50 prime. He probably did that kid a favor as he would have likely just wasted the winnings on video games. Ben, being older and wiser, knows it is money best spent on drugs and strippers. Lyle and Steve both took strong pulls up front too.
For my part, I tried to stay in the top 10-15 as much as possible, hoping to be useful. I did my best to take a couple of turns on the front to pull back breaks. Nothing stayed away very long so the race came down to a sprint. Lyle and I were both in decent, but not great, position going into the last lap. But Lyle got pinched out in the bottleneck by the water tower and was forced towards the back. Jay was at the front nailing it down the hill to string things out so we could move around. It was the right thing to do. I felt really great the entire race but I should have been about 4-5 spots closer to the front on the last lap. Trying to move up on the hill before the sprint I got caught in some traffic behind guys who were fading. I can't make excuses though, I should have been in front of them already. I got around those guys after a small delay and did my best in the sprint but had too much ground to make up and ended up about 13th. It's frustrating to feel so good and not suffer in a race and still end up with poor results... but all in all our team had a solid, active race. Fun, no matter how you slice it.
Good luck to those of you racing Walla Walla this weekend. Scott
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