Length: 45 Minutes
Catagory: 3
Description: Fast and narrow into turn one, the rest of the course was very nice and safe.
So I arrived in Wonder Lake, just south of the Wisconsin border. The race was in a neighborhood and as soon as I parked I noticed an old man walking in the race course as riders frantically avoided him, just another obstacle of bike racing, especially in neighborhoods. This was apparently the first time that this race had been held and after talking with some of the residents they were really excited about it. At every turn people were out picnicing and taking in the races, watching riders whiz by at high speeds while having beer on a blanket in the sun. It was an absolutely gorgeous day.
We lined up and to everyone's surpise only 11 guys were at the start/finish line. Maybe it was a because there was another criterium being held at that time within an hour of this one, maybe it was because this was a new race, but for whatever reason the turnout wasn't great for the 3's and immediately I was at an incredible disadvantage. Of the 11 riders - 5 where South Chicago Wheelman, 3 were Burnham Racing and 2 were other independent riders.
This means that these teams could pretty much do whatever they want the whole race. They can attack and make one of the independent riders chase them back and then reattack and reattack until you have burnt up all your matches.
Immediately off the gun SCW and Burnham got guys off the front and the rest of the race was pretty well determined by that move. The independent guys and myself began taking pulls trying to keep them within range. However, when working with independent guys theres an added level of strategy that comes into play. You don't really want to be the independent guy who reels in the break as the SCW and Burnham guys will attack as soon as you reel them in and you just won't have the stamina to keep up with their well rested attack. So optimally you want to be getting pulled when the catch is made so that you can stand a chance of being able to respond to the next wave of their attacks. Because even if you feel pretty good - the team guys behind you who have done absolutely zero work will be feeling better and will put together an impressive jump soon after the catch.
There really wasn't much hope for winning today. With two laps to go we could see that the Burnham guy had dropped the SCW guy (that we quickly caught and passed) and we began yelling at SCW to get to the front to pull back Burnham now that they had zero interest in having a breakaway sustain itself. They moved to the front but it was apparent that for whatever reason SCW just didn't have it. As a group we could tell that it would be a race for 2nd. We lined up for the sprint and I actually started my sprint at the right time believe it or not. I passed nearly everyone for a 3rd place finish. It was amazing that after all that the top 3 finishers in the field sprint didn't have teammates and pretty much worked all race (1st - Burnham (breakway), 2nd - Independent, 3rd - xXx, 4th - Independent). A result that I wasn't thrilled about as I felt like I was very strong that day, but a result that I could live with, because racing against well executed team strategy is just nearly impossible.
Three races, three top 4 finishes - great start to the season I'd say.
Next Race - June 7th, Spring Prairie Road Race
No comments:
Post a Comment