Coming out of the first stage of this years longsjo
classic, ecv was in a strong position with ariel sitting pretty in fourth
thirty seconds out and sears just a minute back in 22nd. given
this arrangement, our gc strategy was pretty simple. Keep the
circuit race together and get ariel to the base of the wachusett climb
on the road race in the front group. I had every confidence
that if we could set that up there would be no one who could hold his
wheel up the climb … and no one could. but I will leave the
details of that story to his gc race report. However, having a team
of eight strong and such a strong gc position allowed us to explore some
additional race opportunities and we decided to make a run at the green
jersey as well.
The circuit race:
The 9 lap/28 mile circuit race seems to be a perennially uneventful affair. The gc teams are concerned with keeping the race together, and individuals who want to make a stab at the overall are content to wait for the much more taxing road race stage and its decisive finishing climb. There are, however, four sprint laps at 8 6 4 and 2 to go and these set the stage of the points competition for the weekend. The first lap is a points lap. Coming down the backstretch the veloeuropa squad had a long train and looked to be setting someone up for the first sprint. I grabbed their last wheel and followed them uneventfully through the final corner in good position. I jumped pretty early and held off Nathaniel koeppel of uvm for the maximum points. We were well clear of the pack over the top and in keeping with the strategy for the day i worked our break a bit. The idea was to see if either of the two gc contenders ahead of ariel were jumpy enough to chase down breaks personally. We were pulled back before the 180 on the course and I got the word from sears that neither nebc or tristar was bitting. [We tried again with Jackson attacking and maybe others…but gave up when it was clear our efforts were wasted]. I was a little too far in the red from this effort and never properly recovered. we managed a third in one more sprint with help from Jackson and a pointless fourth…but by then I was deep in the red. In fact, jaction, weller, and kyle and maybe others (i was wasted) had to help pace me back into the field over the top of the climb on just about every subsequent trip up the hill. I was spent. The boys led ariel out into the last climb and he just missed a time bonus nabbing fifth. As I slowly made my way up the finishing climb there was a two-man-slow-motion-crash. As I came by, I caught this image out of the corner of my eye of one cyclist standing over the other pointing at him yelling “ this happens every time I race with you”. Classic stuff.
Road Race:
The results posted at the race, which differed
from the overnight online results, had me in second place with 30pts to
sean o’rourke of TNM racing (50pts) and had uvm nate in third with 25pts. The
stage was pretty well set for the points battle. The road race course
is a 11.4 mile loop we would traverse 6 times before hitting the finishing
climb up mt wachusett. There is a sprint just before the mt entrance
on every lap except the last one. If I had learned a lesson
from the previous day, it was that even in a points competition it is important
to carefully and strategically dole out your efforts and I would be careful
to do so today. The gc strategy was simple enough, and allowed some
latitude for ecv’ers who were feeling good to help out with the sprints. We
held pete and sean in reserve for the final lap and climb. This allowed
everyone else to focus on covering breaks and watching ariel’s back. It
also left ryan o’hara free to give me some stellar, if not painful, lead
outs. On both of the first two laps, separate individual riders who
were not really involved with the points competition went on suicide moves
from up to three miles out to grab the maximum points. I decided to
only react if O’Rourke or nate did, and only then to cover them. They
wisely also let these two get away. Coming into the final mile we
were lining it up for second place. Invariably, ryan and or ryan and
Jackson would appear at the front in these crucial moments and give me a
wheel. They kept the pace high enough to discourage anyone from launching
premature attacks and kept me in good position and out of the wind. With
their launching pad, we grabbed second place in both of the sprints…and
because uvm nate grabbed third each time, we were making steady progress
against O’Rourke. A good size break formed up on the next lap, and
fearful that the referees would neutralize the field but not the break [ecv
has lost the orange jersey in just this manner before] I quickly got
Jason to jump across to it. These guys stayed away for two laps, but
with no real points contenders up there the green jersey competition stayed
quiet. O’Rourke actually jumped and almost bridged across to the break
enroute to the fith sprint (with me tucked neatly on his wheel) but they
were a bit to far out and we let ourselves be reabsorbed by the pack. Jason
came back from the break to make a strategic report on its composition and
we put sean to work with some nebc’ers brining it back. Once
again, a new soloist jumped away early for the maximum points and nate,
O’Rourke, and I waited to duke it out for second. I’m pretty sure
this is the lap were as ryan was leading me out we got the 1K to go sign
confused with the 200m to go. I can see him now turning around to
look at me and asking : “ am I done”….only to hear me respond with a definitive
“no”…those must have been a brutal 800m…but he delivered me to the line
in fine fashion and we took the sprint for second again. O’Rourke
got third on this one, but it wasn’t enough and we had the points to take
over the green jersey for the next day 75 to 55 with nate still in third
with 45. I had enough in the tank to work a little with our sean and
nebc pulling back a dangerous looking individual break in the last lap….but
we burned all of sean’s matches in the process. I tried to hold
ariel near the front going through the last set of rollers but…I was on
the rivets and when I popped it was a slow ride to the top of mt wachusett. We
had done our job…however, getting ariel and pete to the base of the mountain
with the front group and they would not disappoint. Check ariel’s
report for the details.
The criterium:
The Fitchburg crit is 27 laps/24 miles with sprints at 25-20-15-10-7-5 and 3 to go. With 25-15-5 points for 1st 2nd and 3rd, This would be the real decider of the points jersey. Even though we were in green with seventy-five points, it was anybodys game. Up until race time, I had been thinking that on the hillier sprints of the circuit and RR we had an advantage over O’Rourke…because of my slighter build…but that at the crit he would have the advantage. And in a drag race this may hold true…but in the end we had a much greater advantage than just my 14 year old-like upper body; a totally devoted eight man team of ecv’ers with victory on the brain. We calculated that if we won four sprints outright and got second in one more, we would mathematically have won. I was afraid that things might get a little more complicated than that…so I drafted Jason knauff and tonky into doing a little road side math. They in turn recruited a number of people to yell the updates onto the road at various points along the course. The unparalleled show of teamwork did not end there. The general strategy was to enter the double turn leading into the finishing straight with at least two teammates in front of me. I would yell out how many guys we had in the train as we entered the turn and we would ramp it up out of the turn with people pulling off until a hundred meters or so from the line where I would do my part. It worked flawlessly. I would find sears’ wheel always near the front and let him know I was on, generally a lap out from the bell. As we rounded the sharp 180 after the start finish, he would move us up to the front of the field. Then, as we approached the turn, if someone wasn’t already in front of him, they would come shooting up to the front and lead him through the turn. In every sprint we contested, I never went through that last turn without at least two ecv jersey in front of me. O’Rourke got the better of us on the second sprint, but only by going from out of the last turn and holding all the way to the line, a tremendous effort that must have cost him in the long run. We took four out of the first five sprints with second in the other. Some of our lead outs were so effective that the last man on the train got points as well having dropped the field completely on the run in to the line. Even ariel got in on the action, helping lead out one of the final sprints. We had secured the jersey. Unfortunately, we burned a lot of matches in the effort, and a crash with just two laps to go added confusion on top of fatigue into our planned attempt to try and grab the orange jersey in the waning moments of the race. [jackson crashed on three separate occasions in this race and got back in after every single one]
All in all…one hell of a performance by the blue and white. We seem to be getting better and better at our leadouts and I can’t wait for us to unleash it on unsuspecting fields throughout New England for the rest of the summer…albeit with different individuals taking up the last position on the train…
Have to say awesome job by PVB[10th overall and 4th in the circuit race in the 4s] and former ecv’er steve weller (2nd on the road race stage) and thanks for the assists. Likewise to shane , matt and the rest of the veloeurpeans. and congrats as well to O’Rourke and nate with whom , I think, we can expect more epic battles in the future.