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03-05-07, 08:31 AM
edit: woah, sorry for the ridiculous length...
Well, I've been looking forward to the first races of the season and I felt pretty confident until I realized that they put 4's and 5's together for the Georgia Cup...I felt that I could contend for the top spots in the cat 5, but racing against the massive 4 field made me incredibly nervous and I couldn't sleep at all up to this weekend. Plus they said they were going to limit the fields to 75, but as of the end of registration, 89 people had already signed up, and they let a few others sign up at the race for just under 100 racers. Again, I wasn't liking my chances. At least they said they were going to have a separate cat 5 prizes. Well, enough jibber jabber...
Prologue/TT:
It was a very technical course of about 2-3 miles with 11 90-degree corners and one full turnaround. This sort of played to my strengths as I'm a short-term power/quick-recovery guy and I could recouperate for a second or two in the corners. I felt that I should focus on making good lines in the turns and that would save me more power than really gunning it on the straightaways. I used clip-on TT bars and just a regular helmet. Anyways, I thought I did pretty well, although I daydreamed for a bit in the middle until I saw I was about to lap the guy in front of me, then I was forced to sprint around him to get to a turn first then carried that speed to the end. Well, I ended up not only winning the cat 5's but I won the overall 4/5 prologue with a 3:34 time. I would have placed in the front half of the pro/1/2 field and 4th in the 3's.
Since it was a stage race, that meant that cumulative time mattered and not just points for each race. That meant I got to wear the yellow jersey for the criterium, which was really cool. It made me a marked man for sure, but it also meant that people gave me a slightly larger berth around corners, etc.
Criterium:
Well, it felt cool to be up on the podium finally and get to back-into the front of the huge field at the start with the yellow jersey rather than have to start at the back. So I was 3 seconds up on my teammate and 9 seconds up on 3rd place with my next teammate in 6th. The team decided to work for me, but I could tell that the 2nd place guy really wanted to win and didn't want to sacrifice his 2 spot. Anyways, after the start, the first lap was insanely fast, but then it calmed down really quickly...enough for me to get to the front spot and just sort of leisurely lead the group around and actually win a sock prime on the 3rd lap...
So after the prime a really strong rider that was supposed to be marked by the team got loose and took off, I was able to bridge quickly and we had a two man break for a couple laps, and another friend on a different team was trying to bridge as well. We decided to sit up for just a bit to let him catch up so we would have a stronger 3 man break. Unfortunately this also allowed the 3rd place rider to bridge up. There were two MAR primes for 5, 3, & 1 second time bonuses during the crit, and he decided to try to go for those rather than the final time bonuses for winning(10, 7, 5, 3, 1). So it was the 4 of us when they called the first MAR prime, and he went all out for it, and I didn't want to burn all my matches for time bonuses, so I ended up getting 3rd. Unfortunately that meant the break all psuedo-sprinted and everybody sat up, eventually letting the field catch up again.
For the next MAR prime, the 3rd place rider also went full out and took another 5 second bonus, while I managed to come in 3rd again for a one second bonus. He later said that he didn't have a good field sprint, so he wanted to get the MARs for the GC.
So I felt really fresh, and I was the virtual leader still on the course by 1 second...I was moving around the group at will and felt like I had a good chance. So with 4 to go, about 3/4 of the way through the course I accelerate to stay with the group into the win and *SNAP* my chain breaks. I'm completely dejected and I'm slowly skateboarding to our tent, when the ref on the motorcycle yells at me to get to the pit NOW! So I skateboard to the pit and barely crossed before the peloton crosses to get me on the 3rd lap and them on the 2nd. But since I was on the 3rd to last lap, I still got field time for the GC. WHEW, thank god. So my teammate in 2nd came in 3rd in the final sprint, giving him a 5 second time bonus, but my time was a few tenths of a second higher than his and I got to retain the yellow jersey for the road race.
RR:
All the teams in contention knew the importance of the KOM points in the middle of the race, giving the same 5, 3, 1 seconds bonus as the MAR points. So, with a mile or two to go to the KOM, all the big guns got to the front with their leadouts. I knew I had an excellent climber for my leadout and the 3rd place team mis-timed their leadout and I ended up taking the KOM by a large margin in the sprint, and another teammate got 2nd. This REALLY took the pressure off because it basically put 3rd out of contention for the top spot, unless he won the RR and I got less than 4th.
A break went away right after the KOM sprint as the main teams caught their breath, catching everybody by surprised and getting way down the road before a chase could be organized. My teammate that was shielding me had blown up in the leadout and was nowhere to be found. So it was basically me and the 3rd place rider in front and we made a pact to work together and try to preserve our GC spots because if the break got far enough away, they would jump everybody.
So basically he and I did all the pulling for the 2nd half of the race with help from another solo rider. I tried to find teammates behind me but there weren't any, so I'd yell for the Aaron's boys to try to move up occasionally. Eventually one worked his way forward and gave two really strong pulls to get the break in shouting distance. Then my teammate who was 2nd decided to try to bridge to the break and actually start pulling the break away with his fresh legs. Before they got far enough away, me and the 3rd place rider took two full out pulls to get him back in shouting distance and I told him, "DUDE! SIT UP!" He did immediately and the break at that point gave up knowing they couldn't get away. They had been away for about 35-45 minutes and we caught them just in time.
So with 5 miles to go, it was me, the 3rd place rider and my 2nd place teammate in the front with a few others and I basically tried to dictate what my teammate was to do, so that in the heat of the moment, he wouldn't think about trying to break again. With 500 to go I told him to GOGOGO and he went all out until about 200 to go with a perfect leadout and I sprinted for the win by about 2 bike lengths.
It was such a rush in the final sprint and it was great that the team worked so well together to bring the GC home. Amazingly enough, none of the other contenders got 2nd-5th so my teammate held onto 2nd in the GC. PERFECT! At the podium, I ended up in 3 jerseys(weekend GC, overall cup GC & KOM) and 6 medals(TT, RR, GC, KOM, top cat 5, and 3rd in the MAR). I looked a bit like Mr. T :)
Well, I've been looking forward to the first races of the season and I felt pretty confident until I realized that they put 4's and 5's together for the Georgia Cup...I felt that I could contend for the top spots in the cat 5, but racing against the massive 4 field made me incredibly nervous and I couldn't sleep at all up to this weekend. Plus they said they were going to limit the fields to 75, but as of the end of registration, 89 people had already signed up, and they let a few others sign up at the race for just under 100 racers. Again, I wasn't liking my chances. At least they said they were going to have a separate cat 5 prizes. Well, enough jibber jabber...
Prologue/TT:
It was a very technical course of about 2-3 miles with 11 90-degree corners and one full turnaround. This sort of played to my strengths as I'm a short-term power/quick-recovery guy and I could recouperate for a second or two in the corners. I felt that I should focus on making good lines in the turns and that would save me more power than really gunning it on the straightaways. I used clip-on TT bars and just a regular helmet. Anyways, I thought I did pretty well, although I daydreamed for a bit in the middle until I saw I was about to lap the guy in front of me, then I was forced to sprint around him to get to a turn first then carried that speed to the end. Well, I ended up not only winning the cat 5's but I won the overall 4/5 prologue with a 3:34 time. I would have placed in the front half of the pro/1/2 field and 4th in the 3's.
Since it was a stage race, that meant that cumulative time mattered and not just points for each race. That meant I got to wear the yellow jersey for the criterium, which was really cool. It made me a marked man for sure, but it also meant that people gave me a slightly larger berth around corners, etc.
Criterium:
Well, it felt cool to be up on the podium finally and get to back-into the front of the huge field at the start with the yellow jersey rather than have to start at the back. So I was 3 seconds up on my teammate and 9 seconds up on 3rd place with my next teammate in 6th. The team decided to work for me, but I could tell that the 2nd place guy really wanted to win and didn't want to sacrifice his 2 spot. Anyways, after the start, the first lap was insanely fast, but then it calmed down really quickly...enough for me to get to the front spot and just sort of leisurely lead the group around and actually win a sock prime on the 3rd lap...
So after the prime a really strong rider that was supposed to be marked by the team got loose and took off, I was able to bridge quickly and we had a two man break for a couple laps, and another friend on a different team was trying to bridge as well. We decided to sit up for just a bit to let him catch up so we would have a stronger 3 man break. Unfortunately this also allowed the 3rd place rider to bridge up. There were two MAR primes for 5, 3, & 1 second time bonuses during the crit, and he decided to try to go for those rather than the final time bonuses for winning(10, 7, 5, 3, 1). So it was the 4 of us when they called the first MAR prime, and he went all out for it, and I didn't want to burn all my matches for time bonuses, so I ended up getting 3rd. Unfortunately that meant the break all psuedo-sprinted and everybody sat up, eventually letting the field catch up again.
For the next MAR prime, the 3rd place rider also went full out and took another 5 second bonus, while I managed to come in 3rd again for a one second bonus. He later said that he didn't have a good field sprint, so he wanted to get the MARs for the GC.
So I felt really fresh, and I was the virtual leader still on the course by 1 second...I was moving around the group at will and felt like I had a good chance. So with 4 to go, about 3/4 of the way through the course I accelerate to stay with the group into the win and *SNAP* my chain breaks. I'm completely dejected and I'm slowly skateboarding to our tent, when the ref on the motorcycle yells at me to get to the pit NOW! So I skateboard to the pit and barely crossed before the peloton crosses to get me on the 3rd lap and them on the 2nd. But since I was on the 3rd to last lap, I still got field time for the GC. WHEW, thank god. So my teammate in 2nd came in 3rd in the final sprint, giving him a 5 second time bonus, but my time was a few tenths of a second higher than his and I got to retain the yellow jersey for the road race.
RR:
All the teams in contention knew the importance of the KOM points in the middle of the race, giving the same 5, 3, 1 seconds bonus as the MAR points. So, with a mile or two to go to the KOM, all the big guns got to the front with their leadouts. I knew I had an excellent climber for my leadout and the 3rd place team mis-timed their leadout and I ended up taking the KOM by a large margin in the sprint, and another teammate got 2nd. This REALLY took the pressure off because it basically put 3rd out of contention for the top spot, unless he won the RR and I got less than 4th.
A break went away right after the KOM sprint as the main teams caught their breath, catching everybody by surprised and getting way down the road before a chase could be organized. My teammate that was shielding me had blown up in the leadout and was nowhere to be found. So it was basically me and the 3rd place rider in front and we made a pact to work together and try to preserve our GC spots because if the break got far enough away, they would jump everybody.
So basically he and I did all the pulling for the 2nd half of the race with help from another solo rider. I tried to find teammates behind me but there weren't any, so I'd yell for the Aaron's boys to try to move up occasionally. Eventually one worked his way forward and gave two really strong pulls to get the break in shouting distance. Then my teammate who was 2nd decided to try to bridge to the break and actually start pulling the break away with his fresh legs. Before they got far enough away, me and the 3rd place rider took two full out pulls to get him back in shouting distance and I told him, "DUDE! SIT UP!" He did immediately and the break at that point gave up knowing they couldn't get away. They had been away for about 35-45 minutes and we caught them just in time.
So with 5 miles to go, it was me, the 3rd place rider and my 2nd place teammate in the front with a few others and I basically tried to dictate what my teammate was to do, so that in the heat of the moment, he wouldn't think about trying to break again. With 500 to go I told him to GOGOGO and he went all out until about 200 to go with a perfect leadout and I sprinted for the win by about 2 bike lengths.
It was such a rush in the final sprint and it was great that the team worked so well together to bring the GC home. Amazingly enough, none of the other contenders got 2nd-5th so my teammate held onto 2nd in the GC. PERFECT! At the podium, I ended up in 3 jerseys(weekend GC, overall cup GC & KOM) and 6 medals(TT, RR, GC, KOM, top cat 5, and 3rd in the MAR). I looked a bit like Mr. T :)