Originally Posted by
waterrockets
This is a pretty basic scenario, but one we see in central TX. 3/4 race, Walburg, TX. Windy as hell -- every year. Exposed rolling hills road race, maybe 40F. Kinda strong guy (maybe 4th strongest 3 in TX) goes, and my teammate goes with him (this was before I joined RX's team). I went and found the other guy, who should have won the race that day. He can't sprint too well, but can diesel like crazy. I got on his wheel and camped. He tried to get across without me a few times, but always called it off b/c he didn't want to get into a 2-on-1 with me, towing a sprinter up. He complains to me, I explain the math to him (he knows already, but we're going through the motions). Anyway, my guy won from the break and this other guy did finally get away, but it was way too late.
I had a similar situation in a similar race. Also windy and rollers. We just had 3 in a field of 70 and my teammate gets into a break of about 12 on the first of 3 25-mile laps. I just made it my job to get on the front and everytime somebody tried to bridge, I'd just hop on his wheel. The biggest team in the race had about 10 guys but no one in the break and never figured out how to put 3 or 4 guys on the front to bring the break back. Instead, they all thought they would just individually bridge up there. And I would hop on their wheels. There was much elbow flicking and even some yelling, but I have a guy in the break and I am not doing any work. If you'd like to tow me up there, please proceed. This got exhausting after a lap and a half, but my other teammate came up and took over. He was a 4 at the time and I had to yell at him not to increase the pace a couple of times.