Westlake 06/26/07

Wow-what a hot and humid day. Great turnout again for the Zipp wheel demo night. For SBR in the A race we had Tom Keller, Rick Adams, Gary Burkholder and John Ehrlinger. IN the race were 3 Torelli, Jason Grimm of Godspeed, Mehul and other Spin guys, A&F, a Summa lady racer, 3 Texas Roadhouse (TR), lots of Lake Effect (LE) and the usual too many RGF Solutions guys with Stefan, Dick, Cameron, etc all in DA house again. The race started with a prime on laps 1 and 2 so it started pretty fast and that kept the field together for awhile. Eventually a good break went up the road, but I didnt see much promise as it was missing TR, though it stayed out for a good 15 laps.

Eventually it fizzled and as predicted when it came back others shot attacks up the road. A pretty small group left initially, but was bridged by Tom Keller and Batke so Gary and I went on the front and I just sat up. This gave the break time to get away and gave me a nice rest too. What I found interesting is when I'd see JOhn he was looking fresh, which makes me think I need to stay a few more riders back, even on my days when I get to play. It seems I have decent attack and bridge speed so I need to stop hanging in the air in the front all of time. I'm kind of short so its hard to see up the road sometimes for me so not too far back.

Although the race wasnt brutally fast, its slowness was often met with some pretty hard, but short accelerations and in this heat it was taking its toll on my already tired legs. Unfortunately Tom's calf cramped up and he came back to the group and slowly the guys in the break started coming back. I recal before this or during this time briding pretty hard up to Rudy, who was chasing a break, but we didnt get too far.

Then with two guys left up the road (Diffenbacher and a TR guy Moskol(sp?))and less than 5-laps to go Rudy just sort of rolled off the front at a TT pace and I went with. Its a bit rusty as JOhn said he didnt block for me and Tom said they did, but Rudy and I got away in a hurry and we worked great together. So thanks team!! Then guys started to bridge up the next lap. Grimm, Stefan, Tris, Paul Martin and others made our bridging move then we caught the two guys in the break. We rolled around and i started to work some to keep away while PM and others did nothing so I started to do nothing too for a half a lap. Then Tris sent a hard attack and I bridged it. Then a TS took a dig and I didnt come around Tris as it wasnt a big dig. I got yelled at by Tris so I took another pull. Its great he said "You chased me down like I was going backwards, now you wont come around!!" Cool!! Then Paul Martin took a flyer and I chased that down bringing the group back to him. Man did I have to go like heck to catch him and luckily he sat up. My legs hurt like a MOFO now, but I guess they were going alright. As we finally hit the bell lap I kept turning around to see if we had a gap and there was NO peleton chasing us down. Made sense as it was a well represented break with about every team in it and 10 or so guys. Now i should have sat at the back being solo in the break, but I wanted to be at the front as I was very tired and didnt want to get ejected out the back. Finally I did fade to the back, but not till I had taken some more (stupid) pulls at the front. It started to get stupid and I was able to get up to third, but when the attacks starting with RGF going first, I tried to stay on, but I didnt have the legs. I passed two guys who gave up before me and rolled in 7th and I MADE THE BREAK at Westlake!!

You have no idea how happy that makes me!! That was a victory right there. Tris aftwerwards told me the obvious that I didnt need to chase everything down while Stefan and PM just sat in the back of the break, but this is how I learn AND I am just darn happy I was able to be aggressive at the end of 46 miles of racing in almost 90 degree humid heat!! Some race stats. I averaged 25.7 mph at 211 watts (243NP)and got another good leg speed workout with an ave cadence of 99 rpm. I had to hit the all out sprint button 5 times in the last 2.2 miles and hit 800 to 900 watts each time (ave watts of 266). No wonder I had no sprint when it counted!!
Sorry so long as usual, but this race had me super excited!!