Summary

First Race – Elite 4/5

Lead out by Nole then Ben to take two primes but ended up being trashed and poorly positioned for the final sprint, rolled in at the end of the pack. Nole wins on his own.

Second Race – Elite 4

Switched up team tactics and gained some allies to keep the race very strung out and fast (against some wind). Solid leadout train briefly materialized then dissolved despite my best efforts to keep it together for Nole and Ben. Rolled at 21st with Seth after we both got somewhat swarmed around the last corner.

Details…

Course

Fun course: wide open decent pavement, five corners, with corners 3 and 4 forming sort of a chicane on the back stretch. Long enough sprint where you don’t necessarily want to be on the front through the last corner.

Crew

Solid crit crew: Ben, Jake, Nole, Sam, and Seth.

Goals

Top tens in each race, easy primes, and help Nole get Ben his points.

First Race – Elite 4/5

Strategy

Pairing off we’d lead each other out for various primes then form Voltron for the sprint.

Reality

Our pairing scheme immediately fell apart and I found myself following Nole for the first few laps before I passed him to take a couple pulls up front. Sat back then he came back up, hip tap, followed him in to win the one of the first few primes. Awesome lead out.

Yo-yo-ed back and forth between the front of the pack and midpack. Found myself near the front as I saw Ben come by late in the race, jumped on his wheel and he sent me through the last corner to one one of the last few primes which ended up being one of the coveted Flaming Toilet Seats (pictures soon, I promise).

The prime sort of destroyed my final sprint as I took a while to recover midpack and never got a good position. Rolled in toward the end of the main pack, ahead of any stragglers, but still didn’t get scored by the judges for some reason. Bogus, but the Flaming Toilet Seat speaks for itself. I’d put myself around 40th of 75 starters.

Reflection

Nole and Ben’s leadouts for me worked like clockwork. 2 for 2 leadout and sprint in one race left me thinking about simplifying our goals/strategy for both races. I want to try just having a dedicated sprinter (chosen before or during) sitting up front with a good position top 10 on the bell lap and having our leadout guys come from behind in the last few corners – the sprinter just latches on and follows. Our leadout trains always seem to dissolved before the are useful. A lone sprinter is always going to go for the hole shot, so have a surprise leadout is very helpful and throws the other sprinters off guard.

Second Race – Elite 4

Strategy

Realizing how much cornerswarm the relatively slow race had and how it threw off our whole strategy we resolved to keep the next race super stretched out, fast, and safe. Between races we made some alliances with the entire Metromint squad, Stage 5 and DBC riders, and Maurice from SJBC. Plan: fast constant pace, drilling it up front, no wild attacks.

Reality

Nole, the Stage 5 and DBC guys, and myself controlled the first third of the race taking big steady pulls. Second third many Metromint riders and non-allies tookover but still kept it nice and fast now that the pace had been dictated. Final third fell into somewhat disarray as the allegiances dissolved and we started to set up our leadout trains and non-allied attacks (many from Godspeed) went off.

We started to form and had to together from 6 to go until 3 to go when things went horribly wrong. Ben fell back, and then Seth and I got swarmed. I took Ben back up to Nole with 3 to go, but attacks still came from either side. With Jake off the front at the bell, Nole and Ben further back, and Seth and I a little further back at -20 or so, Sam looked like the only one in position. Unfortunately he had no snap left and went from 3rd or 4th wheel to 15th as fresher legs took over in the sprint. Seth and I rolled in soon after (20th and 21st respectively out of 48? starters).

Reflection

We successfully kept it stretched out and worked hard, but failed to deliver in the end. No one thing went wrong, it was just very difficult to work hard consistently throughout the race and have much left in the end. We all agreed we were pretty spent after the second race on a very hot day (I still feel dehydrated).

Props

Huge Shout Out™ to Lars Norlund, the rest of 2 Wheel Racing, officials and volunteers for putting on a fantastic race. Cool course (excited to try it out as a twilight with a small field), very well organized, smooth timing, cold water, good prizes (especially for an inaugural race). Awesome!