JMSR stage 2
this second 92 mile stage started at 800 am, a short 14 hours after the previous day's 110 mile race. nice. real nice.
the race is a rolling 10 miles out to an undulating 23 mile circuit which we complete 3 times and then return to the start. the circuit features a short steep (10-15% perhaps) wall. that wall is followed by a short descent and then several miles of stair stepping climbs which prove to be far more challenging than the steep wall.
with andy being our only rider to finish in the front group and therefore any chance at the overall we were protecting him. well damn if he shouldn't flat in the first 5 miles. the SRAM neutral service car went straight past him and he was forced to the very back of the pack where he got a wheel change from the volunteers who again took several minutes (andy had to undo the bungies holding down the wheels). justin was with him but justin flatted immedately. at this point andy was alone and outside the caravan meaning he couldn't draft any of the vehicles to help him back up. he radioed to us and owen and i dropped back. owen pulled him up through the caravan and i pushed him everytime he lost owen's draft. it was a good system. we got back up just in time for the pack to sit up after a well represented break away went up the road. justin would eventually get back on but struggle on the climb and yo-yo off the back for a lap or two before pulling the plug.
the first lap was quite easy due to the break being away, which was good 'cause i needed the rest. i could tell that the break wouldn't succeed however. even at the slow pace we were going the break was building a lead of a mere 4.5-5 minutes. the big hitters for healthnet and toyota-united, the top teams were still in the pack so i figured their riders in the break would not be committed. my read turned out to be correct.
the pace was ratcheted up over the next two laps with big splits coming in the field on the stair step climbs. again, i read the race a bit and was able to know when to push myself to get across splits and when i could sit in my group and know that the guys i was with were strong enough or important enough to their teams that my group would get back. on the third lap andy found his way into a decent sized break. they got out of sight but stayed away for only a handful of miles.
toyota-united and healthnet started chasing hard and we set-up for a sprint. the pack absolutely flew back into town. chad and i worked together as much as we could. with the chaos and scrapping it became difficult. i made a few big moves up thinking i was getting him to the front only to find that he was not on my wheel. i'm sure he did the same. in the end i ended up on the left side of the group and chad on the right. this side went fast and mine did not. he pulled off 8th place, which is a great result. i was 27th.
i realized later that although i know something about field sprints from racing at home, this is a different game. i made some calculated moves in that sprint which didn't pay off. i left chris wherry's wheel (national pro champ) for what looked like a promising move. well that promise was a lie and chris finished 12th. with more experience i think that i might be able to read those situations better and make it less of a crap shoot. as it is we do few races at this level that end in field sprints (crits aside) so i haven't had many opportunities to learn. ah well. next weekend.
