“Turn the other cheek”. This past weekend brought new meaning to that biblical story. I’m not talking about fisticuffs or facial blows, I’m talking about learning from our mistakes (we lost the GC lead on the last stage), keeping perspective when racing in March (how many intervals have you done lately?) and learning to forgive when a competitor knocks you down (Mick crashed, and my front wheel was taken out during the crit… and I fell on my “other cheek”)
Friday, March 9- the Pro men and women were contesting an NRC event so the promoters added a Cat 2 and M35+ stage race too. Thank you CVC for doing so. It’s just that 5000 feet of climbing over 69 miles may have scared some riders away. It was a beautiful course too. Lots of green in the Sierra foothills, lots of sun and warmth. I was looking for three great days of training, helping my teammates and hanging out with them so I thought I had the right perspective coming into the event. The first time up the climb the pace was moderate and I was able to hang, but then the Safeway attacks started coming. Attack, counterattack, repeat as often as possible, until Dan Martin stuck it out there solo. We matched his pace in the chase towards the end of the 1st lap but this effectively took some steam out of Craig and I as we were dropped on the 2nd climb. Up ahead Marco stayed with the chase group (Michael Hernandez from Safeway was up the road with David Worthington from Sinergy). The chase group slowed and that’s when Wyatt and Rob joined back up. Michael won the stage with Dan Martin taking 3rd.
Stage 1 AMD-Discovery
7th- Mick Hellman- 42 seconds down
13th- Rob Anderson- 42 seconds down
18th- Wyatt Weisel- 4:39 down
22nd- Craig Roemer- 5:57 down
23rd- Larry Nolan- 5:57 down
Saturday, March 10- 26.4km individual time trial. There’s not much to write about in a time trial except that this too was a beautiful course. Up along one side of a river (Pine Flat Reservoir), across the bridge and down the other side, finishing up a 1km climb. The only other thing worth writing about was Mick’s time! Fastest by 18 seconds over Michael Hutchinson and 1:51 fastest than Michael Hernandez pushing Mick into the lead of the General Classification.
Stage 2 AMD-Discovery
1st- Mick Hellman- 36:50
7th- Larry Nolan- 39:11
8th- Craig Roemer- 39:26
10th- Wyatt Weisel- 39:49
19th- Rob Anderson- 41:55 (including riding on a flat and changing a wheel)
GC after Stage 2 AMD-Discovery
1st- Mick Hellman- 3:38.13
10th- Rob Anderson- 5’05”
13th- Wyatt Weisel- 6’56”
14th- Larry Nolan- 7’38”
15th- Craig Roemer- 7’51”
Sunday, March 11th- this really was a great stage race but our one complaint was that we raced on Saturday at 8am and then on Sunday at 5pm. Yes, we enjoyed our weekend in Fresno and had some nice rides, but the timing needs to be improved for next year. One of the reasons for our complaint is that it gave us too much time to calculate, think about all the possible outcomes and to worry! Mick was up 18 seconds on Michael Hutchinson (Spine) who had no teammates for the crit and he was up 69 seconds on Michael Hernandez (Safeway) who had 3 strong teammates. We had our assignments. Rob would keep the pace up whenever it dropped, Mick would stick to Michael Hutchinson, I was assigned to Michael Hernandez and Craig and Wyatt would help in every way possible. We anticipated Safeway sending a lowly placed GC rider up the road but we didn’t expect it to happen in the 2nd lap! Dan Martin (Safeway) had flatted in the time trial and had sunk on the GC standings. We knew what was coming next and Michael Hernandez made his move to Dan. I bridged to his wheel. These two were flying around the course and their gap grew every lap. The announcer (Dave) cheered them on and in the end Michael took back his 69 seconds plus some to spare. I came away with the stage win, but it was only consolation after sitting on their wheels for 24 laps. I doubt that I could have beat these two if this was not a stage race GC on the line.
Stage 3- AMD-Discovery
1st- Larry Nolan
7th - Craig Roemer
18th- Mick Hellman (crashed in the last lap)
19th- Wyatt Weisel
21st- Rob Anderson
Final General Classification AMD-Discovery
2nd- Mick Hellman
10th- Rob Anderson
12th- Larry Nolan
13th- Wyatt Weisel
14th- Craig Roemer
2 comments:
Nice write up. The 5 PM crit start kept me away and all of my teammates. It's too late for many of us who are begging for hall passes to go racing every weekend anyway. The ideal timing on a SR for me is late Friday TT, Saturday RR, early Sunday Crit.
Larry, well written.
I felt like I was there.......
Oooops I was :)
Good times even with the lumps.
KM, Promoter promised BETTER times for next year but I doubt it will be IDEAL.
Sasser
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