On the first lap, during the climb up to the top of the corkscrew, two riders broke away. So early in the race their efforts seemed futile, so we let them go. Marcus Smith, member of our junior team, was on the course cheering for us. Around lap 5 or 6 he called out, “there’s a break more than one minute up the road, what are you guys thinking?” His tone of uncertainty ignited our fire and we picked up the pace. The next time around, we sent Billy away with four other riders. They eventually caught the original break. Sensing sucess, Billy strategically rode away from the others and wound up winning in grand style. He crossed the line solo and more than a minute ahead of second place.
How he fueled the furry: one cup of ordinary hotel coffee, one medium cup brewed starbucks coffee, and one freshly drawn espresso shot (courtesy of Rob Spear) minutes before the start of the race.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but it is obvious what Billy is saying, "I finally got this monkey off my back, and I got me a jersey to replace it". For many of our early season races, Billy has been quintessential in supporting the victories of other teammates. For him, Sea Otter was a well deserved victory. Cheers!
M45 podium (4th Paul Gossi - Reno; 2nd Rob Anderson TeamSpecializedRacing; 1st fomer teammate Wayne Stetina- Amgen; 3rd Larry Nolan TeamSpecializedRacing; 5th broken derailuer Cynergy rider)
1 comment:
At 18 years old the Sea Otter circuit race has earned a reputation as a tough yet tactical race. Personally I'd much rather descend the Laguna Sega corkscrew at 50mph than go around in circles in an industrial park.
Speaking of industrial park crits, after 20 years of bike racing this is one of the few events that my wife will come out to. It's that festive and that much fun. Well, except for all that climbing ;-)
In our relatively small 45+ 1/2/3 field road race winner from the day before David "Hawk" Worthington (Cynergy) was looking fit but it was former teammate Wayne Stetina (Amgen) that took off from the gun. The uninterested pack let him and Craig Linberg (Sierra Express) dangle in front of us lap after lap but then the pack slowed and the gap opened. Here's where the tactics played out. If anyone pressed the pace too much on the climb or in the flats below they felt vunerable to an attack so we really slowed... and Wayne rode away from us! Rob soloed from the field and then I joined him but it was too late to catch Wayne who put out a superb 14 lap, 90 minute effort.
So, what did we learn? Neither Rob nor I sacraficed our race for the other. We both felt good, but didn't know if we could work to bring Wayne back and stave off the attacks that would come. We also overestimated the horsepower of the other teams who did not work for eachother. That's the beauty of Sea Otter. Tactics, strength and teamwork. We didn't win but hopefully we will learn from the experience. Larry
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