Specialized train photo by Bryon Servies (Madera 35+ 1/2/3 Crit) http://ebyron.smugmug.com/Sports/314482 "Making up what seemed like half the peloton, the Specialized Masters team controlled all breakaways and used excellent teamwork to take 1st and 3rd"
First of all, there's an unwritten rule that the winner of a race just doesn't send out a race report because it will read rather selfishly. I'm going to buck that tradition because there's a story here that has not been told.
The team picked the low-key Madera stage race many months ago because the three races in two days format is time efficient and that meal on Saturday night is a great opportunity for the team to get together. Two of our juniors did the 3's stage race (Davis was 13th and Marcus DNF). For the masters team we packed the 35+ race with ten guys and set out our strategy: field sprint the crit to keep everyone on the same time for the 10 mile time trial just 3 hours later, stay on course (he he) and go all out in the time trial and then be flexible in the road race.
Unfortunately only 31 other competitors came out to play and not everyone wanted a field sprint in the crit, so instead of a negative race of chasing everything we went out and set a nice 27mph tempo and then let Dean do what he does best. Dean 1st, Alex Holtz (EMC) 2nd, yours truly 3rd. 20, 10 and 5 second time bonuses too.
On to the time trial but the test wasn't just against the clock as we had only 2-1/2 hours after our crit to go anaerobic for 20 something minutes. We were blessed with 80 degree weather and light winds but it was still painful.
We enjoyed a great meal together and made a plan to check results and then make a plan in the morning.
Team breakfast just 10 hours after that big dinner... yum!
Pre-road race leader board: Mick had whomped on everyone by at least 84 seconds in the time trial but he had flatted with no free laps in the crit so Mick was up on me by 54 seconds. Billy was in 3rd after a fine time trial, Craig in 8th, Rob in 10th, Wyatt in 12th, Jeff in 15th, Kevin in 17th and Mike probably with the fastest "I don't want to ride aero equipment" time.
Strategy: keep it all together and hold our 1-2-3 placings.
Dang that was sweet! Groups went up the road and if we didn't like the odds we'd bring it back. Or, I should say that the team brought it back. Everyone did their work and we averaged just over 25mph for 68 miles with 1500 feet of climbing. As the field sprint approached we knew that if there were time gaps we might have lost ground so I followed Ted Huang (Webcor) to the line and pipped him to take the 20 second time bonus.
Turns out Mick knew his time in the 10 miler and told the officials that they had him a minute faster than it should have been. It was the right thing to do but the correction moved Mick back to second place. If Mick hadn't flatted in the crit this would have been a one second time difference!
Final Madera leader board:
TeamSpecializedRacing 1-2-3
Ted Huang (Webcor) 4th
Alex Holt (EMC) 5th
Clark Hoy (San Jose) 6th
TeamSpecializedRacing 7, 9, 13, 16 and 24
Good night! Larry
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