when it all goes wrong...

When it all goes wrong we still learn our lessons... for all the new racers out there we like to share our experiences. For all the riders that like to point out our mistakes, here’s a fine example.

At the Wente Road Race (Saturday, April 26th) the riders get tested on their strength, smarts and ability to hydrate (see other race reports), whereas at the Wente Criterium on Sunday, April 27th the athletes were challenged on their patience and finishing speed. This popular course attracts large fields but also frustrates more riders than most courses and here’s why: this course is too easy. While it may look like a normal 6 corner industrial park course from the air, at 2km per lap with just two real corners it has field sprint written all over it. Many can jet off the front at 30mph but only the most cooperative breakaway can hold off a charging pack.

Basically, every rider thinks that they can win this race when they hear than last lap bell!

In the M45 race Morgan Stanley/ Spine had the numbers. Maybe 10 out of 75 guys. Hang on to that data point. Let me boil a 45 minute event down to one sentence: Kevin worked selflessly for me to get into position to win the race in a 75 man field sprint. Thanks Kevin. I owe you again.


In the 15-16 and 17-18 junior race 14 year old Marcus Smith marked a fine move by Zack Wick (Davis) and they opened up a gap. Marcus wrote up a race report but I’m mentioning it again here because I can include a picture and there’s a tactic to learn. Joel, James and Daniel were in the field. If they had chased Marcus they show no faith in his abilities to stay away or take Zack in a sprint. They also risk working too much and being attacked by their competitors. Instead, they left the chasing up to the competitors and the competitors let the break go. It was a good call because we don’t want to show that we chase our own team.

In the M35 race we had the numbers. Nine teammates in a field of 100. Let me boil down a 40 minute race so that we can all learn: a break of 8 riders formed late in the race and we had Billy and Jeff in the break. Both are great riders but they had strong riders with them in Brian Bosch (Sierra Pacific), Michael Hernadez (VOS), Bubba Melcher (Clover) and others. The call to bring the break back was made. Not a decision that came quickly or was communicated well but we chased so that our three sprinters (Dean, Ken and Scott) could finish it off in style. Unfortunately, the chase showed that we didn’t believe Billy nor Jeff could finish it off, and we will never know. It also showed that we didn’t know how to chase well as a team, but we did catch the breakaway and then puttered with our lead-out catching the last bits of the break on the last corner and wasting everyone in the process of doing so. Dean ended up third and that was about as good as it got. Brian Bosch came back to the field and still won the field sprint while Patrick Briggs (Giant Strawberry) took second.

As long as we learn from our experiences we’ll continue to post some good results.

Lar