After spending a good part of the beginning of the year racing with our strong Masters team, I recently had the opportunity to race along side several of my junior teammates at the San Dimas Stage Race. Lining up with me in the 2s were Matt, Jason, Nick, and Sean. For those of you unfamiliar with the race, it is a 3-day race consisting of a ~4 mile hill climb, a 50 mi RR, and a 60 min crit (for the cat 2s anyways).
I had ambitions of doing well and I put in what I thought was a good hill climb. Unfortunately my time was only good enough for 13th, a little over a minute back. I must say that there were a number of riders that were flying up the hill, posting really fast times. For perspective, I would have been 4th and only 22s adrift in the old man's race (35+).
Without anyone in the top ten and within striking distance of the overall, our focus turned to other goals. The plan for the road race was to be animated in the beginning, looking for the early break. Several of us tried our luck, but it was Jason that had both the timing and the effort to get away with a few other riders. After a lap, Nick was able to bridge alone on the main climb. This gave us two riders of 5? off the front, dictating the race. Meanwhile, the remaining three of us were following moves and trying our best to conserve.
The break was able to stay away for several laps and resulted in a bit of attrition in the main group. We were back together on the last lap when Sean was able to make his move, joining three others in a late break. In the end, it ended up being the winning move as the group was able to stay away. Sean took full advantage and took the stage for the team.
With the stage win, Sean also found himself in the points jersey. This gave us a new goal for the crit, which was to protect the jersey on two hot sprints and the final. The beginning of the race was fairly tame. There were a few moves which Jason and Nick did a good job of covering, however nothing really got off that was too dangerous.
For not practicing leadouts with my junior teammates, the
team did an excellent job on the hot sprints. On the first hotsprint, Nick was lining the field out on the
front. Sean found Matt's wheel and soon after Matt found
my wheel. We went past Nick on the hill and took Sean all the way to
the final corner. Sean put in a nice effort to take 2nd in the hot sprint. The
second hotsprint Sean again found either Matt's or Nick's wheel and
then found mine. We had a little help from a rider from another team,
but again we delivered Sean to another 2nd place sprint.
Unfortunately, setting up a train for a mid-race sprint is one thing, while setting up a train for the final is another. We were a little eager and we were amassed
at the front a little too soon at 5 to go. At this point, Jason took a flier. A few people followed over top of us and the break never got any
where.
We were back at the front again at 3 to go. As the one who had
been leading Sean to the final corner, this was likely my biggest
mistake. I should have pulled for a little bit (1/2 lap or so) and
flicked for someone to come through. Then I could have slotted in front
of Sean and recovered for the final.
Instead I was running the front until 1
to go when Matt came through. Matt
was able to hold it until the hill, at which point we started to get
swarmed. As a result Sean got rushed and lost too many positions to make a difference in the final sprint.
Looking back, I was pretty proud on how the team worked in the crit. We did a good job of talking and staying together. Sean did a great job sprinting and we were fortunate that the final sprint didn't effect the points classification. There are a few things that we could have done better, but every race is a learning experience. The next time we are in that kind of situation, we will be the better for it. All in all, it was a lot of fun. Everyone raced hard and we accomplished some of our goals.
Cheers,
Jeromy
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