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A 6 Man TTT Bridging Itself Back Into The Race

April 2, 2012
Racing Team
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[Andrew Erickson]

Simply put, today went poorly. A 6 man TTT with all of Ghisallo’s Cat 3 team represented was not what I had in mind for today’s race.

However, it was a good reminder that, even when you consider yourself a “brains over brawn” bike racer, you can still be swiftly and painfully proven to be inept. I’ve spent quite a bit of time racing at significantly below peak fitness, and as a result feel that I’ve become pretty good at conserving energy, reading races, and being in the right place at the right time such that I avoid getting dropped even when stronger riders might. Today, I got complacent.

Our race started off slow. For the entire first lap it was easy to sit at the back and chat, knowing that with the developing winds, any attacks off the front would be quickly and easily neutralized. The course was pretty flat with a cross-wind for the first 8 miles or so, turning right into a tailwind section, before turning for home with some larger rollers into a headwind. I figured with the slow pace on the first lap, any dangerous attacks would come in the rollers on the run into the finish at the end of the second and final lap. Though it would have been easy to move up, I contented myself with staying at the back and positioning myself on the right side of the road, so that I would be sheltered during the crosswind section. This proved to be a disastrous choice.

The finish line was also the feed zone, and being on the right side of the road meant that I became stuck in traffic as racers slowed to a crawl to grab bottles. As soon as the front of the pack turned the corner, Jack and Adams and a few other astute racers guttered the race and drilled it as hard as they could into the cross-wind. By the time I cleared the corner I was already 40-50 meters off the back. I waited for a small pack, including Zak, to catch me and we managed to chase back on in short, if slightly disorganized, order. However, the boys at the front had no intention of letting up on the pace, plenty of people started to detonate, and the tail of peloton disintegrated.

Soon the lead pack was down to 10-15 riders with a second group containing, Zak, Jordan, and myself beginning to coalesce. We started working steadily but quickly to try to bring the gap back down. Unfortunately, organization in the group was a bit lacking and while Zak and I initially believed it was people being selfish and not working, in hindsight it seems there were a lot of dudes at or way past their limit, and we slowly shed them. I figured if we kept the gap reasonable through the cross-wind, as soon as we turned right into the headwind the leaders would ease up a bit and we would catch back on. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. By this time we had been chasing for nearly 20 minutes, were down to 5 or 6 guys, and I had taken 24 pulls over 400 watts with a normalized power of over 290 watts. I hadn’t counted on the chase taking quite so long, and while last year I may have been able to pull off such an effort, this time around as I pulled off, someone surged through a bit too hard and I missed the last wheel. Jordan yelled at me as I dangled off the back, urging my legs to eek out one more 600+ watt effort to catch back on. Unfortunately, the elastic finally snapped and Jordan, Zak, and their bedraggled companions rolled up the road without me.

Rather than face a solo 26 miles to the finish, mostly into a headwind, I opted to turn the ship around and spin the 8 miles back to the start/finish. All told, close to half the field chose this option.

In summary a few remarks from today:

  1. Jack and Adams demonstrated exactly what it takes to form a selection and splinter a field:
    • Take advantage of any difficult course sections.
    • Drill it as hard as you possibly can with as many co-conspirators for 20+ minutes.
  2. The selection today was absolutely incredible to behold. 10 or so guys worked seamlessly for nearly 30 minutes to make sure anyone not strong enough to contribute was long gone.
  3. I’ve never seen such calculated and meticulous destruction of a cat 3 race before.
  4. Zak and Jordan are hard men. Zak went down today, chased back to Jordan, the two of them worked together to catch back up to their group, and then Zak attacked and dropped them all in the run into the finish. (I’ll let the two of them detail this portion of the action themselves)
    • You two did the work of four racers out their today, it just came a bit too late in the race.
    • I look forward to racing with you guys this season and seeing the tactics and the strength sync up.

Finally the moral of the story: Even if it’s easy to sit at the back, DON’T.

The Fine Art Of Tail-Gunning

April 2, 2012
Racing Team
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[Jack Mott]

2012 Come and Take It Omnium – Cat 4

Matt DeMartino and I were teamed up for both Omnium races this weekend. In the days before the race we had been discussing the possibilities. The fields were small, with only 25 or so riders each day. I felt we had a good chance at victory. I had done these races last year and passed on what little intel I could remember to Matt, suggesting some of the climbs in the closing miles might be a place he could escape.

The Crit – 50 Minutes, 1 mile laps, 4 left turns

Matt and I reminded each other to be patient in this race. The field was small so there was no urgency to get positioned near the front immediately. I sat at the very back of the race and noticed that every turn I was hitting the brakes, then having to surge, brake again, surge. I decided to try “tail-gunning” – to do this, you ease up as you approach the corner, let a little gap form, then coast through the turn, which brings you right back to the pack. This tactic has its risks; being at the back may leave you unable to respond to moves, and large fields will have too much accordion effect for it to be useful. But with the small field and Matt farther up, it was a perfect situation for it, and I really barely had to pedal most of the race.

I was so fresh, in fact, that when the finish line approached for the first prime, I decided to go for it, attacking from the very back of the race and pulling way ahead of the entire pack to take it! Unfortunately it turned out to be a T-shirt, not the sweet sweet honey milk I was hoping for, and I wasted a lot more energy than I needed to. With better situational awareness I could have eased up much sooner and saved my legs.

I went straight back to tail-gunning after that, and tried to recover. Up front Matt was controlling the race; it was beautiful to watch. A few riders got up the road and stayed away for a few laps, but I was confident Matt would bring them back, and sure enough he did. With two laps to go I started to move up the field to be better positioned for the sprint.

On the final lap, coming out of the last turn I started to move up on the left side, hit full turbo, and motored into 4th place, my best field sprint result so far. Matt DeMartino held on for 8th despite working hard at the front all day. In retrospect the prime effort was a big mistake. I didn’t have near as much power in the final sprint as I did for the prime. Patience!

The Road Race – 33 miles with a slight uphill finish

After the crit I offered to switch roles and work to control the front of the race so Matt could sit in and make a late move. However, Matt reminded me that this was an omnium, and that we were in a position to win it if I could place well in the road race as well. I offered the suggestion of patience again, that we not make any big efforts until at least halfway through the race. At the start we were told that it was not yet known whether we would get the full road for the field sprint, and that the motorcycle ref would let us know if we would. Many found this a bit confusing, but off we went and started
racing.

The pace was pretty slow, and in the early going the roads were wide, making it easy to move around in the field. It took some restraint to not just go to the front and try to pick up the pace. Matt made a couple of little moves but seemed to stay well within himself. I took advantage of gravity and an aero tuck to roll off the front without even pedaling at one point, which forced the race to speed up a bit to bring me back. We rode around pretty calmly most of the time, though.

Around halfway a junior rider who we had heard was planning a breakaway moved up to the front and was looking people in the eye with serious game face. I knew he was going to go, so positioned myself right behind him, and sure enough he went, and I followed. I let him hammer for about 10 seconds and then I came around to take a hard pull. Sadly, though, I looked back and the whole field was still there. The pace was simply too low so far for anyone to be too tired to
chase.

Another interesting event occurred when a 787 rider got out of the saddle to make a move and his rear wheel exploded, sending him careening to the side of the road in a nasty crash. We believe his derailleur or derailleur hanger may have been loose. Fortunately this was the only crash of the race.

The final stretch of road towards the finish gets narrow and hilly, and Matt made a good move here where he got away with another rider, and they worked together pretty well. The pack was chasing, and I worked my way up front to try and control it. I would get second wheel and ease up hoping to cause one more rider to bridge up and help the escape effort. It almost worked, but in the end they were brought back after a few minutes.

The next challenge was fighting for position. In the final 2 miles the pace was really slow, and the road clogged with people. Nobody wanted to give up their position up front. You had to look for little gaps and try to squeeze your way up. We didn’t know if we would get the full road for the sprint, so you needed to be near the front to have a chance. I was a little farther back than I wanted to be, but at around 400 meters the motor cycle pulled up and said “it’s all yours!”. This worked out well since I was riding next to the yellow line already. Once I saw a couple of riders move to the left side and start sprinting I followed, and launched up into 3rd place. I timed the sprint well and got a bit lucky by being on the left side.

Next time Matt and I race together, I owe him a lot of work, and hope he can experience the joys of energy conservation and collect a big suitcase full of upgrade points.