John Steggall, 35+ 4/5, Spring HIll RR

A brief race report from the Spring "Powerhill" RR, 35+
4/5:

We were surprised to find so many DBC guys on the line
-- 7. A couple of us had been discussing strategy via
email but we hastily reaccessed this while waiting for
the race to start.

The plan, at least as I understood it, was to sit in
for the 1st lap, try to get one or two away during the
2nd lap, and if that didn't work, get everyone to the
front near the end, getting Jason S. or Will to the
line. This is pretty much what we did.

Three of us got dropped sometime in the first 1.5 laps
(Robin, Todd, and Darin). That left Jim, Jason, Lee,
Will, and me. We tried sending Jason off with one of
the Synergy guys but this guy's teammates chased this
down when it looked like a Berkeley BC guy might bridge
up (life in the 4/5s, I'm afraid). Soon after, we tried
a couple of surges to force a break but these were also
unsuccessful.

This left us with the end game. There were about 25
guys left out of the original 75. We all moved up close
to the front and drove things home in the last few km.
The last 500 meters or so feature a relatively easy
climb and then a steeper section, flattening near the
end. After the first riser, our positioning seemed like
it was going to pay off -- we had 4 or 5 guys in the
top 10, with a couple of us sitting around position 4
and 5.

Unfortunately, we all ran out of gas on the steeper
section and about 10 guys went cruising around us in
the final 200 m. Our best finisher was Jason S. at
around 12th.

Lessons learned?

If possible, at least one or two guys need to stay
protected in the last 5K or so. We all got caught up in
the excitement in the last half lap. Everyone did some
big pulls and burnt too many matches. The guys who were
sitting in behind us, ended up eating our lunch. On the
positive side, we're starting do get more sophisticated
in our strategy and more confident in our ability to
pull things off.

The sad thing is that the best strategy in many of the
4/5s races is to simply survive to the end doing as
little work as possible, saving everything for the
final few hundred meters. Breaks rarely work so it's
better not to waste any energy trying to create them or
chase them down.

-js