From John...

Fred did a great job of covering the 45+ Bariani road race on his blog http://mylifeisjustapedal.blogspot.com/ so I'll just give a quick recount of my experience in the break.

Last year, I ended up in a break on the first lap but our group found out later that 2 guys had slipped out of sight on the frontage road and stayed away for the rest of the race. It's easy to miss such things when you're stuck in the middle of a group of 100, seven or eight guys shoulder to shoulder, from the center line to the edge of the pavement.

So this year, we lined up close to the front and could monitor the attacks. As Fred mentioned, the attacks began soon after we turned up the I-505 frontage road. Soon, Nelson came motoring by, practically in the grass, and I jumped on his wheel. We quickly went off the front and dug deep to bridge up to three guys who were up the road. Turning onto County Rd 14, it looked like the pack was letting us go. After swapping pulls a few times with Nelson, I realized I had gapped him by 10 meters. With the break still a ways up the road, I made a split second decision to press on. A bit later, I realized a Garrison rider (Kevin) had caught onto my wheel. We powered on and caught Jess (Safeway) who had been dropped by the two up the road.

For awhile, I tried motivating my two break companions to catch the pair in front of us. My efforts were not being matched though and we soon settled into a sustainable pace. We realized that all the major teams had someone in the breaks except Morgan Stanley.

The moto' ref' stopped by occasionally and the gaps between the 3 groups steadily increased to 3.5 minutes apiece halfway through the last lap. Freddy, Nelson, Todd and the other teams were blocking Morgan Stanley quite effectively, taking the pressure off.

Going down County Road 14/13 the last time, I decided there were two main options -- attack my breakmates going up the KOM hill or wait until the vicious headwind section and launch with about 1 Km to go. While I felt good and it seemed that Kevin & Jess were running out of gas , it was clear they knew each other. I was worried they'd work together and bring me back since the uphill had a substantial headwind component (making a solo effort more difficult). I decided to surprise them in the last 1 Km.

The other two slowed the pace substantially going up the hill and I obliged. I ended up in front as we turned into the headwind -- a major mistake. They sat on my wheel and refused to pull through despite my efforts and ridiculously slow pace. After passing the 1 K mark, I dropped the hammer hard. Of course (in retrospect), they were waiting for this and managed to catch my wheel, then sit tight. After turning left onto the last 500 meter stretch, I jumped again with the same result. Jess countered hard to the left with Kevin on his wheel and me unable to catch them. Arghhh! They got a gap which I couldn't close. Kevin came around Jess at the line and took the win.

Thus, despite what seemed an apparent advantage in strength, I managed to get 5th instead of 3rd. Being the first one into the wind made it difficult to surprise them. Short of coming to a complete stop, it's not clear how I could have forced them to come around in the headwind section. If we could replay the race, I might have attacked back on the hill, multiple times if necessary. At least, this would have kept the pace high, not allowing them to recover for the sprint. If anyone has any suggestions on tactics, I'd like to hear them.

A very successful day for DBC! Thanks again to Fred, Nelson (who turned around and did the 35+ race!) and Todd for making the break stick. Wish I could have done a bit better but we'll take it...

-js