Warnerville 09

From Nelson...
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Warnerville 35+4/5's....
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Teammates...Rod, Derek, Jason E., Doug, Pete, Mike B. and I rolled out onto the traffic-closed 17 mile loop with the full field of 60 racers minus a few no-shows, and pretty soon Derek started driving a hard tempo at the front as we turned onto the downwind stretch. Several of us were trading pulls with him at the front, and after about 10 minutes I told him I needed to slow down and that we weren't shedding any riders anyway. We stayed at the front around the backside, across the 1.3 mile gravel stretch and into the final stretch heading west with a rising NNW wind coming into our faces from the right. As we came by the finish line at the end of the first lap, we led with an echelon of mostly blue and orange from one side of the road to the other led by Rod. What a sight! If only Hors Categorie were there to catch it. I suddenly realized that this was a great opportunity for a breakaway, as nobody could get around. I moved to the far left-hand side and settled into 350 watts (about 125% of threshold) for a few minutes. As I turned left onto the downwind stretch and looked back things were strung out and scattered, and from what the guys were saying afterwards, the field was essentially shattered at that point. I started working with Matt Wocasek from Team Bicycle Trip and Richard Coyle from Rio Strada, and our break reached about 30 seconds when Richard flatted coming out of the gravel and about a dozen or so riders in the chase group caught us. Doug was in it, and we were the only ones with a teammate in the front group. At that point, I looked around and saw some good sprinters, like Eric LaFranchi of Z-team, "Uncle Russell" Voss of Now Direct, and Randy Volkmar from Garrison Institutional, and started wondering what I should do. My dilemma was that I'm not a sprinter like Fred or John, a climber like Will, or a soloist TT guy like Chris or Jason G. My strength is endurance, and I decided that my best bet was to drive a hard pace and keep those guys from sitting in and all blowing past me at the finish. Doug and I drove a hard pace at the front all around the back side and kept along the gutter to make them work to keep up. As we turned onto the final stretch, the wind was gusting to 20+mph, and I didn't see Doug, so I set a solid tempo at the front as far to the left as I could get with a single file line stretched behind me. About the time I was feeling pretty tired, Doug pulled in just ahead and to the right to protect me. I told him to pull ahead and cross over to get in behind me when he needed a break so we wouldn't lose our position, and traded pulls toward the finish. Doug pulled through at one point on my downwind side and I had to scuffle a bit with the following racer to keep him from taking Doug's wheel from me. I looked back and some guys were already getting dropped. I assumed Doug was the better sprinter and I told him I was going to lead him out. As we approached a short kicker about 300 yards from the finish I hit it hard and we attacked. The grade then softened a bit before the final climb to the finish, and I looked back and saw I had gapped Doug and I slowed a bit. Suddenly a few riders hit it hard and went up on the right side of the road past me. I tried to cross over and catch their wheels but missed. A couple other riders passed us just before the finish, and we finished 6th/7th. Later I found out this was only the 2nd race Doug had been in! Rod took 21st, with later finishes not available. Nelson