Road Race:
This is the Smithburg RR course. From ABRT we had Art Brown, Ali Meller, Bob Walters and Ted Harris, though Ted was doing the RR only, not all three for the GC. DC Velo had Paul Mittelstadt, Lauriston Marshall, and Stephen Schultze. AVC had four riders. A bit of a wild card was Bernie Sanders from Van Dessell Factory Team. The total field registered was 21, with 20 of those registered for the GC. But you had to finish each stage to go on to the next, so the field size shrank in the course of the weekend.
The race started with AVC riders taking turns doing very long pulls, and then nearly going off the back when they blew up. Early in lap 2 (I think), Lauriston Marshall jumped reasonably hard and I went after him (he told me later this was part of the DC Velo plan, because they figured Lauriston had a chance to stay away, had been allowed to stay away for some time last year, and the chase pack had shed riders by the time they caught him). We quickly opened up a gap, and that grew to 30 seconds and then 40 seconds, before staying at 30 seconds for over two laps. I was careful to not work too hard (no harder than Lauriston), and watched my power meter to ensure I was staying under threshold except for pushing up some of the short hills. I also let Lauriston go by me part way up the longer hills, trying to hide my climbing strength from him. I thought that the second lap was too early for a break to succeed, so was not committing to it, but I did work harder as time and distance went by and it started to seem like we might be able to stay away (In retrospect, I wonder what would have happened if both Lauriston and I had gone hard and kept going as hard as we could sustain. We might have stayed away, but might have been in serious trouble if caught).
Eventually we were caught all of a sudden. Art told me after the race that AVC had blown every one of their riders as each pulled hard for a lap and then went off the back, leaving just a four man chase group of Bernie Sanders, Art Brown, Stephen Schultze and Paul Mittelstadt (one ABRTer, two DC Velo and Bernie). I also learned that Bob and Ted had been blocking to let the chase go off WITH Art and WITHOUT too many other riders.
I expect neither DC Velo nor Art were working too hard in this situation. Bernie Sanders apparently decided it was time to catch us, and singlehandedly closed 30 seconds on us in a flash, towing the other three with him. All the strong guys (I later learned that two of the AVC guys were decent, but were not in the break) were in that 6 man break, so stayed away easily from the remains of the main field. Bernie was very strong, taking very long hard pulls. I decided not to risk jumping myself, but was prepared to cover any moves... but there were no serious moves from then on, though we had to chase Paul, Stephen and Lauriston a few times. Unlike the 40+ race finish last year which went hard from the point we stopped going around the loop and headed for the finish line, the 50+ set up for the sprint was sedate until the bottom of the last hill, it was almost a track sprint.
I was hoping my climbing strength would help at the uphill sprint, but learned that four of the other five riders could generate rather more short term power than I could. Even though I was well positioned near the back and could watch everyone, and see the moves and respond, I could not generate enough power to stay on their wheels. Art in particular just jumped away from the rest (come to think of it, I have had great views of Art launching a sprint and easily riding away from me and anyone else near us, for much of the season). Lauriston was 2nd, Paul 3rd, Bernie 4th, I was 5th and Stephen 6th. I was a little disappointed to be so close and end up 5th, but this reinforces my belief that I need to work on sprinting. Bob and Ted rolled in close behind us.
Time Trial:
This is the first part of the normal AVC TT course, shortened to 20k, on an out-and-back route. The turnaround point is slightly after the highest point on the course. If you divide the course (each way) into thirds, the first third is slightly downhill, the next two thirds are uphill, coming back the first two thirds are downhill and the last third is uphill. I concluded coming back was going to be a lot easier than going out, and decided to ignore the advice to negative split and save power for the second half. I rationalized that 15 watts more power would not get me much speed going downhill, but it would make a bigger difference climbing on the way out. I think there was a headwind going out.
My time ended up being 29:56, good for second place, about 49 seconds behind Bernie. OUCH!! I was going as hard as I could as I really wanted to win the TT. I set new high CP12, CP20 and CP30 values in this race.
Art's TT started badly when a bee flew though a vent hole in his helmet and stung him on his forehead. He ended up 5th in the TT, so was behind Bernie at this point (recall that Bernie was 4th in the road race). I was in 4th place overall behind Bernie, Art and Lauriston Marshall (by 2 points), who I passed in the TT, but who finished within a minute of me. He did this on his Cervelo Soloist carbon with clip-ons and a 404 front and a disc rear wheel, so not even a real TT bike! Paul Mittelstadt was three or four points behind me, with a TT finish behind Art.
Crit:
Mark Sommers of DC Velo decided to race the crit, which made Art and my jobs rather more complicated. We were worried that Mark would tire us out, or tow Lauriston and/or Paul off the front. Once again AVC led early while everyone else waited. Once the two AVC guys who could pull were a little tired, DC Velo started rotating attacks. I was taking a while to warmup and was thinking about my own finish position, so initially followed Paul M. or Lauriston, leaving Art to chase more than his share (sorry, Art!). But riding 7th or 8th, I could see the attacks start, and would shout "Sommers left!"or "Mittelstadt right!" to warn Art. I was not worried about Mittelstadt staying away on his own, and did not think Lauriston would be strong on a crit course. The game actually got simpler for us when Sommers jumped hard, and we let him go. With Mark up the road, Art and I had only three DC Velo riders attacking.
The opportunity came just after I pulled through the greater than 90 turn (the tight one), with Art and Bernie right behind me. I heard a pop (tube bursting?) and a crash, and a split second glance revealed one rider down and another hitting him. I was just starting the climb and while I did not go into a full on sprint, I pushed hard thinking we could get a gap, and we did. At the top of the climb I led, with Art and Bernie on my wheel, and 10+ bike lengths to the next rider. I yelled "we got a gap!"... Bernie asked "will you guys work?" and Art quickly replied "yes, of course". Bernie took a long hard pull, taking us clear. Art and I also took hard pulls, but shorter. An AVC rider was given a free lap and chased back on, making it a four rider break. We quickly lost site of the riders behind us, who were basically the three DC Velo (Lauriston, Paul and Stephen) and some AVC riders, along with one or two others.
At one point, with a few laps left to go, Art saw one or more DC Velo riders chasing and told the rest of the break. We upped the pace and lost site of them. The fear was that Mark had caught the DC Velo guys behind us, and would pull them back up to us. But with Bernie (the monster) taking big pulls and me taking shorter hard pulls along with Art, and the AVC guy doing less and less, we stayed away. I pulled up the hill to start the last lap, and confident that we had a good gap slowed up to let someone else get to the front, but no one pulled through. I slowed down to rest so that if/when a jump happened I could chase, but it did not happen, I led down the hill and accelerated while doing it, and hammered through the less-than-90-turn hard, with Art right on my wheel. Apparently we gapped Bernie here; very shortly after getting through that curve, Art yelled "go" and I went, not quite full sprint, but hard/fast. I had to slow down for the technical curve (I probably eased up too early) and Bernie must have chased back on here, but he basically had to sprint twice, once to get back on, then corner, then go into the real sprint. Art went coming out of the turn, launched his sprint, and disappeared in the direction of the finish line (the usual thing that Art does). Bernie rolled by me as I struggled to accelerate. At this point I was very lucky; the AVC rider was also gapped and spent from chasing, so had even less of a sprint than I did, and I held him off and rolled across behind Art and Bernie (I needed those points!).
Mark Sommers had won the race, but Art beat Bernie, so won the GC by one point, while I gained points on Lauriston, passing him for 3rd overall (I beat him by two). Lauriston ended up 4th in GC, with Paul Mittelstadt 5th.
I did not see enough of the other races to provide reports, but heard ...
Andreas rode a great RR, and a really good TT, to lead the 40+ GC going into the crit. He was right where he needed to be going into the last turn of the crit, but was taken down. He somehow got up, got back on the bike (apparently with only one shoe) and managed to finish high enough in the crit to keep second in the GC. Kudos to Ryan and the rest of the 40+ team for the support they gave Andreas.
Lance Lacy was foiled in the cat 4 Road Race sprint with some chain slipping problems. He finished 11th in the RR, then rode a strong TT to be close to the lead going into the crit. Fabrizio was riding in support until he finally popped, leaving Lance to close a log of gaps on his own. Lance ended up 3rd in cat 4 GC.
Steve Doetschman nearly went down in the 123 road race when Ramon crashed on some gravel. Apparently Steve bunny hopped over the carnage and ended up in someone's front yard. He, Ramon and Eric chased for several laps, but could not get back to the field.
Ali
