The Speed Theory cat5 team went into the Pigeon RR with a plan and 9 strong guys to execute it - ST would lay down the hurt, and Dan and I would suck wheel and sprint finish.
The race started out at a lively pace, and took the big hill in the opening km's at speed. But it's just the start of the race, and we can kinda take it easy, right? Errrr....no. A gap formed between the front half of the pack, and after a weak attempt at a ST paceline, Dan and I sprinted to bridge up, leaving Rob, Mark and Rui in the chase pack.
Most of the rest of the race was kept at a fast pace, with just one crash (interesting, one of the two guys to go down was the same young buck that crashed twice in the crit the day before while riding by himself). Despite some strong pulling by ST, very few racers in the front pack got dropped, one of which was Mike G, who was really just trying to keep a low profile with his 95 upgrade points. Mike of Hardcore Racing led up a couple of hills and sat about 100 metres off the front of the pack for a few km, and three ERTC guys ramped up the pace at the front, but other than that a uneventful race.
So what happens at the end of uneventful races? Huge field sprints! We came around the corner with 20 dudes ready to duke it out. The ST guys left at this point worked our way up through the pack ready to launch past the front markers and oh! There's a slow moving van. And oh! there's 50 cat-4 riders, and a bunch of people handing off stuff in the feed zone, and watch out for the cones! And then we crossed the finish line...
The official results posted by the ABA have me 4th and Dan 7th. There were a few DSQ's for ST guys, probably for centre line infractions in the last moments of the race, which is too bad because ST would have had a bunch more guys in the top 10. Mike of Hardcore Racing finished first, which really shouldn't have happened, since he was working hard during the race, but maybe he saw the cat4 pack and knew that he just had to catch them and he wouldn't be able to be passed? Anyway, good on him.
So was it a success? Well, Dan and I both finished in the top 10, so sure. Would we have done better if it wasn't for the unexpected gong-show of finishing as cat4 rolled through the start-finish line? Absolutely. Certainly that would have avoided probably all the DSQ's. But really, having a field sprint finish was not part of the plan - so Dan and I were thinking that when we saw the pack not have to work, we should have gone to plan B. If only we had one! :) Thoughts, anyone?
Hats off to all those ST guys who pushed the pace, and let Dan and I suck wheel all race, especially Mike G who gave it everything and had to drop out. You rock, Mike!
Overall results for the weekend:
Lockie 3rd
Dan 5th
Paul 25th
Mike 26th
Mark 32nd
Old-Rob 41st
Rui 46th
New-Rob, Andy and Carl DSQ
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2 comments:
Yep, I was embarrassed to be a Cat 4 racer and it was my first race with the group. Not only did you catch us at the end of the first lap the Cat 1-2 guys lapped us at the end of our second lap making our finish a gong show. We never saw hide or hair of the Cat 3 group, which the group apparently caught last year. Maybe they passed us during our nap on the ride. There were a few guys who tried to light it up including a few junior racers on the provincial team but for the most part it was very tame. Ben Adam went off hard with 32km to go and I went with him, and was able to hang for about 12km but my legs couldn’t hold his pace. The pelaton rolled me up 16km later but didn’t have a hope at catching Ben. Can’t wait until we get a few more riders up to Cat 4 (MIKE)
Stephen
Lockie, Thanks for the kind words, I only wish you guys had been able to do a proper sprint at the end.
Mr. Kenny I'll be there soon and I'm bringin' a posse, hopefully, we can get Dan and Lockie up after Devon. Too bad Rob L got nicked at the end he would have had some points too.
Michael
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