The course is predominately flat with one roller and exposed. Just like most of Calgary riding. It was windy and the fields got shredded on the cross wind sections. Dallas was in a break of 5 dudes with team mate Trev, a Deadgoat, a Pedalhead, and a Bowdude by the end of the first lap. Trev got shelled off at the end of the second, and the Bowdude just took Dallas in the sprint for the line. Tanya raced with the Master C men as well as the women. She got 5th overall in Men/Women combined and crushed the next women by what seem like over 10min. I didn't see Keith's finish. Dennis and Harley got 6th and 7th in the RR respectively. The rest we need to wait for the results or comments.
Congrats to Kyle for his 7th, and to Mike Healy for succesfully negotiating the packs of Ironman.
4 comments:
Wow nice work my elder brethren. Massive results!
They should rename the "Crossfield Prov RR" to "Crosswind Prov RR". The course was a bit deceptive because there is a steady elevation gain from the east side of the course to the west side so it's easy to blow up or get gapped up the hill in the crosswind if you're like me and aren't paying attention. I need my meds...
Just to give a bit more background on the Masters C. Rick and Tanya were super strong all day long. Rick & I got in the winning break with Roy Quade & Ed Heacock, two experienced, strong, smart riders. They dropped me when they never let up the pace, but Rick hung on. Then with both Roy & Ed working him over he not only hung on he was able to come back and beat Ed to win Masters C. Tanya was caught out a bit on the move, but just powered her way back into contention, dragging guys along with her. You have to remeber she it a multisport athlete and thinks nothing of sitting in the wind pulling everyone along. There were several instances when she was doing ALL the work and about 10 of us were happy to sit on her wheel and she was still strong enough to ride away from us. I would like to say that I did some work, or was part of a strategy to help the team, but I can't lie I was just hanging on for dear life. I was happy just to see a portion of the rides my two team mates put in, great work.
Learnings:
Recipe for dropping someone:
1. Check to see if you can make it to the finish after you drop the victim (me). ie. no one else can catch you.
2. Position yourself in the rotation so that when the victim finishes their pull, you are at the back of the rotation.
3. As the victim finishes their pull and eases off the pace, attack from back with the rider that is pulling through. You both are then going several km/hr faster than the victim before he can react. Make sure you are downwind of victim by using the crosswind.
4. As you get a gap, give 'er.
5. If victim makes it back to group, victim probably thinks that first attack was just a group effort to stay away and works back into the rotation.
6. Repeat points 3 and 4.
7. As victim struggles back - again, vowing to stop taking pulls, encourage another pull using a vague concept of sharing the work to stay away - a truce of sorts. Victim takes another pull.
6. Repeat points 3 and 4.
7. Victim makes it back once more, but pretty well hooped.
8. Finish off victim with another attack. Can be more obvious now.
9. Victim feels sorry for himself watching gap grow. Especially when wheel car passes.
10. Victim recovers a bit, goes into TT mode and eventually catches duo on the final hill and manages to squeak past Ed, but not Roy - but he is Master D, so he doesn't count.
Really a very effective lesson that I appreciate much better now than I did at the time. Thanks Roy. (Actually it really was fun, if slightly painful. And makes a good story).
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