Driveway Crit Oct 15

A cool front blew in yesterday, making it windy at last night's weekly training race out at The Driveway. Usually, the race has a good turn-out. But I guess it is getting late in the year, and people are ready for the "off-season". So last night's turn-out in the P-1-2-3 race was relatively small. Maybe 30. Plus the wind deterred some folks, I think.

Anyway, windy races are pretty much a no-brainer: positioning is even more important than normal. The race started quickly and the attacks just kept coming from the guys who were at the very front, until the race was split into 4 groups.

1st group = Ian Dille (Team Super Squadra), John "Lance's sidekick" Korioth (a.k.a. College), and Colt Trant from Dallas.

2nd group = Stefan Rothe, Alan Ting, Phil Wikoff, David Wenger (all members of team Super Squadra, except for Stefan).

3rd group = 8 - 10 riders.

4th "group" = me and Joseph Lafico.

So Super Squadra had a strangle hold on the race right from the beginning.

Joseph and I worked together for a couple of laps hoping to latch onto the back of the 3rd group once the pace steadied. They were only a few seconds in front of us but it was 2 against 10. My diaphragm was spasming (it seemed) so I backed off in order to let myself get lapped - I gave up hope of catching back on at that point. Pity b/c about 15 minutes later, the 2nd group caught the 1st group (Wenger and Rothe attacked from this group and went on to lap the field), and then the 3rd group caught the 2nd group. Essentially, the race came back together at the mid-way point after exploding in the first 10 minutes.

1 of the seat mast bolts on my Trek Madone broke. My seat slid down to the bottom of the mast, or about 5 cm. This made the race that much more difficult form me. My lower back was in serious pain the whole time.

Anyway, only about 13 - 15 riders finished. I think I was the last finisher. I wanted to quit about 30 min into the race but made myself finish (on a broken seatpost). I guess there is a small victory in that. If nothing else, I wanted to get in a good workout. Most of the other riders who were popped simply pulled out.

Wenger ended up winning by using a "simple" but very effective strategy: lapping the field, then using your lapped teammates to control the race while you sit in.

Last week is the final race of the series this year. I'm hoping to have better luck, and a little less wind.