Sunday, June 3, 2012

Central Coast Circuit Race #3 - Pro/1/2/3

Kurt, Scott, Mike (off a long solo effort for the win in 35+), and myself rolled up to the startline for the P123 which ended up having 37 starters. Weather was perfect, 60s, and a strong onshore wind.

The race began pretty mellow. I did not recognized too many riders except for Ethan (Metromint) and Art (Marc-Pro), but there were several other Metromint riders and a half-dozen Ritte Dev. JRs. After a lap or two we hit the front side climb pretty hard. After Art did the damage he pulled off and I came through to keep the momentum but find everyone was simply marking him, but fine to let me waste energy off the front. 
Break of two-1: I decide to just keep cruising at a tempo pace and let them catch back up or have some riders bridge, but they shut down and my gap grows. So I pick it up to a hard tempo, but still being careful to not go over threshold for any extended period of time. One Metromint rider bridges and we work together for a lap or two. I paced it pretty conservative hoping more would bridge, not wanting to do a 2-man TT for 1hr. Rob (McGuire) bridges, but the pack decides 3 is too many and reels us back in.
Break of two-2: As expected there is counter attack. Ethan (Metromint) jumps, Kurt anticipated this (perfect play Kurt) and hops right on and a new break of two forms. Their gap holds steady for a lap and then they disappear growing to over 1min, then shrinks as the laps tick by 50sec, 45sec, and finally 30seconds. With 2 laps to go the gap was close-able but the pack seemed to have lost motivation once again. When we hit the bell lap Kurt decides to leave his break companion and go on alone. Ethan throws in the towel and the atatcks start coming again, nothing sticking but shedding riders every so often.

Finish: As we hit the final rollers several riders attacked, but were quickly marked, this caused the gap to close down almost all the way then again the pack sat up, Kurt continued on and the gap grew. I thought this might be it, "he's gonna do it." About that time a Cal Poly rider and a Ritte rider put in a solid attack/flyer attempt over the last roller. I jump on it, they look back asking for help, see my jersey and continue on realizing I my teammate is still up the road. Halfway down the decent the majority of the pack is with us and Kurt is not too far off.  I am on the outside near the bad section of road at the bottom of the decent and see Art (Marc-Pro) drill it on the inside gutter, I accelerate into the wind to get over to the inside and muscle my way onto 3rd wheel. Art continues to drill pulling off just before the corner. I was expecting him to just go for the line since he didn't have any teammates today, but maybe he just wanted to bring back Kurt and not mess with the sprint? Kurt is making the turn and we are right behind coming at full speed. I sense some hesitation by the rider in front of me and the swarm behind so I jump to take the hole shot on the corner passing around the outside of Kurt and open up the sprint. That little rise just gets steeper and steeper ouch the last 30m almost killed me but luckily I got a solid gap at the corner and was able to take the WIN with room to spare. 
Strava File
Placings:
1st - James (me)
17th - Kurt swarmed at the final turn. Mike and Scott were a little taxed from earlier races.

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