Going fast & having fun

Written by: Chris Hahn

Robert Neary, Bill Lupo and I showed up for the SoCAL state champion crit today in the 60+ at the Barry Wolfe Grand Prix in Westlake.   It was one of the best executed team strategy races I have done for a long time.

 This is a wide-open, very fast course on which it is extremely hard to break away.  It favors the big sprinters, in particular Craig Miller, who has won here numerous times and already won several other crits so far this season.  Most of the other socal crit specialists were in attendance as well.

So our work was cut out for us. We somehow had to break the race up, to get someone off the front without Craig Miller, or at least put so much pressure on him that he would not win the field sprint.  

Bill was fresh off his and Wilson’s two man time trial win yesterday.  We thought maybe he could roll off the front without attracting too much attention.  If and when Bill got caught, we would take turns attacking after that.

I think it was no more than half a lap into the race when Bill found an opportunity to roll off the front, solo.  He put some big power down and got a good gap. Still, against the whole field it seemed like suicide.  However, he was out there for a number of labs and his lead kept increasing.  Here is a video that demonstrates textbook team racing.  Bill is off the front by what, thirty seconds?  Then the field rolls by with Craig Miller having to do most of the work chasing (there was one guy temporalily in front of him who didn’t understand the race dynamic).  Behind Craig are Robert and I discouraging the chase.

Eventually, Bill did get realed in and Robert countered soon after. Same dynamic.  Then I did.  The three of us kept this up for most of the race. Some of the other strong riders were contributing to the chasing, but Craig Miller had to do a lot of work.   Bill was a powerhouse and eventually got away again with two other guys.  Craig and his teammate tried but didn’t have the gas and the break stuck.  Of the three in the breakaway the other 2 were understandably way more fresh than Bill. One was 65+ so Bill wound up in silver, behind John Nist, one of SoCal’s best crit racers. I won the field sprint for bronze.  As a team, I think we raced brilliantly, and we put on a great show.  Bill definitely earned second place amongst much more experienced crit racers.