Going fast & having fun

Written by Chris Hahn:

You don’t need a big team if you have a good team.

Standing in the registration line at 7 AM, having woken up at 4:45 AM to drive from Santa Barbara to Dominguez Hills for the CBR criterium number two, I was happy to see Team 805’s Bill Lupo and Todd Canfield, along with Todd’s cross between a dog and an electrified rat (but cute!).

The 60+ field was strong, with six riders from team S2C/Bosch, four E-Vokes, two each from a couple of other teams, and a number of heavy hitters, including three really good time trialers: Kenny Rogers, Eddie Monier, and Chris Jaegers; great all-rounders Alan Flores and State Champion Jon Nist; and field sprinting ace Craig Miller.  So it would be good to team up with Bill in the 60+.

The course is four corners.  Slightly downhill between turns one and two, and slightly uphill between turns three and four.   The finish line is maybe 250 m from turn four.  Our “pre-race strategy session” consisted of one sentence: Bill said he wasn’t sure how he would feel, and would ride the crit “for practice.”  Within a lap or two, I found out what he meant:  He rode off the front solo.  

Impressively, he stayed away for several laps, while I got a free ride in the field, surfing wheels and testing who was strong.  Even more impressively, after he was finally caught, he continued to attack aggressively.  The whole race -he was all in — and even initiated — most of whatever moves went up the road.  

This was awesome for me, because while all the other teams and heavy hitters were burning matches in or chasing down the moves Bill was in, it allowed me to continue saving energy in the field and really be very selective with my efforts.  Bill was so aggressive that he even chased down the one or two moves he wasn’t in.  This led to my only tactical suggestion:  About halfway in, a strong group of guys countered a move Bill had been in and got up the road.  Craig Miller had missed the break and, fearing that his chance to win was disappearing up the road, had moved to the front to chase.  This was ideal for me,  because while I was monitoring the break, making sure it was within a range I could jump across if need be, Craig was burning energy chasing it down.  But Bill – God bless him –  seeing a group up the road without 805 representation, must have felt an instinctive duty to bring it back. So he went to the front and began pulling.  This actually relieved Craig, and was not what I wanted to see.  (The way I see racing, having my teammates pull at the front of a chase is NEVER the right strategy, except in one limited circumstance, which I can discuss another time.)

I mentioned being selective with my efforts.  I made three:

1. I hadn’t really thought about the intra-race points competition, but the opportunity arose. They announced the first of the two-point primes, and on the back side, the field slowed down a bit.  (Probably, if I remember correctly, because a move that Bill had been in had just been caught).  So on the slight uphill before turn four, I jumped hard on the outside.  I had a huge gap, but a little too much speed for the line I took through the turn, so I had to back off, and then slog against a bit of headwind on the final stretch.  Still, given the gap I had had, I was a bit surprised and disappointed when Craig Miller passed me at the line.  “Hmmm, there’s some information there.”
2. About 2/3 through the race, one of the few good-looking moves that Bill was not in was getting out of reach.  So I jumped hard on the small descent between turns one and two, and took an inside line through turn two that would be hard to follow.  Again, I thought I had a good gap, but again, Craig Miller was on my wheel.  “Hmmm, more information.  Among other things, don’t attack on the descent, where Craig Miller, who is bigger and more powerful, will have the advantage.”
3. With five laps to go, it became pretty clear the race was going to come down to a field sprint.  I wasn’t sure how I was going to beat Craig Miller in a heads-up sprint.  But I had the information from my prior two efforts.  I wasn’t going to be able to drop him from the front.   So I got on his wheel.  With a lap and a half to go, we moved past Bill, and I asked him to get on my wheel and “sweep me.” He was game.  It was fun and dicey, staying glued to Craig’s wheel while others fought me for it, and he weaved in and out of traffic.  As he came up the hill to the final turn, he began to apply power and move through the field toward the front, and I put the final bit of information I had learned to use.  Instead of following him tight through the inside of the turn, I went slightly wide.  This caused me to get gapped a little, but on the far end of the corner, at the outside curb, I had already completed my turn, but he was still turning.  So this time he had to back off.  I got a beat or two to soft pedal in his (big) slipstream, and then powered around him to the finish line as he passed the one or two guys that were first through the turn.  Meanwhile, Bill had swept my wheel, and no one was even close behind.  (In fact, a couple of them had crashed hard.  Speedy recovery to Eddie Moniet.)

Against the big teams and the heavy hitters, we got the win. And we won the team competition!

The 50+ was just training.  Bill hung in and did well. Someone rode their front wheel into my derailer with a couple of laps to go, so I was out.  The highlight was the flyer Todd took, crossing the finish line with a huge gap with one lap to go. We won’t tell anyone that he thought it was the final lap.   It still looked really good!