March 26th - Latoria

[RyanC]

Good showing from TS in the B pack. The rain held off and although chilly temperatures prevailed, the races went well with Sylvan easily dusting his challengers for the win. Aside from a crash which appeared to just involve Shaylee, it seemed like a great race.

I threw it down with the A's but got schooled. I felt good and the lead group was just plain better. I may have it to hang with those guys in another month or so but for now they're just in a different class of fitness. ProCity shared duty with Russ Hays dictating a leg ripping pace which shelled most of the A pack by lap 6 of 13. I ended up in no man's land somewhere between the lead and chase packs with Steve Bachup, who happens to be a pretty classy rider, and we worked out @sses off to stay ahead of the latter group. No excuses, I have my work cut out for me; ouch.

Congrats, Sylvan!

R

[sylvan]

Shaillie apparently ran into Rhonda's rear wheel and John D ended up landing on his head, but seemed OK. He got a ride home with Steve. Be well, dude!

'B' race stats: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/75378286

I thought I pretty clearly said 'A' when signing up but I was given a 'B' number and yellow 'B' flagging tape, so I took it as being meant to be and raced 'B', despite some razzing as an accused sandbagger. I'm a cat 4 with no upgrade points and a best 'B' group race finish of 4th in 7 career races, so I say it's not sandbagging!

It was so very very slow for the first half dozen laps. Kelly from IRC (a dude) went to the front after I sat up from a lap 2 pull and just cruised away as nobody else put any pressure on. I was on the front beside Rhonda on the second lap and said I thought we'd get caught by the 'A' group in about 4 laps at that rate. I think they passed us on the 3rd lap, going balls out. Six men in a break, with Ryan pulling two others about 5 seconds back, just givin' 'er, hard. I felt entirely unworthy. Kevin and Barton went to the front a few times each early on and without even seeming to try ended up getting small gaps, but not trying to make breaks stick. Nobody else tried anything. I forgot about Kelly and just sat around for a few laps, taking a semi-regular turn out front, but then we started getting the gap reported, 30 seconds, 45, more. Argh. With 6 laps to go I cruised up towards the front to marshal the troops, said to Stephane and Steve that we had to start working to bring Kelly back. We were the only large team - responsibilty must be taken so as to not disrecpect the club, the race and the very sport of bicycle racing. Stephane called out that he was on my wheel so we went and did some work and brought the gap down by 10 seconds a lap, and caught him with 2 laps to go. I pulled the whole length of Latoria a couple of times, but when I pulled off, sometimes nobody went through, or if they did the pressure just came right off. So there was a big sketchy pack of 20 on the last lap. The last turn from Happy Valley to Latoria was a bit of a clusterstuff. I was about 2nd to last at that point. When Matt went past he had a gap behind him so I hopped on and he pulled me right up to the front, cruised the last corner and punched it. I was scared of Vinko's legendary sprinting prowess, but I think Matt and I got 1-2 pretty easily, which is epic, and hopefully some more top-10's. It was way easier than a Tripleshot 'A' ride in every way. I heard the crash behind me at the crest of the first hill. Bummer.

[sylvan]

I think my Gremlin started malfunctioning over the last couple of laps. Actual lap times/speeds:

Lap 1 4:44 31.7 km/h
Lap 2 4:39 32.3
Lap 3 4:32 33.1
Lap 4 4:29 33.5
Lap 5 4:38 32.4
Lap 6 4:27 33.7
Lap 7 4:32 33.1
Lap 8 4:14 35.4 (we started working to peg the break)
Lap 9 4:10 36.0
Lap 10 4:20 34.6
Lap 11 4:15 35.3
Lap 12 4:24 34.1
Lap 13 4:29 33.5
Lap 14 4:01 37.3
Total 33.9 km/h for 35 km. We didn't do 1 lap under 4:00 and the 'A' group probably didn't do 1 lap over. That race was intense. I would have cried and been lapped.

[barton bourassa]

Well there I was at my first race, nervous and tense with no idea what I was doing! No idea so much that I found myself at the front way too often. I would be pedaling along at a nice cadence when all of a sudden there was no there. After a bit, I would actually stop pedaling, pull over but no one would go by! At one point 5 of us from TCS did start a line but not sure why but we did not get far. With one lap to go it was very clear it was going to turn into a one lap race with a full field sprint up the hill to the finish. We made the last turn as a pack, four and five abreast. What a mess! I remembered the promise I made to my dear wife, Stay out of Emergency!! I backed right off, not that I can sprint, particularly sprint up hill!! That is when I saw John D and the young woman go down into the ditch. I stopped to make sure John was ok than finished up, passing one guy up the hill the finish. I don't think I was last but it was close!
Cool to see TSC 1st and 2nd! Next time lets take it to them and wear them out before they have a chance to sprint!!!

[John D]

Outcome aside, I really enjoyed today's race. Riding with 6-7 other TS'ers certainly boosted my confidence, as there was almost always a trustworthy wheel in sight.

At one point on lap 5 (?) we were all near the front, with Steve and I bringing up the rear of the TS train. At Steve's suggestion we eased off and blocked. Unfortunately, the riders right behind us quickly figured out what we were up to and surged past us to close the gap. TS was definitely the strongest team in the B ride (Kevin and Barton each spent considerable time up front), so perhaps a group breakaway is something we might consider planning ahead for next time?

As we approached the final corner I think I was 4th, with Sylvan encouraging me to "go, go, go". Made it through the last corner OK but faded quickly on the hill. As Matt (and, wow, were you hammering!) and Sylvan overtook me I sat up, my domestique duties done, and settled in for the final climb. Right about then I got blind-sided by the RH rider and went down hard. Road rash on one hip, a slight contusion over one eye, but mostly just wounded pride at a DNF result.

On a positive note I got a free brake alignment and derailleur adjustment from the RH guys who sold me my bike.

Thanks for the ride home Steve.

J.

[4827north]

okay, you guys are inspiring me. I talked to Kevin on the phone today and got his perspective. Other than Cross last year I haven't raced since 2001. I might have to give 'er a go again. There were 6 then down to 4 of us on today's club ride... everyone else had their race faces on. Weekend VCL will be hard for me to make, but when the Wed nite VCL races kick in April 13 I should be able to join in.

--Brad

[Marcus]

I rode back along the Lagoon with a fellow who raced A with a power meter and made the break. He told me he was generating over 450 watts on each lap on the hill.

[Josh.E]

Man, I'm choked I wasn't feeling good this morning. That A race sounds like it was a sufferfest. I wish I could have been there.

Although, the way I'm feeling, I'm sure I wouldn't have hung on long today anyway.

[Stéphane Tran]

This was my first mass start race ever, and it was reassuring to see some familiar faces. This was only my second time on the bike in about a month and I didn't really have any expectations of myself besides finishing the race rubber side down. My goal had been to start racing at the end of April, but i figured I might as well just start now. I sat in the pack for pretty much the whole race except for the time Sylvan told me to move up, but even then I only pulled for about 20 seconds. I was also at the front at the bottom of the last hill after Kevin told me to hop on his wheel, but faded badly about halfway up and finished 10th I think. Sylvan looked real strong the whole ride and fully deserved the win as he did a lot of work up front. Our club had a strong presence in the B ride and a 1-2 TS finish was appropriate. John, sorry to see you hit the deck so close to the end, especially since you looked solid the whole race. There's no way you're a C rider! Thanks to Steve and Sylvan for marshalling the troops so well and well done to everyone!

[Kevin F]

Well I can't really say I rode a smart race but it was fun none the less. I kinda felt at the end I was frustrated with the SLOW pace. I made a few bad jumps without direction. Our Friday rides have been a larger challenge for me. I should have been a lot smarted and spent more time listening to Steve. Oh well, that's what first races are for. I'll be better prepared for tactics and on off race pace next time.

[sylvan]

I should have checked the calendar - yesterday was the one-year anniversary of my first Tripleshot ride. Thanks Tripleshotters, you're cool and fun to ride with!

Even though we had what looked like a powerhouse team unit on the start line today, we were all pretty highly inexperienced. I think several of the other riders in the race had more road races than all of us combined. So I think we did great and will turn into a 'B' race wrecking crew after getting in some more practice in the next few races. I think the best thing I did today was get the chase started and keep it motivated for 5 laps, and the one thing I wish I'd done better was talk more with the other TS'ers to get knowledge and make some plans based on that. I didn't realize Stéphane hadn't been riding much lately - I just remembered some awesome strong rides from January/February - otherwise I wouldn't have been looking for him to help too much in the chase. And I didn't realize that Kevin was feeling so strong and frustrated with the slow pace. Just the two of us playing silly-buggers or just a 2-up TT at the front of the pack probably could have split the pack into a safer size, gotten us a better workout and still won the race.

Check out these stats (apologies for errors):

Barton - first race today
Kevin - first race today
Stéphane - first race today
Matt - 2nd race today
John D - first race earlier this month
Sylvan - did seven 'B' races total in 2002/2003/2010 (got crushed in all)
Steve - did some 'B' races last year and joined Tripleshot way back in 2009.

[M.LeBlanc]

i've got to agree about the pace. the warm up laps around uplands golf course on the tuesday morning rides have more hop than the majority of todays race. it was still a great time and it was so good to have such a strong TS presense. i felt so much better than last week and knew there wouldn't be any issues crossing the line in this race...last weeks dnf was hard to swallow, but it was my 1st race so no worries. i thought for sure we would've attacked at some point and with the way no one else was willing to give it shot we could've dropped them no problem. i was a bit hesitant because i did want to make sure i finished but as soon as we made the final corner from happy valley on to latoria, i saw this massive inside opening and knew i had to attack to have a chance. it couldn't have gone any better and with only 1 person to pass on the hill i thought it was mine until sylvan arrived. he got me by a wheel or so but i was glad it was another TS'r to share the podium with. overall, every TS'r looked solid and rode a great race. sucks you went down john but don't be discouraged. hope the rash and the head heal up quick.

[steve]

Great to see so many new TSers racing for the first time. Very similar to the caleb pike race with even fewer dropping off the peleton. Like Sylvan said, one of the fellows made a break off the front and stayed out on his own for much of the race. I was going to bridge up to him but thought it was so early in the race when he took off (?lap 2); retrospectively I think it would have been a great experience to try and stay away.

I spent much of the first 10 laps at the front or near the front. The girl power there was impressive - Rhonda and one of the other girls did more than their fair share of work on the front. We tried unsuccessfully to get a pace line on a few occasions. There was one point in the race where all seven of us came to the front of the pack and John and I eased up, hoping to split the pack but nothing came of it. I think the head wind made it difficult to get off the front.

I realized no one was going to get away by lap 10 and didn't think the bunch would split, so I ease back in the pack and caught my breath for the final sprint. Good work by everyone in tripleshot moving to the front along Latoria during the last lap, I should have worked harder to get up into the lead positions. The final right is quite sharp and the road is relatively narrow, making it both dangerous and difficult to pass during a final sprint. I passed a number of people on the way up the hill and ended up in 5th or 6th.

Couple of thoughts:
Great win Sylvan, I don't think you were sandbagging in any way.
Matt went from dnf to second by a wheel - fantastic result.
All the other tsc guys looked strong throughout the ride, Barton and Kevin jumping off the front, Stephane looked great til the last stretch of hill!
Important to go earlier in races to get a better position into the final stretches.

As a guy who only had one top ten finish last year, I've been thinking a little too much about staying in the group for the final stretch and trying to place. Problem is that when everyone thinks this way, we get slow races with no one driving the pace. We should think about picking a couple of guys to push the pace before the race and a couple of guys to stay in the pack to look for a win. If we get a chance to break, its important to really bury yourself - when your hurting, everyone else is hurting.

Great fun, nice to have so friendly faces out there to ride with.

Steve

[Duane]

Results are up - sorry for the delay - I was on the road and my server ignored me.

http://duanebc.com/raceresults2011/VCL2011results.html