Caleb Pike Jul 28

[Josh.E]

Another good tripleshot turnout for the last race of the year.
The A race felt good for me. I just sat in the group in the front half, never really working all that hard, took a couple short turns on the front, but that's about it. Shawn did some nice attacking off the front for awhile. I was content to save all my cards for the finish tonight. with about 5 laps to go, a deer bolted right into the middle of the pack right as we were coming full speed down the hill, and found itself almost getting hit by a MOOSE. It was SKETCHY, I was about 2/3rds of the way back in the pack at the time, the deer was scrambling on the pavement tryingto get traction, and trying to figure out which way to run as bikes veered on both sides of it. You could smell the buring rubber from people skidding as you came through there. After that everyone neutralized the next full lap, and we let the B pack re-pass us on their last lap to go for their sprint.
On the 2nd to last lap Gavin turned around and asked me how I was feeling. "really good" I told him. We came around near the back of the pack on the bell lap. Gavin turned around and said "I'll get you to the front". We got to the bottom straightaway and he started to move up the outside, passed everybody, and moved right to the front (a man of his word). The remaining almost 3/4's of a lap he led the pack with me on his wheel. I could see the pain in his body as he tried to keep it going, it was monsterous. He led me out to the bottom of the hill, and I jumped off his wheel to the right just as I saw Tom jump around him to the left. I tucked in behind Tom and came up over the hill in 2nd place. It was interesting for me to see how much Tom actually spins it out at the bottom of the hill, so he doesn't end up in too hard a gear to finish his sprint; gear selection going into that sprint is one of my worst parts of my race at caleb this year. I should have followed Toms lead, but again chose slightly too hard a gear. I was making up ground on Tom for the first half of the sprint, but as we crested, I found myself in a harder gear than I would have liked again. I ended up getting nipped at the line by Geordie from aviawest. Those dang kids and their quick sprinting legs..... (nice work Geordie, if you read this. Geordie was aggresive on the front for most of the race, and completely deserves his 2nd place finish) I'm happy with third though, my best result of the year. I owe it completely to THE MOOSE.

http://duanebc.smugmug.com/Sports/Victo ... 9370_UkjJr

[Paul C.]

What a great Triple Shot showing. Looked to me like we had more members out in club kit than any one else...including at least one spectator in a club jersey[Al's wife maybe] ...Idea: a simple club colored t -shirt for supporters, kids etc. " I like TRIPLESHOTS" printed on it.....anyhow back to Caleb-....... as I was lapped once or twice by A and B group it was great to see all the Jerseys the same as mine..and what looked like team mates working as a team. Great that we all missed the deer and nobody else went down in the A group crash. These races are a humbling experience for me, but fun, as in the past , when doing running and Tri/Du races I was used to 5 year age group awards and on a good day I could be top 3 or top 5 out of up to 35 guys in 55 to 59 age group[I know , I look 39 and act younger too]...... It's different starting a bike race knowing I may be almost last [or" first at the other end" ]...but having the support and racing tips from new friends makes it enjoyable. Thanks. Paul C.

[Roland]

I wasn't feeling 100%, so I demoted myself to B for this week. Compared to last week in A, my average heart rate was 2 bpm higher, average speed was 0.1 km/h slower. Mind you I did a lot more work in the B race.

The race was short, only 10 laps. Sylvan & I traded taking attacks of the front. My best effort kept me away for 3 laps, including one where I picked up a prime. I was caught with 2 to go.

I found the finish frustrating. For the whole last lap, there was no way to move up without crossing the yellow line. Once the sprint started there were still people in the way, and once I found room to really open it up I was already cresting the hill and it was too late. Bah. 5th.

At least I scored some points, first of the season.

Stats: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/42293372

[sylvan]

I think it was 23 starters for the Killer B's, 10 in Tripleshot kit. My plan was to do work so Adam and John didn't have to. It would be good if they could score maximum points, especially Adam, who had a chance for 1st. First two laps were steady but it all stacked up on the hill so I took a dig on the second part and got away for two laps. Sadly, it was too hard for me so I ended up back in the bunch. After a lap together Roland got away for three laps. Cool. He got the prime after we got passed by the A's and we picked him up at the north turn. I'd been sitting in waiting for IRC to bring him back, so I decided to jump off again with two laps to go. I got gappage pretty quick and felt pretty good on the hill, and for the first 10 seconds on the flat I thought there was a chance to stay away. Then my lactate intolerance got the better of me, it got horrible and the bunch got me back after a lap. I got back to the front after getting through a bit of argy-bargy and tried to lead out John down the hill but ended up leading out IRC for 1st and 3rd. Oops.

Good action watching Josh sprint heroically into 3rd, after Gavin's epic lap-of-the-year. Tense moments waiting for info on the crash in the hollow. Fortunately it turned out OK, maybe a broken collarbone at worst.

[JohnT]

For me the race was great up until the last lap. I stayed at the front and jumped on any IRC guys that attempted to bridge up to TS breakaways (Roland and Sylvan mostly, but I think Adam also made a jump). This felt a little wimpy - rarely taking the lead, but I think it worked. They certainly had the firepower to do some harm - Chris Paul, Derek Trip and John Guthrie, among others. On occasion, this marking the opposition wasn't easy. Derek made one especially valiant attempt to get away on the second half of the main climb and Chris did a lot of locomotive work, dragging the group back to our leaders.

Roland, like in the OB Crit, did a lot of work off the front. Then, Sylvan ran away with two laps to go. That one had a chance, as there was no counter attack. But it can be hell out there on your own. Ian also ran off the front in the last or second last lap. Going into the bell lap, Adam and I were in front. Not the best place to be, but OK, as I think we were both feeling good and both dealing with the corner at the bottom of the hill well. That's a place where some are very slow. However, we turned the corner and there was the A group on their neutral, post-deer lap. #@*&! They didn't do anything wrong. Indeed, they organized quickly and moved to the right. But it screwed me up. First I slowed, then felt pressure to get by quickly. On the last lap I'd have preferred to be sizing up the B group, not worrying about quickly passing the A's. Anyway, after the right turn at the back of the straight, it became a bit of a blurr - literally. I've got to get some new glasses! When one is in the top three or four going down the hill, you worry as much about what's behind as what's in front. Not a good state of mind. Fortunately the swarming on the final sprint wasn't as bad as it could have been (easy to go from 1st to last in a few seconds at Cabel Pike). I ended up 7th. Adam showed great strength to sprint all the way to the line from his position at the front at the bottom of the hill (i.e., staying ahead of the drafting swarm). Roland got a very well deserved top 5. John Guthrie (IRC), who won, played the race very well. As I mentioned, he was at the front for most of the race, except those last few laps when he must have been sizing the rest of us up for the sprint. Lots of fun, just not the final result I was hoping for. Well done Josh (and Gavin, though we didn't get to see his incredible effort from the finish line). The first Triple Shot podium in the A group.

JT

[AdamD]

I had a really awesome time at the race. Tripleshot had good numbers out but so did IRC and it was a very strong field overall which made it more fun in my mind. I think we worked pretty well as a team, Sylvan and Roland were off the front a total of 5 or 6 times between them and john me and the rest of us let IRC do the chase which worked well. I put myself in good position for the first prime but decided not to go for it when the schwalbe rider went flying by in full sprint. This ended up being a good idea because talking to him after the race he said he spent the whole rest of the race trying to recover from that. Roland picked up the second prime in one of his solos. After the last turn in the bit before the downhill i was leading, thankfully Ian came left around the outside told me to jump that i did and he wound it up down the hill. The sprint went well, i chose the perfect gear, for once, but just got a tiny bit out muscled and finsihed second by half a wheel or so.
Great way to end at Caleb, now its just the hill climbs with with a 5 point cushion.
-Ad

[Roland]

I put myself in good position for the first prime but decided not to go for it when the schwalbe rider went flying by in full sprint. This ended up being a good idea because talking to him after the race he said he spent the whole rest of the race trying to recover from that.

That was Simon. He still finished 4th. But yeah, I was talking to him the lap after the prime and he was hurting. I like the primes, they really spice the race up a bit.

[AdamD]

I thought the primes were fun too, they added a new dynamic.

This is what Jeff had to say on his facebook

dislocated my collar bone and a rib, got more road rash then yens voigt, and broke my helmet. fun time though

[wonger]

It’s interesting to read all the posts about the race last night because even though I was in the B race, that wasn’t the race I was in! It was awesome though. I’ve been trying to make it out on a Wednesday night all summer long and I finally made it to a race with my bike. I got there at about 6:26 so not a lot of time to warm up or even see the course, so just go with the flow and see what happens.

I managed to stick with the group for four laps, but every time we went around that corner at the bottom of the hill it was really hard to close the gap to the wheel in front of me. I found all the braking going into the corners really hard to deal with – I guess that’s why everyone says to stay near the front.

On the second lap just in front of me a group of four or five started to get a gap on the backstretch, and with two clown suits in the group I just tried to keep the pace steady and see if they could get away. As we were going up the second part of the climb I heard one of the girls behind me saying “c’mon, buddy” – clearly not impressed with my tactics. On the other hand maybe she just thought I was slow…

Anyway, inevitably I got separated from the group, sat up after the climb and caught on with another group of three. We kept the pace high until we caught another guy on the backstretch. By the end of the lap it was Al, myself and Eric from Pro City. We worked really well together and rolled a pace line for the rest of the race. On the last lap Eric had a dig and got a gap. I went around Al and bridged up to him and we basically sprinted the backstretch. He got away from me on the last little rise before the last corner to the downhill, I pushed as hard as I could all the way down the hill and up to the finish, but he still got me by about six feet. I don’t know where we finished but I figure that we were about twenty or thirty seconds back of the main group as they were just coming back to the line as we finished. I’m pretty happy with it all, it was a tonne of fun – I just have to figure out how to get fast enough to stick with the pack. And hats off to anyone who races A – those guys went by us so fast it was scary! Great TripleShot turnout – we really should do Spinnakers after the race.

[gav_eaton]

I had a pretty good race last night as well - I was really glad I was able to be there to help Josh out in the last lap! Finally our long laid plan came to fruition! To bad it was in the last race of the year - and I was beginning to figure out this 'A' thing. Next year we'll be pulling the same move for the wins!

Unfortunately, I'm still extremely frustrated with the safety of the A race last night. The deer running into the middle of the pack was one (unavoidable) thing, but there were a number of extremely dangerous incidents (I was involved in at least three) that I felt were completely preventable and were solely the cause of skill level and experience. We even had one bonehead getting water bottle hand-offs from a motorbike that pulled up beside the pack! This is NOT THE PROTOUR PEOPLE!!!!

Because I don't want to pollute this race report threat further with my rant and call for solutions, I think I'll start a new one on this subject on the main page.

But awesome racing Tripleshotters - what a great turnout! Super happy Josh was able to break the 'top 5 barrier' and congrats to Adam for finishing off a stellar season atop the points in B!

[Ian]

Had a blast this week! Felt like we were working as a team pretty well. For me, I'd had a pretty crap day at work, so I'd resolved just to do my best and to try as many new things as possible to see what I could learn.

I tried:
- letting a bit of a gap open in front of me, then sprinting hard to bridge in order to drop some riders behind me. Worked (As a clarification, there were no TS riders in the group I dropped!)
- taking a bit of a pull off the front without cooking myself. Worked, but is a work in progress. Eventually want to be able to launch Roland-esque three lap monster attacks
- on the last lap or two, finding someone I want to stick with (in this case, Adam and John) and staying close to them

The last point worked for a bit. Right after the last turn, I was a couple wheels back and saw Adam up front catching wind. I figured that wasn't what he wanted to be doing, so I jumped out to try to lead him out a bit. Unfortunately, I think I dragged one or two other riders with me.

As a point of reference, the last Caleb Pike (Jul 15, I think?) B race averaged around 32km/h. Far different from the 37km/h last night!

Ended up 12th, but overall really stoked about the race!

[sylvan]

As a point of reference, the last Caleb Pike (Jul 15, I think?) B race averaged around 32km/h. Far different from the 37km/h last night!

That's kinda freakish, since there would have been several riders in that Jul 15 pack who could have soloed the race at 32 km/h without too much trouble. Must have been tons of negative action. This Wednesday was a lot better. It helped having Roland step back from 'A' for this race and shake things up. I wonder if there's too much pressure to auto-elevate riders into 'A'. Maybe encouraging a few riders to stay in 'B' and having a 'C' category more regularly would help out. I'd rather race in a pack where I can influence the pace instead of just reacting to it and hanging on. I'd like to race 'A' next year, but I won't if I can't mix it up.

Ended up 12th, but overall really stoked about the race!

That's serious progress - from being shelled early in the races to being an animator in the lead pack over about a month. That's good action.