Tripleshot Cycling

Keep an eye on the results here: http://www.tofww.org/index.php?id=28

I have never been to such a well organized race before. My TT started at 8:54am, my result were emailed to me by 9:19am and the full category results were emailed to me by 9:47am.

Day #1 highlights: Only the Cat1/2 & Cat3s raced on Friday. 60 & 40 miles respectively.

Cold wet race. In the Cat 1/2, Cory Wallace was 8th and Emile was 35th. In Cat 3, Jamie Cameron was 5th with Adam de Vos in 6th. Lots of strong rides from the BC Juniors.

Day #2: TT

Cat 3: Nigel Ellsay of Comox was 1st, Adam 14th, Jamie 19th. Cat 1/2 are still on course. Crit coming up this afternoon. I was 41st in Cat 4.

Thanks for the updates, Roland. Nice work guys. I hope you had a dry shammy ('chamois') today .
R

RyanC wrote:Thanks for the updates, Roland. Nice work guys. I hope you had a dry shammy ('chamois') today .
R

Roads were still wet for my TT, but was drying quickly. Roads are dry now for the crit. Our hosts told us it should be dry today since two consecutive days of rain in Walla Walla would be "very odd."

Awesome work guys.

Adam, nice TT sled. Who's your sugar daddy?

Josh.E wrote:Awesome work guys.

Adam, nice TT sled. Who's your sugar daddy?

+1. That is SWEET!

Don't see Adam in the Kellogg Hollow Road Race results at all.
Did he not start for some reason?

Looks like Jamie Cameron is kicking some butt in cat 3.

Josh.E wrote:Don't see Adam in the Kellogg Hollow Road Race results at all.
Did he not start for some reason?

Looks like he finished (49th at 17:56). Clearly had some sort of issue.

AlW wrote:

Josh.E wrote:Don't see Adam in the Kellogg Hollow Road Race results at all.
Did he not start for some reason?

Looks like he finished (49th at 17:56). Clearly had some sort of issue.

Unfortunately Adam flatted on lap 1. Geordie gave him a wheel instead of waiting for neutral support, but he wasn't able to chase back on.

Race Report:

Stage #1: TT

The TT course was tricky. It started with a false flat for the first 5km, then it kicked up violently for the next 2km, and the final 8km was a downhill run into the finish. I had an early start, 8:54am and the roads were still wet from the rain the day before. My TT started ok, but I never felt great. I was doing ok on the hill, keeping my 30second man in sight. I think the decent is where it all fell apart. A strong headwind and crosswind made it very hard to maintain speed. I was having a hard time maintaining 40km/h, a speed I can usually TT at on the flat. I finished in 25:08, 42nd position, 2:31 down. The winning Cat 4 speed was only 39.74km/h, which gives an idea how hard the TT was.

Stage #2: Crit

The crit was in downtown Walla Walla, and 8 corner crit on a 1.1 mile loop. All the corners were nice and wide, if a little rough, and could be taken at almost full speed. Being so far back in the GC, I had nothing to gain in the crit, unless I could get into a break. Due to the wind and the number of corners, the Cat 5 race broke into several groups of 10 riders each.

In standard form I lined up front row and went hard from the gun and had a 2 or 3 bike length lead into the first corner. The back stretch was a series of 6 corners, and I kept the pace high, trying to cause things to separate. No luck. So on lap 2, I attacked and got a gap, one rider came with me and we worked together for a short time, but were quickly swallowed.

Sometime early in the race I managed to win a $10 prime, not sure when or how, as I couldn't hear the announcer or the bell. The cowbells from cyclocross have invaded road racing, making it almost impossible to know what is going on. During the weekend I saw many people, including Adam, sprint for non-existent primes and others, like Geordie, collect primes completely uncontested and unaware.

By half way it was pretty clear that the crit was going to stay together, so I drifted back and rode it in for 50th place. I did manage to gain a few spots in the GC moving up to 39th

Stage #3: Kellogg Hollow Road Race

A 103.8km road race in rolling farmland. A 40km loop, with a 7km panhandle on and off the loop. The course had 3 big climbs per lap, the first peaking, a slight decent and then peaking again. Not steep climbs, similar to Caddy bay hill but much longer. All several km in length, the first almost 10 km.

Race plan was to go hard, get into a break and claw back some time. The race started very slowly, lots of yoyoing into every corner and hill. The race picked up about 5km on the first hill, and I was at the back. Everything strung out and gaps started forming. I started jumping fro group to group, crossing every gap myself, grabbing wheels when I could, which was rare. By the top of the climb, there were 5 guys up the road and I was in the first chase. We chased hard and caught on by the bottom of the decent. The wind was viscous, making the chase very hard. If anybody was caught alone, they were finished.

Once it flatted out, a few guys took charge of the group and got rotating paceline going. We knew lots of people were already off the back, and if we kept the pace up, they would be done. 2nd climb we stayed together. 3rd climb, the pace was slower than I liked, so I moved to the front. We seemed to have tail winds on the climbs and headwinds on the descents, so there wasn't much detriment to being on the front. The climb was about 4km and I stayed on the front pretty much the entire time, keeping my heart rate just below the redline. By the top, the pack was down to about 25.

As we started the the first climb on the 2nd lap, the long 10km climb, the pace was slow, too slow. I moved to the front again to set tempo. When I looked back, I had decent gap. The moto told me the gap was 10 seconds. Another rider bridge up to me, and we discussed our chances. I said it was too windy, we needed more people. One other rider tried to come across, but was unable to make it. We continued to set tempo, and had 30 seconds by the top of the climb, but there were still 40 km left in the race.

We figured we'd try and keep the gap, but my heart wasn't in it. I knew we'd get swallowed on the flats into the headwind. I took my pulls, but not at full effort. The peleton had the paceline going again and caught us at the base of the next climb. We'd been away for about 15km.

I was glad I hadn't been going too hard in the break, as I felt decent on the climb, and continued to do a bit of pace setting work. One each climb, the group had been getting smaller and smaller. It was now down to about 10.

As we hit the final climb, I once again moved to the front and set pace, but I knew it wasn't going to last. My legs were closed to finished. Nobody wanted to come around. The GC leader yelled, "It's not my job to set the pace." I guess he had a point.

As people started to come around, I was fading and it was obvious. My hard work setting pace and earned me some friends. As the GC leader went by, he swung in front of me giving me his wheel. He told me he was the best wind block of those who were left and to hold on. It was stand 3 pedal strokes, sit 3, anything to hold on. Very lucky there were no attacks. As more riders went past I got a few pats on the back and 'good works.' I definite sign I'd been doing too much work.

I survived to the top of the climb, and now had a 10km run into the finish. The head wind was brutal and I wasn't taking any pulls. Nobody seemed to mind.

The sprint launched from 500 meters out, then regrouped and relaunched at about 200 meters. I couldn't hold on, and rolled in last of the leaders, 6 seconds back, in 9th place. 2:50 up on 10th place. That moved me from 39th to 9th in the GC. Very successful road race, I couldn't have hoped for much better, but it wasn't enough to make up for a disappointing TT.

I now know why Walla Walla has the reputation it does. With the hills and the wind, there is nowhere to hide. It's an all out battle between the strongest riders. I'll be going back next year.

Oh man. Totally epic epic race. What an effort.

Clearly that work ethic makes an impression not just on us but on the riders you helped climb to the top of the GC. Way to leave it all on the road, Roland! That's a great day on the road.

Adam, sorry man. That's a long way to go for a mechanical to take you out of contention.

R

Nice work Roland. That's how you race your bike.
Great race report too. I could imagine the pain of just trying to hold that wheel for the last km's after the legs were giving out.

Nice job Rol, you killed it!

Excellent race report, improving from 39th to 9th: EPIC!

Its a good thing you are so much stronger on hills this year than last year.

Emile has put up a race report: http://emilederosnay.com/2011/04/19/tou ... lla-walla/

Photos are up too: http://www.wheelsinfocus.com/index.htm

Some cool videos of the Crit from Walla Walla:

Cat 4 men: http://vimeo.com/22791605 (Keep an eye open for the baby blue)

Cat 3 men: http://vimeo.com/22622210 (Adam is wearing his TS arm warmers and cycling bc jersey)