Copper Town Circuit Race 45+ 1/2/3 

Feb 15th 2015

Jerome Nadel, Andrew Adelman (words by AA)

It is a strange thing this bike racing. It gets into your blood and you become hooked. That or it doesn't. You try it never to return to it. I am of the later category, not the former. I have a shaking addiction. I go cold turkey each September and think how great it is not to get up early on a weekend for a 3+ hour drive, no going near caves that contain pain, and even seeing dirt flow beneath my wheels once in awhile. It is inevitable though. The longing for pain and suffering returns. The pathetic need to prove myself to guys I barley would recognize on the street. It comes back in a flood of anticipation and excitement each February.

So begins the 2015 season. I tied off and heated the spoon to ease my addiction with a short shot of Copper Town Circuit race. Two of them to be exact this past Sunday. Below is what transpired. As it is with all my s! illy race reports, waste time at your own discretion.

If you were to peak inside my noggin you would see rusty gears clicking that believe for some unfounded reason that I have boundless strength and the ability to ride with anyone. I think as bikers we all have this fantasy to a degree and need this thinking to protect ourselves when the pain comes, and it will come. As the gears started to click in the first 35+ race, I returned to my cat 4 roots and chased everything that moved. I burned a full match book making sure I did not miss "the move" of the day. Sure enough, after chasing down one move I was sure was it, the real move went and I was left gasping for air and sitting with the rest of those that now know we were racing for scraps. As I rolled in with the rest of the scrap feeders, anger welled inside and the self talk was not pretty.

Angry is not a great way to start a race. If you start angry, you sometimes do things you shouldn't. This race was a 7.5 lap race (each lap was just over 5 miles). I wanted to make people hurt. I wanted to feel pain. At the start of lap two, when I should be patient, I attacked. I had a gap. The field chased and caught me. When they caught my rear wheel, I sat up and the guys behind fanned out and sat up too. I attacked again. I had a gap again. I get rolling. I had a bigger gap. Hmm. I started doing math. Math was never my strong suit, but I did know I had about 30 miles to go; alone; on an out and back course where the field could see me each turnaround to gage how far I was. Probably not the best move.

So, sit up and come back to the pack and draft, or keep rolling by myself into the wind? Yep, I keep rolling. I see one guy trying to bridge. Yes! He makes it across. We don’t say a word to each other but we start rotating well. He is taking nice, stron! g pulls. I don’t know who it is (turns out his name is Joe Starron-new guy to Mark Foster's new team-used to race for Folsom), but he is pretty strong. We open a gap on the field. We keep this up for 15 miles, at which point he turns to me and says his first words; "this the plan?". "It is now" I respond and we keep hammering ourselves with about a 40 second gap.

Side note here. We were on course the same time as the Pro/1/2 field. We could see them each lap as they were heading the other direction. It was inspiring to see the CoreTechs kit in the break and then chasing at the front each time I went by. I had to make them proud and did not want to give in, in part due to seeing them fight so hard. They ended up getting the win in the P/1/2 field!

Back to my race; At mile 30 (about 7.5 to go) the pack closed me a! nd my break companion down to 20 seconds. At that point, three others joined us. It was awesome to now have more of a respite and not have to pull at the front so often. My legs at this point were pretty Jello like. The problem though was that none of the new guys to the break were from the two strong teams in our race (Hammer and Specialized). Sure enough, we hit the last lap and at the turnaround, we see the National Champion in the TT (Craig Roemer from Specialized) at the front of a select group of six or so. I also see Jerome in that group, which means our teamwork is flawless, he is right where he should be. Our break fights to pick up the pace.

We make the final 180 turn and as we head back to the finish (about 2.5 miles to go) we see the chase group is about 15 seconds behind and moving fast. Our group falters as two of the guys don’t pull through. Then we try and rotate again and we stay about 10 seconds ahead. Again two of our group sits on. 1.5 k to go. My o! riginal break companion attacks. To his credit, he gave whatever he had left. I jump after him and it is just us two for a short distance. Like old times. 1k to go. I am close to being fully out of gas. We are 600 meters from the line, and we are caught. Like a blur though, Jerome is there and he is flying to the finish. He has a large gap and easily takes the win! I give whatever my legs have left not to get swamped by the new guys and hold on for an exhausted 4th place.

So, in the end, it worked out darn well. Would have been much better had I been able to fend off the third place guy to put two of us on the podium, but getting the team win and two of us in the top five was rewarding and abated my original anger issues. Great win Jerome, congratulations!

Now onto Snelling.

Andrew

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Written By Mark Johnson:

45+ 1/2/3 (Mark 1st, Tom Rice 2nd and Andrew Adelman 3rd)

Henlyville Road Race 2014

The plan was to get an early start to beat the traffic up to Henleyville, but those plans were immediately scrubbed because of some yahoo starting a fire in a Chicago airport.  Nevertheless, Rick managed to get back only a couple hours behind schedule, and Daryoush, Franco, Andrew,  and I met at his house to assemble his rack (yes he has a big rack to go with his big truck!) and start on our adventure.

According to Andrew, last year they left at 2 and hit a ton of traffic and he vowed never to leave that late again, so at 1:45, we were sure to beat the traffic… yeah…not really!  Of course,  Rick drove after having got up around 1am PDT, and the rest of us relaxed (Rick, thanks again for driving!)  About 4 hours later we checked into the hotel, and headed over to Tom and Kate’s where we met Mike and Mark (who flew) at Tom’s really nice RV for a pre-race dinner of coach approved wine and a couple huge slabs of tri-tip - wow that was some good food…

Next morning I met Daryoush at breakfast and afterward we walked to Starbucks next door where he ordered a 4 shot espresso, and not wanting to be appear weak, I got the same.  Ready to go!

All seemed good as we’re leaving reg, when we ran into Dirk H. who had just driven up that morning (god knows when he got up)  looking a little disheveled.  I made the comment “So happy to see you Dirk...  Not!!”  I don’t know if he felt sorry for us for showing up like that but in any case, he registered for the 35+ race (which if I have to be honest is the only way we had a chance to sweep the podium)

Daryoush had trouble with getting air in his rear tire but that turned out to be the least of his mechanical issues that day.  He ended up having to stop to repair his brakes, but still ended up finishing.

Anyway, we rolled off together with the 3 35+ riders and 2 women p12 and the first few miles seemed like it might be a civilized ride, but it didn’t last.  Attacks came fast and furious, but with 5 CoreTechs, we managed to cover all the breaks with 1 or 2 riders at least.  Andrew had a bit of a long one, and I recall (I’m sure Rick can correct me here) right afterward Dirk launched a huge attack which had everyone on the rivet trying to catch on to the end of the race before it was over.

All the CoreTechs hung on, and I’m not sure, but it seemed like we may have shelled a couple riders at that point.  After we reeled in Dirk, there may have been a few more small attempts, but things were really slowing just before the completion of lap 1 when Andrew said “Mark, you should go”.  So, I went.  Getting away was not hard, but keeping up a fast pace was draining me and I was worried since there was more than 50mi left to go.  I looked back every half mile or so not seeing anyone very close, but after about 3-4 miles(?) I looked back and Dirk was right on my wheel, with Andrew, Tom, and 3 other guys. 

At first the 7 of us weren’t working very well, but I saw Andrew go to the back and talk some sense into Dirk, and after that it was really smooth and fast.  We passed the 4s saying hi to Franco on the way, and a group of women.  It was probably the smoothest break I’ve been in and for the next 2 laps everyone did their part though we could see the non CoreTechs guys were starting to struggle.  In fact one guy just finally admitted he couldn’t help, and wouldn’t contest the sprint.

It remained that way until about 2 miles from the finish.  Once again Andrew made the call and told me that I should go with Tom, so I gave it a dig, not too hard, and very quickly Tom caught and passed me and I have to give lot more to get on his wheel.   After the initial surge we looked back and had a nice gap, and both of us were going full gas.  Just before we reached the finish hill our good buddy Dirk caught us, and when I pulled over to give him the chance to lead out, he took off, and I tried to chase, but didn’t have nearly enough to stay on his wheel. 

I finished maybe 200m behind Dirk (who won the 35+ field of 3) and I’m guessing about 100m ahead of Tom, not exactly sure, but with a big smile on my face!  My first win in 45+ 1/2/3 — in fact my first top 10 finish!  Andrew out sprinted the rest to get 3rd.

Thanks again to Andrew, Tom, and the whole team. Great teamwork, great tactics, great fun!

— Mark

P.S.  Rick feel free to fill in all that I forgot/missed.

Daryoush and I headed up for Corning, CA at 2:30 pm on Friday. We arrived at 6! Holy smokes, I now see how women have kids multiple times. I had forgotten how long this drive really is.

 

Once in Corning we checked out the new finish line. It is about a half mile past the old line and just on top of a short, steep hill. The hill is only 250 meters long or so, but fairly steep, say about 9-10%. We thought if it was a pack finish that we needed to wait till just before the base of the hill but to be positioned top 5 to have a shot.

 

I had some good training leading up to this race and felt fit. Figured I had a good shot at a win, especially since no mutants were racing…at least that I was aware of. Field was small, about 18-20 total and that includes the three guys in the 35+ 1/2/3 field. 75 mile race of four laps (so just over 18 miles per lap). Course is pretty flat, with some small rollers on it, but the headwinds kept the field honest.

 

I had talked to one of the best sprinters and racers in Northern California (Steve Heaton) about the race strategy prior to going. He advised sitting in till lap three. He did say if a dangerous break went early, go with it, but don’t kill yourself to help the break till you are sure it is away for good. I was going to be patient this race, something new for me!

 

I have never ridden so slow during a race for the first 18 miles. I think my wife and kids (9 and 7 years old) could have hung with us lap one. Gave me a chance to get to know some of the other riders as we had long conversations to pass the time. One rider (Rich from Wells Fargo), who I knew from past races and was fairly friendly with, and I talked about our kids and jobs. He also let me know he was not in great race shape and really just counting on sitting in for the final sprint. I filed this info away for future use.

 

We come to the end of the first lap and I can not take it any  longer. I had been self talking that first lap to just sit in and save the legs, but at this pace it was hard to do! Finally I had to stretch my legs a bit and I rolled off the front. Not really an attack, just wanted to up the pace. Go a small gap and kept rolling a bit to get the speed up. The group caught up to me and Rich said, something about my "attack". I let him know I just had to stretch my legs, that was not an attack. He said "good idea" and then did the same thing.

 

Well, he got a decent gap, then another rider I had not seen before jumped across to him. I almost felt bad for Rich, since I knew he was not up for a 57 mile break. I was happy to see the two of them go. I figured we would catch them about lap two or three no problem. The only other team with multiple riders was Davis, with three guys. They now had responsibility to chase this break down. They just sat in for the next 18 miles. The moto ref (Lee who also runs the Copper Town Circuit races) eventually road up and let us know they had 45 seconds.

 

We get to lap three and Lee comes back to me and says they now have 1:15. He tells me that "one of the riders looks pretty worked over but the other guy looks very strong". Hmmm, I start to get a bit worried now. I figure we still have 35 miles to go, so not panic time, but we should start to cut into that lead. We try a rotation. Guys wimp out and the rotation dies. Lee says they now have 1:40. Yikes!

 

Beginning of lap four, we catch Rich. He is by himself and looking beat. I roll next to him and ask where is the other guy? Rich responds with "that dude is strong!" Uh oh. I ask, you think he can stay away? His answer: "yep"

 

Crap.

 

Daryoush and I talk a bit and we both jump. We get two others to come with us, including a Davis rider. This should be perfect. Now we can hammer together to try and catch the lone rider. Daryoush takes a strong pull, I come through and pull, then nothing. The other two are sitting on. We yell at them, but nothing happens. I don’t get it. Not sure what they are waiting on. We get brought back to the field. Just as we are brought back, the same Davis rider, jumps out for a solo break. Huh? He thinks he can catch the other guy who has 1:40 by himself? I turn to Daryoush and express, "that guy is an idiot". He agrees.

 

I watch as he slowly pulls out of range. Lee rides up on his moto to let us know the gap to first place is 1:40 still and the gap to first chase is 40 seconds. The field does nothing. I get fed up by this point and decide to venture forth on my own and try and catch Davis rider. I know first place is out of reach now. I jump and get a good gap. Field chases for a bit, but Daryoush does a good job of sitting second wheel and not pulling through. He is a good teammate!

 

I put my head down and ride into the headwind with 10 miles left to the finish. I have been training for 10 plus minute VO2 intervals (As hard as I can ride that is still aerobic). I do lots of self talk. I don’t like riding alone. I much rather have company to share the load. So all this is going through my head when I glance back and see a rider trying to bridge across to me. Sit up and wait for him or keep riding? I decide to make him work for it, but not go so hard that he can not make it. I want the second guy there but I don’t want him with me fresh. He catches me, and it turns out it is one of the 35+ guys. Perfect! Now we both can place without having to race each other (they were placing the 35+ and the 45+ guys separately). Well this guy has a moral issue (who knows why, cause it is legal to help each other) to help me catch the guys up the road (both 45+ guys ahead). He tells me he will not sprint by me at the end, but he can't take a pull. Well that sucks.

 

Ok, let's wrap this story up. I keep the pressure on and close 2nd place to 25 seconds (from the original 40) but can't close the deal. Dude that broke away lap two wins, Davis second and I get third. Daryoush, who did a great job protecting me, placed a very respectable 6th and earned the final Velo Promo T-shirt too!

 

Postscript: I approached the guy who won (Mike Brown) after the race to offer congratulations and to find out who the hell this guy is. I know all the Nor Cal guys capable of that sort of effort (most go by the name of Dirk or Kevin). He smiles and let's me know he just moved to Chico from the East coast a month or two ago. Well, that was his one time he gets to go off in a break without me now. Next time, I will be on his wheel from the jump.

 

So ends 2013 road racing. What a fantastic year. I can tell you all 2014 will be extraordinary. More CoreTechs team developments coming down the pike, so stay tuned.

 

Till next year…race reporting out!

 

 

Andrew

 

Sometimes, life is not fair-San Ardo RR 2013

 

And who the hell ever thought it would be? I have been reminded through out my life that life just is, there is no universal right or obligation to fairness. This applies when good things happen as well as bad things. In the scheme of things, I would have to say life has been relentlessly positive and immensely "fair" for me, so who am I to say anything? When in boot camp, my Drill instructor, a two year high school attendee from South Carolina, woke our platoon up at 0200 to begin what was two hours of punishment PT, only to realize, he had walked into the wrong platoon bay and thus was punishing the wrong platoon. He brought us to attention, and issued the famous Marine Corp apology, "as you were" and walked out. And again when I started my first company and had our largest clients, who owed several million (Webvan and iMotors) both call the same week to say, we are closed and have no money left, "sorry but thanks for pay rolling our staff" It occurred to me, things happen and sometimes you just need to deal with it.

 

After several deep breaths and a car ride home with the Zen master; Christian, I am calm and relaxed. I would guess at this point you can tell the direction of my San Ardo road race. On the positive side of the ledger, I did not flat, nor crash. The race was relatively fun and the drive down and back uneventful. So really, it was a good day.

 

I had delusions of grandeur for this race. I was certain I would win or place, how could I not? I had trained well, eaten right and there were no mutants in the field. I had my race report already written. Strange how the rest of the field did not go along with these sentiments.

 

3 lap race with each lap being 22 miles. Lap one was slower than an easy recovery ride, for those that are into watts, I averaged 158 for that lap…crazy slow. Lap two I had enough of this and went off on my own. I had one guy come with me and we hit it hard. About 8 miles later we had one strong man bridge. Now the three of us got down to business and were rotating well. We made it 20 miles before the group caught sight of us and pulled us back. Ah well, such is life. Final lap, we are all together. No breaks will go as everything is chased down within a mile or two. Fair enough, I will sit in and recover for the final sprint. about 1/3 into the final lap, one rider (SJBC) ups his pace and gets a gap. No one blinks. The rider is a good rider, but no threat to stay away by himself. I think about jumping to him since he has two teammates in the group that will block, but I am sure the group will bring him back, so think it smarter to keep the match for later. Two minutes after he rolls off, a motto ref comes up and neutralizes our group. The P/1/2s are coming through she says. Ok, we slow to 12 miles an hour and move to the side of the road. We wait…no P/1/2's come by. We wait some more. Finally, after four or five minutes of 12 mph the P/1/2's come by at roughly the same pace we had been going previously. That is, not all that fast. The motto ref keeps us at 12 mph till the P/1/2's get out of site. This adds another four or so minutes onto our 12mph pace. Well, that takes care of that. The lone rider now has a 9-10 minute head start on us with about 10 miles to go.

 

I can't say I am mad, but I am pretty frustrated. I now have an internal debate if we can still catch the lone rider. We can not see him up the road and we are not getting time gaps, so we have no clue where he is. Should we try or should we all ride super slow and do our sprint for second place? After a mile of everyone conceding the race, I get more frustrated. This sucks. I bring the pace up in the group and get another rider to pull through. He and I keep hammering hard! No one else come through. I decide to attack the group. They string out and bring me back and then sit up. I try again, they do this again. Why race for second, let's try I yell to the group! Nothing. The strong man in my original break attacks. I decide to sit in and see what happens. Nothing!! Everyone lets him go. Now I am steaming. They just let him go with no reaction from anyone. I stew. Finally I had enough. This is not the smart move, but there is nothing to do at this point but either watch him, or try and jump across to him. I jump and put my head down. Now the pack comes. I am on my own for a bit but they eventually catch me. I am close to that rider though so I keep motoring. We get to 600 meters and we catch him. Then those that were sitting in attack. Six "fresh" riders get by and we roll over the line. I get a miserable 7th place. I am still stewing. Can't blame the SJBC rider. I would have done the same thing and taken the win gladly. I looked up his final lap time on Strava. He beat the pack's time by 45 seconds. I have to think the ref dramatically changed the outcome of our race…what can you do though? Sometimes, life just isn't fair…As you were.

Turlock Lake Road Race-45+ 1/2/3 2013 Report

Andrew's Turlock Report from the 45+ 1/2/3 Race
Teammates: Daryoush and Scott Fairman

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then. Though when you have searched for that nut as long as I have, it sure feels good to find it.


Daryoush and I start our day at 5:20am to make the seven hour commute to Turlock. Well, seemed like seven hours. Turlock for those not in the know is a place so distant and remote that few alive have actually seen it. It is a place you don’t go, unless you have a darn good reason. While most would not acknowledge a bike race as a darn good reason, Daryoush and I would, but we are strange like that. It seems there were 30 others with similar issues as that is how many lined up with us.

We had 72 miles to traverse over three laps of rolling terrain. Usually this course is not super hard, but the high winds make up for any terrain issues. Our strategy going in was to either make a break or get in a break. We had Scott Fairman with us too and he was tasked with protecting the break if we succeeded. Many attempts went but none were so far successful. Finally with a lap and a half left (about 36 miles), four riders got a gap. I knew one of the four was a very strong rider (Chris Courtney), so I was pretty bummed to have missed this. Others must have had similar feelings as two more jumped to try and bridge. I knew this was it and so jumped across to the two up the road. I had one guy on my wheel.

The four of us were chasing the four up front and were being pursued by the pack behind. We closed the gap on the front four to within 300 meters when our foursome seemed to give up. The lead then stretched to 500 meters. This was do or die time. I figured a match burning here made sense, so burn I did. Pulling as hard as I could through the rollers, we finally joined with the front four. Now we had eight. I knew four of the eight and they were very strong riders. This was the winning break I was sure. The eight of us quickly organized and started a rotation. For half a lap we drilled it through the headwinds and cross winds. The motto ref informed us that our gap was 40 seconds. Then it was 1 minute, then 1:30. You could feel the peloton's will break. We had snapped the cord and were free.

Cut to the finish.

3k to go, 70 miles done. Many of the guys were riding with heavy legs now and the few attacks that went in our group were pretty anemic. We spread across the road and turned the final 3k into a velodrome track race. Our speed was about 15 mph now. The first attack came from a VOS rider (Jan, who had just won the road race the previous week on a solo break with 3k to go). He is covered by Courtney and I am on his wheel. We get a good gap but then he sits up when he sees we are there. The other five come back to us.

1500k to go and 71 miles done. A Davis rider attacks hard and is immediately followed by a Morgan Stanley rider. I jump across but it hurts. I try physiological warfare. When I catch the two I glance back and see we have about 150 meters on the other five. I yell to the Davis rider to "keep going, we have top three if we don’t give in here." He hesitates.

800 meters to go and 71.5 done. The group of five behind us is now 50 meters back and charging. The Davis rider realizes his only shot is to keep going. He picks it back up and we hold the 50 meter gap.

400 meters to go. The Davis rider starts to die and the group of five is now 25 meters behind us. The Morgan Stanley rider attacks for the finish line. I see him start to go and realize this is it.

300 meters to go. I jump around the Morgan Stanley rider and give what I have left.

Finish line passes under my wheel and I have a bike length lead over Morgan Stanley. The squirrel has found the nut. Certainly feels good. Now I need to figure out where to hide this nut while I frantically search for another.

Andrew

Dave Mayer's Top Sport Stage Race "Report" (helps if you get to the start on time!)

 

Dave Mayer's "report" from Top Sport Stage Race- 35+1/2/3

 

In lieu of a race report, here are my top ten moments from the race.  If I haven't offended those up there with me enough, I apologize.  I will get you next time.

 

1) Andrew driving us to and from the event, paying for the gas, housing us, and feeding us.  What an asshole :)

2)  Steve's hairy legs.  Whenever I rode behind him I could swear they looked like twin Alfs

3)  "guest riding" in the 45+ road race after missing my start.  It was weird though - in the cat 3s they do a junior roll out before the start.  In this category, they test everyone's pacemaker

4)  Eating and drinking every last damn thing in Mark Dame's house

5)  Getting passed by JB on the time trial course even though he started 8 people behind me

6)  My 'reverse lead out' helping JB get 4th in the circuit race.  I did it for my country.

7)  Jerome and his regaling us with stories of a fugitive he once dated.  

8)  Jerome showing us his scar and explaining it was caused by exploratory surgery needed to find a toothpick he accidentally swallowed.  From now on, after all the stupid things I do I will have this story to point to and say "well at least I didn't swallow a toothpick"

9) Driving in Eric's M5, a car which has 3 more tailpipes than any car I will ever own.

10) The "Margs".  'Nuff said.

Top Sport Stage Race 2013-45+ 1/2/3

 

CoreTechs Team: Jeremy Wire, Scott Fairman, Steve Stewart, Jerome Nadel, Eric Saltzman and me (Andrew)

 

Ok, I have started to write this report several times, but my creative juices are just not flowing. I have nothing to "bump", nothing to offer in terms of entertainment. It could be that three races in two days and several margaritas and glasses of wine have killed those few brain cells that were competent enough to write creatively. So all I can offer at this point is an actual race report of what transpired. Well, what I remember transpired. I offer no guarantee that this is very accurate at all.

 

I show up to the race and park next to a large white van with no windows. The kind of van that the police routinely pull over just to check inside that no one is bound in the back. To make things a bit scarier, the van is blasting "Sexual Healing". Only thing missing was a bumper sticker with the words "If this van is a rocking, don’t bother knocking". Turns out that our very own Steve Stewart is the owner of this fine piece of machinery. I am already practicing my words for the news crews when they call for a quote: "Steve was such a nice guy, I never could have imagined him capable of that."

 

Race 1: 75 mile road race in Oakdale around Woodward Reservoir. Seems that Oakdale is home to all road races in Nor Cal. I have gone to Oakdale more in the last two months than any sane person should. Regardless, this is an eight lap race. If I do my math correctly that would mean each lap is about 24 miles long. Oh, maybe that is not right but it felt about that. Now you also see why I went into staffing and not finance.

 

Our team strategy for the race was simple. Get enough time on the one mutant in our race (Kevin Klein) and the one great TT'er (Chris Courtney) in order to survive the GC and come out with a win. Win you say? Yes, we were not going into a race shooting for second place. Sure, we could have done that, but with our very own active duty Army Ranger carpooling with us, not sure we would survive the ride home saying we achieved our goal of being "first loser". So we had to at least try for first. That meant we needed to figure out how that was remotely possible. After all, Klein could win by just riding off the front in each of the races and Courtney just needed to sit next to us and then TT our brains in. Ok, then the strategy became apparent and simple. Get in a break without either of those two. See, no problem. How hard could that be?

 

Our potential GC guys were Jerome and myself. Eric was not going to do the TT, Steve was too busy fussing with his musical choices and Jeremy and Scott were in their first race of the year. So, it was down to Jerome and me to fly the CoreTechs GC flag.

 

Lap 3 and I launch off the front. By launch I mean I roll off before anyone seems to notice. Eventually a Sierra Nevada rider looks up and sees me. He comes over and we have a two man break. I ride hard for a full lap taking a lot of the pulls as he seems to be breathing very hard. We are now out of site! By the time we start the next lap, he says, "I think one of your guys is coming across". I look back but can not make out the kit. I am torn on sitting up to wait or making the guy work for it. We ride moderately to give the guy some work but letting him come to us. With the rider 300 meters back I see that it is not a CT boy but rather Klein making his way solo to us. If there was one guy I did not want it to be it was Kevin. Now I had to think, do I want to stay with this break and go to the finish or sit up and hope that Jerome can get in another break. Not an easy decision. If I stayed in the break, I am sure we would have stayed away and maybe I get a few minutes on everyone else and I can take a second overall. Nope, I still had that car ride home with the Army Ranger and so still had visions of CoreTechs winning.

 

Side note; once Kevin reached my break, I sat on the Sierra rider and did not pull (neither did Kevin by the way). Kevin though started to yell and gesticulate about what a shit head I was and why was I sitting in now that he got there. I did not look or talk to him, but he kept yakking. We did one or two rotations and then Kevin started in on me for not taking long enough pulls. When I went to the back of our three man break, I sat up and let the two of them roll off. Not long after I was back in the pack. We then got a nice rotation going and half a lap later we brought back the two of them. Kevin was very pissy from that moment on.

 

Final lap; about 5 miles to go and a VOS (Jan) rider rolls off the front. We let him go till he has 45 seconds to a minute on the pack. We then all realize that could have been a mistake to let him go. Since no one was chasing him down, it was up to Eric/Jerome or I to go after him. That was the only guys we had left at this point. Courtney came to the front to get a rotation going to bring him back, but Kevin yelled at him to stop. "Let CoreTechs bring him back". I think at this point Eric was getting a bit tired and Jerome was now going to be our GC guy since my break did not work. I had a lap and a half of two man break in my legs, but figured I could bring back Jan. I went to the front and channeled my best Tom Rice. I sat on the front for what felt like two hours (probably 5 minutes) and went as hard as I could sustain. Finally I got tired and pulled off. I heard Eric tell Kevin if he does not help that Jan is going to win. Kevin said, "I don’t care, I am teaching Andrew a lesson". So, Eric came to the front and took a turn. I then came back to the front and gave another hour worth of pulling (about 2.5 minutes). We got Jan back to 20 seconds, but that was the best we could do. He won the race. In the final sprint Kevin got second and Jerome took third. I rolled in with the same time in 6th and Eric was right there too.

 

Post first day: Started with Margarita from the white van, another once we got home and then a few glasses of wine at dinner. Awesome! We sat around talking bike talk (doping, who could be doping, doping and more doping talk…). Had an amazing dinner provided by Mark Dames and his fantastic, saint of a wife.

 

Race 2 (Copper Town Circuit race): We must have looked like squirrels to the group. They chased anything in a CoreTechs kit. Every break attempt that went from a CoreTechs rider was chased down immediately. Eric tried once or twice, Steve tried, Scott tried and I tried but nothing was getting away if you had on a CT jersey. Kevin mostly chased it all down. They were however letting anyone else go and leaving it to CoreTechs to pull back. 2 laps to go it seemed obvious that no CT break was going to stick, so I rolled next to Jerome. He had a 11 second advantage on everyone but the VOS rider and Kevin from the RR (they gave time bonuses for 1 through 3rd), so he was our GC guy and I was his domestique. I told him I am going to launch my sprint a bit early (300 meters). I knew Kevin would be the first to chase me, so just sit on Kevin and wait till he goes after me. Once he does, come around him. About 1.5k to go a knucklehead (he could not ride a straight line to save his life) rider goes off the front. No one will chase him down. I don’t want to chase him at that point since that would blow our plan. I am hoping someone will bring him back. No one does, we all just sit and watch him go waiting for someone else to chase. He wins. Arrgg. With 300 to go I sprint and sure enough, Kevin chases me. Jerome is on his wheel and comes around just as planned. Jerome gets 2nd place, Kevin 3rd and I take 4th.

 

TT: Why or why are there things such as TT's? They suck. Not sure how I can say that with more emphasis…they suck ass (yeah, that is more like it). If my legs could speak they would say some really foul things. After two races and a lot of attacks I now find myself wearing a silly helmet and some lady counting me down. The race is five miles out into a headwind with small, sharp climbs. I roll out and blow up. Legs seize, lungs scream and brain starts contemplating odd things. There is no strategy, no teamwork, no camaraderie. It is you seeing stars and the occasional blur of a faster rider zooming by. No idea what happened in this "race" other than eventually I crossed a line on the cement and was told I could stop pedaling. I did, wiped the snot from my face and went back to the car.

 

After listening to "Sexual Healing" for the fifth time this weekend and downing another margarita, we eventually headed home. The "general" promised not to kill us on the way home for not achieving our goal. Overall, the consensus is we had a blast! And if your wondering, our strategy did not work out and Kevin ended up winning the GC with Courtney making up enough time to get third (the VOS rider held on for second). The team tried and we raced hard. Maybe next year we try different tactics, but as a bunch of old men pedaling our bikes, we certainly had some fun! Now I just need to order a copy of Sexual Healing in time to pump me up for my next race.

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