Another Cleveland Canvas in the Books!

For some of you that don't know what my day job is, I work for AT&T Publishing. My responsibilities include selling advertising for AT&T Yellow Pages and Yellowpages.com, online Yellow Pages. Now that you know this, I won't need to explain it anymore. Anyways, we just finished the Cleveland Canvas that I've been working on since last September. I'm excited about this because it means that I'll have more time to dedicate to training and racing.

Like Matt O., I'm going to finally lose that extra 10 lbs that's been hanging around for the first part of this season. A little tip for Matt: Cut out the soda and eating those Big Mac's doesn't help either.

All I need to do now is come up with some witty blogs to amuse the masses.

JV

Westlake "B" Race #5 - A View from the Break

Last night I wrote about my view from the main field and the chase of the break from Tuesday's race. So today, I got an email from Mike L. and ask him how things were in the break with him and Gary. Here's what Mike L. had to say:
" This is what I remember from the race:

We were all riding as a group for the first several laps when an attack occurred by the other teams. I saw Gary mark the attack and I followed Gary . At that point we looked back and saw Team SBR in the front blocking any chase efforts. That would be the last I would see of the field. There were about 6 or 7 of us in the break (Gary, me, PDQ, Team Solon, Team Case Western, and the others were unattached (Rick Bennett was one of them)). From then on we were running a paceline between all of the people in the break. Gary and I were trying to run a continuous paceline but the others were trying to make us take the lead for a longer time by not moving up. This continued for most of the race at an average of 24.5 mph. With four laps to go, Gary started to attack the group and I was thinking he was trying to form a break away from the others so I would mark his attack. That is not what he was trying to do. He wanted me to get to the back out of the wind. I am still learning. It worked out well though, because every time he would attack we would loose someone off the back and I would have needed to bridge the gap. At this point I could tell that the others were better at shorter races and were getting tired. On the final lap the break was down to 4 and Gary told me to get to the back of the pack and he did another attack around the last corner. I hooked onto the wheel of the last rider and where I stayed until the last 100m when I sprinted around the other two riders to take second... Michael"

Thanks Mike for painting a picture of what happened in the break! Once again, great job Team SBR on Tuesday Night's Race!!!

Westlake "B" Worlds #5

Well another week has gone by and another Westlake Crit Race is under my belt for 2008. Race #5 featured 8 SBR Riders, a break, team tactics and a great finish for Team SBR. Here's the recap...

Great weather was on tap for Tuesday. To my surprise, Team SBR lined up 8 riders to contest the "B-Group" race. Joining myself was Mike L., Matt T., Dave Kovach, Paul M., Jason Rapp and guest appearances by Gary B. & Mr. El Presidente. Definitely a wave of orange and blue. The B-group was rather large with about 25 total riders though.

The first couple of laps were uneventful but there was a lot of squirrelly riding going on by some new faces to the crowd. As things started to settle in, a break of six riders started off the front. Team SBR had two riders in the break, Gary & Mike. The rest of the team moved to the front of the main field, slowed things up and watched for any bridge attempts. With the break established, I just sat in the main group and got pulled around for a couple more laps. At around lap 6, I decided to try a flier off the front to possibly bridge up to the break. Unfortunately, that didn't work and I got sucked up by the main field by the end of the lap. So once again, I sat in the middle of the main group waiting for another team to start working to catch the break. Talk about frustrating. However, there was no way Team SBR was going to do any work with two teammates in the break.

After another lap and after a few stronger riders took turns pulling at the front, Jason noticed the front of the main group wasn't paying attention. So off the front he goes. I'm about 7 riders back and with no time to decide, I jumped with him. As I came up on his wheel, I noticed that no one from the main group countered and I said, "let's go" as I pulled thru. Now, this was my first flier off the front with someone else. Even though it wasn't a break, I felt like this was a perfect opportunity for me to work with someone else and definitely push myself.

So with that in mind, little did I know that we still had 6 laps left and we could not see the break in front of us. As Jason and I took turns hammering, Jason says "We keep going until we catch the break or get sucked up by the main field. Don't look back!" Thanks for the motivational words because I was suffering. All I could think about was, "Pedal in circles, pedal in circles..." as we kept rotating around the course. The countdown of pain continued...4 laps...3 laps...2 laps...bell lap. Not once did we see the break. Good thing was, we didn't get caught by the main group either.

As we approached the start/finish line after our warm down lap, we finally see Gary & Mike and find out that they finished 1st and 2nd. Great news for Team SBR. Jason and I finished 6th and 7th respectively.

After reflecting on the race, I feel good about my performance and the effort I put out there. Yeah, I wasn't in the break but I worked real hard to try and bridge. Now I know what I'm capable of doing. Plus, this was a good race in regards to using team tactics. Great job Team SBR!!!

Stats:
14 laps/28 miles
1:21:00
23.8 mph average

...JV