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