Boulder
April 23, 2006
Derek’s race, photos of Derek’s race, and a video of Derek’s here.
Another fun day of racing occurred today. Rocky Mounts – Izze set a record with ten team members entered in the first Boulder Beer Race, put on by DBC Events. After the, shall we say, less than optimal strategy of the past weekend at the Larimer Road Race (of which I was absent), we had a team meeting with former US PRO champion Thomas Prehn. He gave us a number of strategy tips with the two more important being: stay off the front and be patient. We developed a race strategy of sitting in for the first three laps (of five on the 7.4-mile, 800+ vertical foot course) and then launching attack teams of two or three riders. Our illustrious captain designated these teams, trying to group riders of the same style together. After some shuffling we have the following teams:
1. Bruce, Scott, Brad (the “climbers”)
2. Matt, Chris, Bill (the “power riders”)
3. Kris Thompson (KT), Joe, Ed (the mutt group – all different styles)
We also had Shawn riding with us, but didn’t know it until race day, so he was a wildcard. Of course all this team stuff didn’t end up meaning all that much, but it was good to have a game plan. We were planning on launching continuous attacks until something stuck.
Here’s the course profile:
The weather was perfect for our race, but the wind would pick up throughout the day and the afternoon races were brutal. Thankfully, we went off at 8:25 a.m. under blue skies and fairly calm conditions. The field was large, for us. I’d guess at 60-70 riders. With 37+ miles to ride and 4000+ feet to climb, we expected it to be a race of attrition and maybe a pure climber’s race. We were pretty much wrong on the first assumption and definitely wrong on the second assumption. The hills weren’t that steep and the biggest hill lasted 4-5 minutes, so the peloton could roll over them pretty pick and the flats and downhills accounted for a lot more time than we expected, giving ample opportunity for regrouping before the next hill.
Quick Summary
Kris and Matt, once again, were the outrageous strong men of the breaks. Very impressive guys. KT stayed away for nearly the entire fourth lap and Matt drove the winning break up the last hill on the fifth lap. He led all the way to the finish, leaving him little chance to contest the victory but set up Busacca to get second.
That was a really fun race and I look forward to more races with this great team. Thanks for letting me be a part of it.
Laps 1 through 3
The first lap of this race didn’t see any major break-up of the pack, but an attack was launched on the first time up the Feed Hill. I think a second guy went away as well. The peloton didn’t react and we caught one of them before the end of the first lap and reeled in the second guy the second time we went up the Feed Hill. The feed hill proved the toughest test, as expected. I climbed the first hill coming back east in my big chain ring each time, but shifted to the small ring for the second, longer hill. Each time up the Feed Hill I was working pretty hard, but staying near the front, or moving up to very close the front. The pack was large enough, though, that it just strung out here and it coalesced as we rode across the top and down to the turn-around. After three laps and over 2000 vertical feet, we still had a very large lead group.
On the third lap I pulled up next to Scott, our best climber, and said, “You attack on the next lap, right?” He shook his head and said, “I don’t think this is a good course for me.” He was right. It wasn’t turning out to be a small climber’s race. It was a power rider’s race. No one would be dropping Scott, but he’d have a hard time staying away with so much flat and downhill terrain. He’s only 130 pounds and staying ahead of a 30-man pack is a tough job.
Lap 4
At the start of the fourth lap KT and Joe attacked. KT jumped super hard, too hard for Joe and he dropped off after a few hundred meters. Perhaps this attack team wasn’t well matched. KT hooked up with another breakaway rider, though and they worked super hard staying away. KT commented that this guy was very strong and did 70% of the work. He later said that he wished another Rocky Mounts rider could have bridged up and helped them out. Two riders wasn’t enough to stay away for two complete laps.
The peloton didn’t react much and it took awhile to catch this breakaway, nearly an entire lap. Taking this long to catch them, hurt the breakaway riders. During that time, I saw too much of Matt and Chris and at least one other Rocky Mounts rider on the front of the peloton. I wondered to myself, “What the &^%$* are they doing up there?” I had sent out an email last week about blocking and didn’t get a single response. I don’t claim to be any bike riding expert, but wanted to start a discussion about what proper blocking is. Here is what I wrote:
I got to thinking about blocking again while watching the
Amstel Gold race. If you have this race on tape or Tivo, you have a great
example of how to block. In this race an CSC rider
(Schleck) escaped with 10 km to go, or so. A chase group of ten formed behind,
including another CSC rider (Kroon). This CSC rider blocked expertly. He didn’t
do it by coming around the lead guy chasing down the break, like Busacca did at
As were climbing the first hill on the way back, over halfway done with lap 4, Bruce pulls up next to me and says, “We attack next, after this attack is caught.” This was different from my originally assigned attack group, but I’m out there to do what I can to support the team and Bruce acting as our captain here, so I say, “Okay.” Actually I was flattered to be picked to join Bruce, as he is a super strong rider.
Lap 5
Just after the start of Lap 5, we caught the breakaway and Bruce launched an attack off the front. I wasn’t right next to him at the time. I knew the plan was for continuous attacks, but I didn’t like the location at all and wanted to wait to the Feed Hill. A attack there would be decisive, I thought. Anyway, I launched from the other side and bridged up to his wheel. Bruce would later write:
“I think Bill thought he was in my group but he was supposed to be with Matt and Chris.”
I don’t understand this at all Did Bruce not know who he was
talking to when he pulled up next to me? Or was he just telling me that his
group was going to attack next. In retrospect this is what he must have meant.
He was just telling me the order of the attacks. First,
KT, then Bruce’s group, and then finally my group. If I had realized
this, I might have been in the winning break, but I was confused also that
when Bruce attacked no one went with him. He was supposed to go with Scott
and Brad. This was more evidence to me that I was now paired with Bruce.
Bruce and I had a sizeable gap on the field and Bruce led us across the flat section. I took over and led down the hill. At the base of the Feed Hill I expected Bruce to really turn the screws and was determined to try hard to stay with him. He took the lead and led for a bit, but then I went by, putting in a hard effort. The field was coming for us, though. We had worked too hard on the flat and downhill section where 90% of the field is coasting, yet we hardly put any distance on the field.
We were about halfway up the Feed Hill when
I was very close to the front now and immediately went into blocking mode, which means I was constantly second wheel. Primarily two guys were working to reel in the break and I jumped from one wheel to the next. We made the turn around and I continued my tactics. One of the guys turned to me, annoyed, and said, “Are you going to do any work?” “No!” I said. I wanted to say, “Duh! I have two team members in the break.”
A little while later Bruce rode up beside me and said, “Bill, you don’t want to be chasing down our own guys.” This annoyed me as it either meant Bruce didn’t understand blocking or he wasn’t paying attention, as I was never on the front. Plus, Bruce had just pulled someone up to within two spots of the front. We didn’t want that, as it would make rotating a strong guy to the front easier. I said, “Bruce, get off the front.” To block correctly, you better be following someone’s wheel and Bruce wasn’t on anyone’s wheel. He dropped back.
The two guys doing the chased worked hard and limited the gap. On the final hill, they were even closing the gap, but they weren’t getting much help. Either the rest of the field was shelled or content to just contend for 7th place. Personally, I wanted these guys to succeed in bringing back the break. If they did, they would be wasted and I would be fresh. I would be fresher than anyone in the breakaway as well and have a good shot at the win. But I wouldn’t work with them to chase down my own guys. Later we would modify our team strategy on this, but it was frustrating to just sit there. I played the good teammate.
Up in the breakaway group, Matt was having issues with one of the riders there, who apparently wasn’t pulling through correctly. They got into it a bit during the race and again afterwards. Matt was pretty irate at the guy, but I didn’t get it. Unless the guy was riding dangerous, he had no obligations to ride in any particular style. If he hurt the breakaway group, that’s his prerogative. It turns out he just didn’t know exactly what to do, but clearly he was a pretty strong rider. Anyway, this guy got dropped on the last hill and the peloton roared by him.
The breakaway group was all on the rivet on the final hill and the peloton nearly caught them on the final flat section. If they had played any fancy games, they might have been caught. Here Matt went to front and led the entire last hill and most of the way to the finish line. He ruined himself for a chance at the victory, but he ensured the breakaway would succeed. It came down to a final sprint and it was taken by the winner of the race last week, a guy named Peter Lucke, who rides for Louisville Velo Club. Chris took second and edged out the Miguel Flores from Boulder Performance Network. Matt took 4th and a SEAR/DR Horton rider was 5th.
Going up the final hill, Scott pulls up beside me and says, “Bill, you’re our sprinter.” It was flattering to have Scott, a superhuman climber, come up to me near the finish and make this offer. I'm sure this had more to do with me out-weighing Bruce, Brad, and Scott by more than thirty pounds than any prowess I have at sprinting, but it was cool for a rider of his stature to even think about working for me.
I jump on that offer, though, because I probably am the best man for the job, but I don’t know if the rest of the team knows this. I think briefly, “Where the hell is KT? He’s a good man for this job as well. Maybe he got shelled after such a long break away.” It turns out that KT was back biding his time. He was confused about how many laps we had done and thought we had one more to go. That’s frustrating, as he would have certainly finished very high and probably won the field sprint.
As we top the hill, I asked Brad to go to the front and bury himself. I don’t think he knew what I was asking but when a strong Excel rider went by, I told Brad to get on his wheel. Brad did and I followed. The Excel guy tried a couple of attacks here, but the pace was high and getting higher and they were shut down. The Excel rider made a valiant effort, but wasted himself and finished around 20th.
I also talked briefly with Bruce, who was near the front and always looking strong. I was worried that the pack was bunching up a bit and I wanted it strung on single file, if we had the horsepower to do it. I didn’t communicate this well to Bruce, though, as things were getting hectic and super fast. He might have already been giving all he could give. I followed his wheel until other starting moving off the front.
With four hundred meters to go, I was in a good position, maybe 5th or 6th in the field, but by now all my teammates were behind me. It was time to pull a Robbie McEwen and just follow the best remaining sprinter. I don’t know these guys very well and I probably need to start learning the field better, so I just picked the biggest remaining guy, a Louisville Cyclery rider, and got on his wheel. He and two other guys went for it with 200 meters to go and eventually it was just my big lead-out guy and another guy next to him. I was in my 11 at this point, but still sitting down and sitting tight on his wheel. I stood up at 200 meters, though, but stayed tucked in as I was still ramping up my RPM’s in the 11. They didn’t open up any gap on me and that was their downfall. After hitting it hard for 100+ meters, they were more tired than I was and when I pulled out into the wind and gave it 100%, I powered on by, winning the field sprint by about a bike length.
It was very cool to win my first field sprint, but it wasn’t to win the race or anything, so I wasn’t all that elated. The breakaway of six riders had dropped one on the final hill, so I finished 6th. That’s three riders in the top six. Not a bad showing.
Port Mortem
As you can see below, Shawn finished 17th and 6th best RMer. I don’t think anyone noticed him much during this race, but clearly he was riding smart, conserving his energy, and was right there in the front half of the chase group. The final order for our Rocky Mounts was:
· Chris Busacca: 2nd place
·
Matt Vawter: 4th
·
·
Scott Bilyeu: 12th
·
·
Shawn Pritchett: 17th
·
· Brad Fink: 28th
· Kris Thompson: 29th
· Joe Clark: DNF
This was a really good result for us, though we could have done even better. I don’t know why Joe dropped, as yet. Maybe he had a mechanical or just got shelled. Everyone else finished with either in the breakaway group or the lead pack. That’s strong riding on such a challenging course.
We’re still learning to ride as a team and we’re still defining how we want to ride as a team, but this race was great practice for us and it was very successful. Unlike last week, where we didn’t place a single rider in the top ten, we had two riders in the top five and three in the top team. We’re still at the front too much, though. I know Busacca likes to get to the very front on the downhills so that he has more options on the following uphill. This is fine, but we need to get off the front immediately after that. We should NEVER be at the front when we have a rider up the road in a break. We still were at the front during two of our three breaks. Either this is harder to understand than I thought or teammates disagree with this strategy. The team is great fun, but it doesn’t control any individual and I’m fine with that. Anyone on this team can ride anyway they like, as far as I’m concerned, though I don’t think it is best for the team, it might be best for that individual and I can definitely understand wanting to ride for yourself.
I talked with Chris Busacca about counterattacks and he had an interesting thought. He thinks it should be fine for a RMer to attack the peloton and try to bridge to the lead group even when RMer’s are in the lead group. I agree under one condition: you must be going solo, as a clean break, or just bringing other RMers along. If you find that the whole peloton is coming, you must sit up and pull off, then grab the second wheel, as any good blocker should.
KT
vs. BW on The Wall
The race was certainly fun and exciting, but the real competition of the day was the challenge I threw down after Chris, KT, and I arrived back at my house and I found out that I needed to hustle back to the start to support Derek in his race. I offered a free beer to Chris or KT if they could beat me up the wall. Chris knew he had no chance and hung his head, studying his shoelaces intently. KT is brash and confident in his short, power climbing and couldn’t resist the challenge of easy money, er, beer. We hopped on our bikes and headed for the Wall.
We rode together, but at a brisk pace out to McCaslin and up the lower, more gradual slope of the Wall. At the start of the steep climbing, Chris says to me, “See you at the top.” I responded, “I suspect I won’t be waiting too long.” Game on. I let KT lead the lower section and plotted my attack. I didn’t want to a wait until we were too close, because I KT has considerably power. I went about halfway up the hill. KT responded, but not for long. He was already working pretty hard. He probably thought, “Bill is staying here to ride with Derek, so if I head back right away, I can just claim victory and get my free beer…” Whatever he was thinking, the battle was conceded there. I kept watch for any last minute sneak attacks, but my gap was big and growing the entire way. I topped out very winded, but in plenty of time to see Derek stage for this race.
Derek’s First Bike Race – photos, video
A
couple of weeks ago, after getting back from skiing on Sunday, I told my boys
that I was going out for a bike ride. Eight-year-old Derek responded, “Oh,
can I come?” Of course. We rode the Boulder Beer course and Derek rode up
the Wall in his third gear, having some trouble figuring out how to shift
his 7-speed mountain bike. I told him he wouldn’t be able to make it all the
way up the Wall in that gear, but we’d stop when he was tired and fix it.
He didn’t stop. We rode the entire course and Derek didn’t have any troubles.
Hence, he decided to enter this race. The youngest kid category was 10-12
and they had to do one lap of 7.4-mile, 800-vertical-foot course. I told my
sister about this and her two kids, Brennan (11) and Kaitlin (10) decided
to ride it as well.
When I got to the start of the course, the kids were all ready to go and staging for their race. Parents got to ride along with their kids and everything was very low key. DBC Events did an incredible job with the kids’ races. They don’t charge anything for racers under 18 and the kids are treated great. The announcer makes a fuss over each kid who finishes and they have award plaques for the winners.
Derek was the youngest kid in the race, by two years. He had the heaviest bike with the least amount of gears. And he was the only rider who didn’t have clip-in pedals (nearly everyone) or toe-clips. He did have the coolest biking jersey, though: he flew the Sponge Bob Square Pants colors.
The gun sounded and the kids took off. Derek was last right from the gun and there he would stay, but this was expected. He worked hard along the flat section leading to the first big downhill, chasing Kaitlin in the distance. Derek flew down the hill, completely spun out, but losing ground to all the heavier riders. On the Feed Hill, he closed on Kaitlin and nearly pulled even before the top of the hill, but then she was off to the races again. I told Derek he was a hill climber and Kaitlin was a power rider.
After the turn-around, Derek worked too hard going up the first hill. He went anaerobic and started to really suffer. I think I probably convinced him that he was going to catch Kaitlin, but it was not to be. Maybe his disappoint with not being able to do what his Dad thought he could do coupled with his supreme effort was too much. He started crying a bit, from this combination. I felt horrible, of course. I told him that I was silly to suggest that we could catch Kaitlin and that I knew he would be on the podium at the end of the race. He shook his head, knowing he wouldn’t be, since he was last. I told him he was actually first. First for all the 8-year-olds. The rest of the field was home, sitting on the couch and watching Sponge Bob Square Pants on TV instead of wearing the Sponge Bob Square Pants jersey and suffering in a long bike race. He perked up and even smiled by the top of the hill.
Derek’s bike is so small that it can’t carry a water bottle, so I’d give him drinks from my bottle. He isn’t real comfortable riding with one hand, so I’d feed him from my bottle, on the fly. He’s just open his mouth and I’d insert the bottle and give it a squeeze. He was so cute.
Derek worked hard up the last hill, even getting out of the saddle to up the pace. He finished the race incredibly strong, with the announcer calling his name. Afterwards,