Grant Erhard
5/3/15
The forecast was a high of 84 degrees, sun and wind; making for a fun fast race. The course at the Urbana Grand Prix in Urbana, Illinois was mainly through a park with 1.6 miles of winding roads with some small rollers and a slight up hill approximately 200 meters from the finish line. Our team of the day consisted of Nick, Shane, Matt, James and myself. We went into the race with a plan to go for preems, get Shane either in the break of lead him out for the field sprint. With a handful of fast guys we had a few wheels we could follow, and Sammy's P/b EGO with almost 9 guys we wouldn’t have to do a ton of work or so we thought. The race started off kinda of slow I was a bit far back and began moving up while a series of small attacks went as teams started to stretch their legs. A couple of laps went by and a preem was announced so I moved to my spot near the front to be ready if some one jumped. Sure enough about half way through two members of Sammy's jumped and got a small gap. I delayed to be the first to jump on board because we had a long way to go still for the lap and didn’t want to be forced to pull. A couple of random guys jumped but didn’t really commit to the effort and left a gap open. I took my time jumping around these two and gained slowly on the duo. The two Sammy's riders never looked back which allowed me to sneak up on them and at the bottom of the hill going into the finish, I went around them easily and was able to coast through the line. The two went by me committing to the gap so I jumped on board hoping for a free ride. I was not wanting to work with the two Sammy's riders until the gap was set and we weren’t being chased. But they were not on the same page about towing me around and quickly began trying to force me to work. Fighting not to work a rider got away, at the same moment the field was just a few seconds back but wouldn’t finish the chase leaving me and the one other Sammy's rider in the wind. We dangled for a few laps off the front till we were caught. My team went to the front and began chase. With 8 Sammy's riders still in the field they began to block and were doing a very good job doing so. I recovered and moved up to help in the chase. As the lead grew each lap riders began to grow frustrated by Sammy's coordination in blocking. I've always said that when blocking, you know you are doing it right when riders start getting mad. What sucks is that I was on the receiving end of this along with the rest of the field.
My team began to run out of gas in the heat, and Shane was sitting in waiting for the end. I went to the front and began to pull back the solo Sammy's rider. With two or three other riders from various teams working, and the Sammy's wall of bikes at the front, we were able to push the pace to bring back the solo rider, Dustin Morici. Once Dustin was back in the field we only had 2 laps to go. I was feeling rather tiered and began to drop back in the whittled down field; one, to catch my breath, and two, find Shane and move him up. I recovered quickly because the pace had drastically come down as Sammy's was at the front slowly winding up their lead out for their sprinter. I must commend their team coordination, they block well together, then immediately found one another for a lead out; true teamwork. Entering the last lap I was able to find Shane slipping off the back of the field as the heat had taken its toll and he was cramping bad. He told me to leave him so I began moving back up. With 1.5 miles to move up I took my time as the pace was still not very fast. Nearing the front I found a good line out of the wind and was able to coast up to about 8th wheel. With a Astellas Pro cycling rider Hogan Sills sitting 3rd I knew where I wanted to be. Sammy's however had their guy lined up near him and were trying to push everyone away. I pushed back, came underneath their blocks and found myself sitting just to the left of Hogan from Astellas. With about 250 meters left I began to wind my sprint up. But I guess great minds think alike and Hogan went half a second before me and was FAST out the saddle. I dug deep pushing harder and harder pounding over the hill pushing wide to close the door of anyone trying to come over me. But again a half second too late as a rider was able to sneak over the top of me. I kept sprinting and came in for 3rd with no problem.
Todays race was really fun. I went to Urbana to race for my teammates. Even thou things didn’t go as planned I was happy that I could do all the work that I did and still be able to sprint at the end. What this tells me is that as our entire team gets stronger I will be able to help them even more than I had hoped.
No comments:
Post a Comment