The Fallen Leaf RR

We had a field of 8 today, and I LIKED that it was 42 flat miles. We rode a good, hard pace, with most women taking turns at the front. I knew early on it would end in a field sprint. Pascal made things interesting many times, attacking from the back. I chased her down a lot; Wendy did, too. SHC women chased down almost every breakaway attempt. Once when Wendy led the chase, I called her off. She had just pulled. I didn’t want her to kill herself, and I felt it was too early. I wanted Pascal to burn herself out. But then Wendy started talking about how Pascale had been training with guys, and was getting stronger. So I second-guessed myself and announced to the ladies we were going to chase her down after all.

So the race went, with a number of attacks, almost always by Pascale. I did like the counter attack that Cycledots threw in. Yep, I was the one at the front, having just chased down Pascale, so I had to expend more energy to shut that one down. While it was fun to sprint, I was worried about what this would mean for the final sprint, the one that would really count. I told myself that the others would be hurting, too, and my legs were feeling just fine.

The last lap, I finished my pull leading into the last turn. A car was waiting there, which forced us to slow considerably. I came off, and pretty quickly the speed started building. Crud, I wanted a leisurely pace before the final sprint! Then Amy ended up at the front. Unlike the guys, we had never talked strategy about one of us leading someone else out. I’m just not ready to ask my teammates to do that; or to make the assumption that I’m going to be the strongest sprinter who should be led out. Well, we couldn’t have done better if we HAD planned it. Amy took a really good, long, hard pull, riding along the right side of the road. The speed was fine for me; but I was towards the back of the pack. I managed to work my way up to her, so I was right on her wheel. She stayed up front far longer than she needed to, and I knew she was sacrificing herself.

When we were maybe 200 meters from the finish, she was far enough from the edge of the pavement I knew I had room to slip through, and begin the sprint I thought I’d be able to hold. I shouted once that I was coming up on her right. She held a nice, straight line, and I asked my legs for everything they had left. I stood, hammered, felt like I was getting away, but I knew an answering sprint would be coming around Amy’s left side. As I approached the line, I knew I couldn’t finish the sprint standing. I sat back down for the leverage I needed to keep my cadence up. I couldn’t hear anyone near me, but I was worried. Someone could still be building speed, and I had hit my maximum. Fortunately, it was enough.

This was a great note on which to end my first racing season. Amy, thanks for a great leadout. Wendy, thanks for playing with me all season. We SHC women should be able to do some serious damage next year!

This was my first attempt at this race. Was a little worried about the terrain, given it was on part of the State Road Race Course. But as advertised was rather flat. Weather was a little chilly, and overcast, with a steady wind.
Shari, Amy and I just wanted to work together and finish together. Our plan was not to let anyone go. After the first lap there were only 7 women left in the group. We all worked together in a paceline, taking rather equal turns for a race. There were the occassional attacks, which Shari, Amy and I chased down. No-one else had any team-mates in the group.
I didn't even try for the primes, I have learned I don't sprint very well. I was toward the back of the pack on the finishing straight, to start. I worked my way up to Shari and Amy. We really hadn't discussed a race plan, we just wanted to have some fun. Amy ended up being a wonderful lead out. Shari sprinted beautifully, and I thought I had third. But, they used these new timing chips, it came down to the line. I missed third by 7 one thousandths of a second. I think that is just not good to know that it was just that close. I need to work on throwing my bike at the finish line...
To Amy and Shari: This has been a great season. I am looking forward to training and racing next season with you. Thanks for your support and encouragement.

Really a fun race to do! My hats off to the Cycle Dots for putting on this event. The team did an execellent job of covering "ALL" the breaks. We did have two Savages in the winning group of eight riders. Mitch popped off, but he was very active all day. It's to bad that only three guys did all the work while the rest just sat on. I took the field sprint.

work hard... pull back break.. see chris fizzle.. pull back break... cramp

The team worked well together today. We had someone in every break and dictated the pace. Rich got abused doing too much work in the break away that stayed away. Unfortunately there were already 7 people up the road so no chance of me getting any points.

On the last lap, Joe lead me into the last turn and pulled for some time. Randy tried to come up and take the pull from Joe but didn't have enough to get up there. Woody came up on the other side of me shortly thereafter and said "let's go" so we went. Then we quickly realized it was WAY TOO EARLY. we both died and rolled across the line.

Sorry guys, you worked you hearts out for me and I couldn't deliver. I can't exactly chase down a teammate in a break though.

Great day of racing! Savage Hill did a great job of controlling the field once we got a man in the winning break, except for one pair of riders that bridged across without a SH tag-along (This was a big mistake).

I had a fun race chasing down breaks and attempting one myself early on. I was joined by Blair and someone from Breakaway but we weren't able to hold off the field. Blair and I attempted another break from the field on the final stretch, again with a Breakaway rider, but, alas, it was not meant to be. Still, it was not a bad result for SH and it was a great way to end the season - with a hard ride (over 24mph avg) and lots of action throughout the race.

Can't wait till next season!

It was good to see Woody back racing. May he have many happy returns starting with Shabobolee which is only four months away.
And conversely with that unsettling fact, why the heck would anyone in their right mind still want to race in October? Because the changing leaves are less purdy to look at than some smelly guy's arse? Because we all want at least one more opportunity to crash and spend the off-season healing from road rash or worse? Because of the points? Well, I guess I have four months to ponder. And why have the race be flat as a pancake when some decent hills are within spittin distance?
I instigated three times and the third time drew a successful break. Successful for those who followed me, cause my insufficient warm-up or prior efforts at breaks or a combination of both resulted in the dire desire to back off and rejoin the main group. The effort level in the main group was one-third of the level necessary to maintain a place in the break. Another answerless phenomenon to ponder on during the four month break. Kudos to Cycle-Dots for a well run race.

Well this was my first 3-4 race so I pretty much played the grunt. The harvest time allergies were acting up so after one good pull chasing down one guy trying to bridge, I was pretty cooked. As Jim mentioned I tried to pull for him at the end but all I managed to do was blow myself up and straggled across the finish line behind the main pack.

Meh...