Bryan Park Criterium: 2024 Season Opener

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26 күн бұрын

We didn't leave the long-awaited season opener with what we wanted tonight. Our team goal was to get me and our junior phenom, Ethan, to the final corner first and second and have us duke it out for the first leaders jersey of the year. Instead, we watched the win float up the road in on the shoulders of the young HITTER Nolan and his Miller School jersey. We mustered a strong but admittedly disappointing second with an excellent sprint from Ethan... what could have been.
We had some REAL competition this week with one of the best junior teams in the country coming to show the old dad squad what the kids are really up to these days. Coming fresh off stacking the top 10 at Nationals this weekend, they sure came ready to bring the heat.
For a junior squad, tonight was a masterclass on how staying aggressive can keep your team on the front foot. And when they sent an uncontested flier with 4 laps left, they gave a textbook example of how to properly disrupt a chase. Unfortunately for us, tonight was also a textbook example of how miscommunication and a lack of decisiveness can scupper what looked like a prime race-winning scenario.
Regardless of all our mistakes, Nolan was on a good one tonight- at least compared to me. His last 6-minute attack was BIG for any level. A quick glance at his Strava showed a 29.5mph, 445w NP effort for his final 6 minutes of the race. Get it dude!

Пікірлер: 9

@ThePaulRobertDavis 22 күн бұрын

A way too-long recap with zero proofreading below.... Our pre-race plans were as follows: Plan A: Stack the early break. Everyone near the front and aggressive from the start. Find the moment to establish a cooperative break with 2-3 Cutaway and no numerical disadvantage. Drive to the end.   Plan B: If the field is hungry, and a break looks unlikely, Ethan and I settle in for the sprint about halfway through. Everyone near the front at 7 to go and organized and pressing to the front to pace at 4.5-5 laps left. Danny, Cory, Johnny, and John will rotate until 3 to go, when Cory and Danny start emptying the tank. Danny would need to take it to the final corner before the bell lap. And John Kruegler would take it through the start finish and as far onto the back stretch as possible. The ultimate goal was to get Johnny to drop me off entering the final corner. I would take the fastest outside-in line. Ethan would take the corner tight to block the inside and we would duke it out for the win. Now here's how it happened: Team Breakdown: Between Cutaway-Blanchard's (us), Miller School, District Taco, ECE, Sweetspot and Carbon Racing, we had 6 competitive teams on the start line. Plenty of tactics to consider, but having the watts to back it up was the name of the game tonight. It was fast from the gun and potentially the fastest BP ever at just under 29mph. THE OPENING: Brent and Macon from Sweetspot sent a two-up attack at the gun- potentially a great way to anticipate the action, but Miller school had numbers at the front and lined it up in pursuit. We had John Kruegler near the front, I was about 15 wheels back and everyone else on our team was somewhere behind in the 60-person field. Alarm bells at the start with plenty of teal jerseys ready to counter. They did it right and used their numbers to put a lot of pressure on me and John, for the first 15 minutes of racing. We were both in some promising moves, but had to cover a lot of "set up attacks" too. Miller School's Nolan Church and I worked a move for a few laps 6 minutes in, but neither of us really committed, given that it was so early in the race and there were a lot of motivated riders in the field behind. Miller countered on cue, but it was still just John covering with 3 Miller School riders making the spit and no other Cutaway in sight. Alarm Bells were a-clanging. My big regret in this race was not reading the situation better here at 11:00. Right after Brook from District Taco just about brought that split back together, two Miller school riders attacked the split. John was on top of it, but I didn't use my momentum to sprint across when it was time.... As it was just us two at the front so far, I was worried about it coming back and having us both miss the next counter. Had I read the room a little better, we would have had 4 of the strongest engines in the race in one committed move with a great chance to stick it. When I saw Macon (Sweetspot's young gun) snap across too... I knew I messed up. I was too far up now, with more Miller riders on my wheel - a stupid time to try to bridge, but at least we were there. Ethan was in position to cover another Miller attacker, but got boxed out and wasn't able to latch on or get across himself without another teal jersey in tow- we called it off. THE MIDDLE GAME: This is where the race entered the middle game. Who's going to chase? Will there be a concerted effort to bring this back? Will this move get established enough that I need to get ready to bridge? Since we did technically have a guy in the move, we put some pressure on the other teams to see who was hungry. This was really dangerous with John outnumbered. There were definitely strong chasers behind for me to potentially get a free ride if I was smart, so it felt like an ok gamble. But John would be working like a dog up there if Miller was playing it right. Twice in this part of the race, it was clear that other teams seemed happy to race for minor places. I followed a great attack from ECE at 13:15, but he gave up the chase on the downhill because he did want to bring me across. This seemed like a big misunderstanding of who had leverage here. His team was not represented in the potentially race-winning move, he was within spitting distance of bridging, and he showed he was happy to give up a chance at the win for a sure loss. But looking back, I should have contributed anyway. The chase became more steady after this, so I decided to be more selective with my efforts and try to stay as fresh as possible for my role as sprinter on the day. Covering a surge into party corner at 15:45, I tried to keep momentum on the outside line. When the rider in front braked into the corner, I ended up getting pinched wide and bailed into the grass. This put me way out of position just as a prime opportunity to bridge was coming up. This happened again, at 16:25, as I was trying to keep pace with an attacking chase group. And AGAIN at 18:00, when I was getting ready to snap across to the front. A comedy of errors on my part. If only it was funny... When I saw Miller School finally snap the elastic with John, I made a quick effort to get across clean. Michael Nedd from ECE was with me, and we had a big gap with a solid late break ready for the taking. When I didn’t sense any buy-in from him, I decided to pull the plug and go all in for the bunch sprint. Cory, Cutaway alumni and frequent guest rider, bridged to and market the last solo Miller rider as we moved into the endgame. 5 laps left, we have numbers at the front, and I’m feeling ready! THE END GAME: Going into 4 laps to go. I was near the front following Brook’s wheel as he closed the gap to Cory. I wasn’t sure what Brook wanted here, but he’s got a dangerous 5-minute effort). As he eased up, there was a surge up the right with 1 Sweetspot rider, 4 Miller School and 4 Cutaway riders. We were all over it. I slow-paced back onto the group on the downhill through Party Corner. And it was on the backstretch that I saw Nolan get away solo.   Initially, I thought, “This is great! We have our whole team at the front, and 3.5 laps to bring back a small gap to their best finisher. This is just what we planned for. We just need to organize, hold our position, and do our jobs!” We made a lot of mistakes from here on out. A lot of which were positioning errors, but there was a good deal of miscommunication and misunderstandings on my part, too. What I didn’t think through was just how deep Cory, and John had just gone within the previous 4 laps. Our strength in numbers was compromised, and we really only had two guys fresh for the finish. Had I realized this, maybe I would have committed to getting Ethan to the last corner way earlier and sacrificed my result. We just didn’t communicate, and what came next was the result.   The initial chase was from Cory, who started to mark the move by attacking across. I called him off to pace instead. He had just made a big effort the lap before, so he should have been the last guy to pull first, though. He went so deep in these couple of laps, and we fried him here - way earlier than we should have. Johnny was on my wheel now and Danny a bit further back. We called for Danny to move up quickly at 3 to go. As he was coming into position for his first turn, he lost all his momentum with the Miller school rider fanning out in front after Cory’s pull. Cory put on the afterburners to keep it high when no one took up the chase, but that was everything he had left for the race . We almost sorted it out on the downhill with Danny moving to the front, Johnny repositioning onto his wheel, and Kruegler next in line, but we let 2 Miller riders into the train ahead on Kruegler here. Danny’s next turn was great, but the two Miller riders made it too hard for him to slot back in, and that was the last time he’d see the front. Johnny took over and did a solid turn through the start-finish going into 2 to go. Our critical mistake in this leadout was on the downhill here. We let the pace drop and Miller was easily able to jump our train and take a slow awkward line through the fastest part of the course. To add insult to injury, Kruegler got boxed out trying to overtake on the outside, and Johnny was left on the front, burning his final match a lap too soon.    This left me on the front with 1.5 to go, and our pace slowing for a third time in as many 3 laps. Kruegler took up the chase soon after. Danny tried to make it back to the front, but got beat through the final corner by another miller school rider. It wasn’t until the bell that I realized, I wasn’t going to be sprinting if we wanted any chance at the win. But I couldn’t find Ethan behind!   What do I do? Do I need to race to secure second myself? Is Ethan still in contention for me to lead this out? After a dew seconds of coasting on the descent, I saw him in about 5th wheel back and finally got on the gas: a 4th slow down in our super disorganized chase. I got him to the corner with too much work to do, though. He took the sprint for 2nd! A huge effort in itself, but we lost the race by a bike length- an agonizingly close margin. How many seconds, let alone bike lengths did we give up in that chase? One mistake less and Ethan could have been wearing the leader’s jersey.   ______  Alas, this is bike racing. We do it for fun and then go home to whine to our families all too often. Lots to dial down as a team and we’re here for it!