RATL 4 - 5/12/2007

Last week of the Summit Freewheelers Race At The Lake series, and the SBR team has been doing really well. With the addition of Ray to the cat 4 team, we've got a total of 6 top fives in the three weeks of racing so far with lots of team work to pull this off. We had a lot of strategy talk this week, with some confidence that we can execute our plans.

This week, we've got Gary, Rick, Jason, Jeff, Pete S., Ray and myself. I'm confident we will be controlling and making the race. StarkVelo showed up with at least 6, and Summit had a typically large presence. The plan is to let the early stuff go, and get to work at about lap 3. We've got the line up planned out with Ray going first, so he can get warm, then committing more and more effort and people on each successive attack.

So we had the typical parking lot flyer out there for the first lap or so. The boys are all near the front and the guy comes back by the second lap. Heading to the line on lap three and Ray is on the right, as two Stark guys go up the left. Gary and Rick both see it, and Rick yells for someone to get on it. Ray doesn't go... but Gary is all over it. I figure they'll be back and the timing is right, so we block. A Summit bridges, and the break is 4... 2 Stark, 1 Summit, and 1 SBR.

We've got some help with the block as Stark sends a couple up to the front. Summit also blocks... or at least does not actively chase, and the break is set. With the three main teams represented up the road, it's not long before they've got 20 seconds.

An Orrville and UMPC (I think) rider come up to work, both are lone representers of their team... I just sit on their wheel whenever they are up front. The UMPC rider does most of the work. no one else is interested. Then Orrville guy trys to bridge, alone.... for three laps. It's ugly to watch knowing that he will not make it. He basically kills himself in the attempt... it's the last we saw of him.

Before the race, I gave Dave K, our racing cat 5 team mate, the job of Director Sportif... he's to give indications of the gap size. If we're in a break, tell us what the gaps are... and he was stellar. At the beginning, he was calling the break as we passed... I waved that off, and he started the hand signals. Very nice. If people were paying attention, they'd know... if not, we weren't giving it away. Even some of the guys paying attention were getting the numbers wrong.

So, the laps tic off.... the gap is at 15 seconds, 25 seconds... stabilizes. The whole time I'm thinking, if Gary comes off this, we have to bring it back, and I communicate to the new plan to our guys. I know Gary is strong, and he's got a real nice finish kick, I'm not sure how much he's working as I can see him on the front when I can see the break. Trust your team mate, until he proves otherwise though... so we continue to actively block. Jason, Pete, Rick, Ray and I are all over everything.

There was only one pull by Stark that seemed to do anything to pull the break back. I think the guy was just getting excited as he came up the hill at the same time the UMPC rider was fading back. I jumped on his wheel, then instructed the guy to slow it down... So slow pel, and the gap opened to 45seconds with 6 to go.

45 seconds! Now what do we do... I figure the break is pretty well established, and I start talking to Ray about another attack to totally kill the group. I'm thinking both of us can go, but he's hesitant, thinking it'll just pull the group along. I think we can jump hard enough to open a gap, and have the other guys block and kill any followers. This would help us get away for the remaining spots, or if the does break comes back, it will give us a new break already established.

We're still discussing with 5 to go, and a Stark "attacks" at the top of the hill.. attacking on the downhill is not very effective. I think it was supposed to be a bridge move, but it does nothing but pull the field and cut the gap considerably as the field was all over it. And the guy continued his attempt, much to the chagrin of his team mates. As the attack ramps up, I tell Ray it's time, and I think he agreed. I'm pretty sure this pull cut the gap in half.

Next time up the hill, some guy behind us yells to the whole field.... "That break is gone, now is when Summit, Stark and SBR should start attacking again." So I bring out the cattle prod and convince Ray to go NOW! Ray, Attack! Now, Ray, go NOW!!

I thought about going with, but I also knew that I would probably cause the same reaction that the Stark guy did... I know I had some shadows today, and I figured one guy had a chance. Ray can time trial as he's already proven at Presque Isle, so he goes about 3/4ths of the way up the hill. He does cause a reaction, and I call for Pete to cover the first surge of guys, Jason gets on another and we effectively squashed all follows and blocked the group back down.

Ray took a lap and a half to make the bridge... for a while it looked liked he was stuck, and I thought he wouldn't make it, but it worked. The break looked to be coming back, and Ray joined right in... now I liked the numbers game much better. 2 Stark, 2 SBR and a Summit. With any luck, Stark had been working like crazy to establish the break, and we could now use Ray's "freshness" to get some better placings. Hopefully 1/2.

All the fun up front, and we're 1 lap to go before you know it. There is another jump from the UMPC guy over the top of the hill, and Rick was right on it, totally deflating this guy. Rick stayed there for the remainder of the lap.

Coming around the last bend, we could see the break playing the finishing games. The Summit guy had attacked the break with one to go... blew himself up. I saw Gary jump about 200m BEFORE the bridge... wicked long sprint, that had to be about 600m. I thought they were doing the multiple attack thing. I couldn't see the rest of what happened as we came into our finish. I jumped as we crossed the bridge and got a nice gap, and just gauged my efforts, constantly looking back, to take the field for sixth. Rick held on for ninth.

At the top, I first saw Gary holding up the one finger! So SBR got the win, but who? I assumed it was Ray since I saw Gary jump really early, and he was the first guy we came up on... but no! Gary won with a 600m plus sprint! The dude is a stud to pull it off from there!

I think Ray was too busy watching Gary's beautiful sprint or just isn't used to this course yet, but my guess is the second stark just opened a gap for the first and that took Ray out of second place. So it was Gary (SBR), Stark, Ray (SBR), Stark... the Summit held on for fifth. I saw him as I was coming up the finish, but no way were we close enough for me to get him.

I've never been in a cat 4 race that has been this tactical. The teams all worked like teams. I honestly believe it was SBR that did the work to cement the breaks chances with our blocking. Sending Ray on the bridge with 4 to go worked out beautifully to take the pressure off of Gary going against 2 Starks, and free him up to go for the win. And the team got 3 placed in the money (top 7), and 4 in the top 10.

Everyone worked for the team goals. The whole team was actively participating in make this race... again an outstanding job of team racing. I had quite a few comments on how well Snakebite was racing as a team, which has been one of my main goals this season. I love it when a plan comes together... even if it's not actually the plan that we planned.

Overall in RATL we took 8 of 20 top five places, which is more than any other team attending. We were the only team to get two wins, and one of the most aggressive teams even if our numbers were not in our favour. Very nice job team.