Westlake 5/6/08

First Westlake of the year. Dave, Chris, Tom and I were in the A race. There were about 200 SBR in the B race.

Dave and Chris went to the front during the roll out. I talked to Tom, who said he was going to play it quiet for the first third to half the race, I figured, I'd work that part, take it easy while Tom did his stuff, then come back for the finish and see how that would go.

At the start, RGF went, as the bell rang for the first prime. About 5 guys went with, including Dave, so I rode tempo on the front, leaving the gap to let them work. It worked out nicely as Dave took the prime.

We settled in for a while. I worked hard covering moves, but couldn't get into anything significant. Chris did get into one, that got off the front for a prime that he won also. By then I had done enough work that I decided to sit in for a bit at about lap 4. A few laps later a break went with Rudy, Batke and 2 RGFs. It took us about half a lap to see the break, and another half to decide we need to work to bring it back. So all 4 SBR went to the front and worked.

We pulled for at least 2 laps, with no help. The break was coming back, but way to slowly for us. Then Spin (also not in the break) started to "Pull" through... which felt a lot more like attacking since they would shoot out of the field at 2-3 miles per hour faster than we were going... and it happened multiple times with different riders. We continued to work though now the work was less organized... and we tried to convince Spin to work with us instead of against us.

We did pretty well to hold the break close at about 400-500m, but couldn't finish especially when we ran out of guys and RGF and Lake Effect started the blocking technique. We weren't organized enough to keep them out of the paceline. It wasn't long before the work caught up to me. I had to sit in and recover, cause it was really hurting. I would still move up, but my legs were fading fasts.

Eventually the gap to the break came down more, probably in part because they had been out there alone so long, and partly because people started to attack our field in earnest. Chris got himself into a few the moves. The last one, Tris from Torrelli jumped and Tom was all over it. Of course the field followed, since most of them had been doing nothing all night. Tris and Tom made it across, but the field didn't slow and the break was closed down.

We caught the break with 1/2 lap to go.... then the accelerations started again. I was contemplating getting into the sprint when the field accelerated again, I stayed with through the S turn... but my whole body went super tight. I felt like a towel being wrung out.... so without much choice, being off the back, I sat up and rolled the last half lap alone.

Overall the team rode great. Dave picked up the first point prime. Tom was smart as usual, made it to the break, though that same move also doomed the break. Chris rode fantastic getting into a few moves, got another point prime and finished in the top 10. I did a ton of work and hopefully took some pressure off the team. I felt good for most of the race, and count it as good training.. which is what Tuesday nights are supposed to be.

Props to Gary for jumping in the B break, and jumping out of that for the V. We can use those legs in the A races now.