05/12/02 by Nate Loman
The Chippewa Road Race turned out to be another frustrating road race! I made a mistake and did not jump on an early two man break that ultimately turned out to be the winning move. Zack from Lake Effect and Jeremy Grimm from Orrville, went off but since they are from different teams, I didn't give them much chance of staying away. I wanted to race smarter since my legs were a little tired from the day before....and quite frankly the last few times I raced I was covering many of the breaks, so I figured someone else could cover this one. Also, there was so far to go on this tough, hilly course, I figured the peloton would eventually catch them (they broke after lap 2 of a 7 lapper).
Well, after lap three it was obvious that the peloton was a bunch of whossies. Ok, lets not sugar coat it...pucker on that word! I was even barking at them.. "come guys pull through, lets go get them, no one stands a chance unless we all work together..." - and so on. If we could have put together an organized chase we'd have caught them, but not enough guys would work. We had 4 Freewheelers in the 15 man field. Three of us (Shawn, Allen, and myself) were with the lead chase group the entire race so that was encouraging. (Micah was active early then dropped to the back) Anyway, it was Shawn and me on the front going into the last hill, I asked him if he wanted me to sit up going into the hill and he could launch off the front. He said for me attack...so we gave it a shot and I blew up. That was that.
In retrospect I should have just gone with those two guys and I would have placed at least third. Also, I think for the "sit-up" to work we needed one more guy up there...I did not see it happen, but one guy is not effective in a "sit up" - one cannot stop the assault. I think when I launched there was a group on my wheel... I think it was the eventual 3rd place guy that was on my wheel. On the positive side: I was happy with my overall race, we had three guys in the pack at the end, and (this piece of reflection has me thinking like a road geek) the three of us there at the end need to have this conversation about how to make our tactics work better. I still find road racing frustrating as it does not always reward individual effort. And, it seems there are many who talk a good game, but can not follow through, I suspect that their eyes are bigger than their fitness level. I suppose maybe I am one of those at times that can not follow through...I feel like I work as hard as anyone out there, and that is probably my problem. But I get an awesome workout and some good experience. The thing that bothered me the most was that two guys stayed off the front...we should've caught them....
Well that is enough rambling....but the next time I won't let a break get away!