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Race Result

Racer: Richard Gendron
Race: Trade Zone Training Series #4
Date: Sunday, March 8, 2009
Location: Upper Marlboro, MD
Race Type: Bike - Other
Age Group: Male 40 - 44
Time: 1:00:00
Overall Place: 10 / 75
Comment: Great Day for Racing



Race Report:



Tradezone #4 - Finally a good weather day. Temps were already in the 50's by 9:30. Once again I missed the cutoff to get into the 4/5 race. Wish I had gotten in. There was a Triathlete (DC Tri kit) in the race. He broke away early and stayed away for about 10 laps, only to be brought back. Somehow, he came back from that and sprinted to just edge out my teammate (Mike A) on the line. With a proper lead-out, Mike would have had him.

I had 5 teammates in the race. Our strategy was to "win everything". We designated a sprint team of Mike, Chris and Me. The other three (Chris, Tom and Rusty) were the big LT engines and would act as Rolleurs, bringing back the breaks and/or getting onto one if the right combination of guys could get away. The sprint team's goal was to stay hidden, and then move to the front to take all of the Primes (pronounced "preems").

Started out reasonable enough, but then on the first lap, we heard the prime bell. We had no time to get it together, so Chris got out in the wind. I made my way up in fourth, close enough to jump in if Chris faltered - he did not. So then we heard another prime on lap 3, here we go again. I got on Mike's wheel and he pulled me up. As we were moving up, Rusty yelled "It's not a prime". As we rolled past the start line out in the wind, we noticed a little girl, no older than 4 with a yellow cow bell, and she was just ringing away.

So after 2 bogus primes in 4 laps, I slid to the back of the pack for a bit of recovery. The pace started to get really hot around lap 10. There had been a couple of attacks earlier, but nothing would stick. I think our Rolleurs and all the big LT engines were cancelling each other out up front. The pace was fast for a March 3/4 race (26mph avg) as a result things got really uncomfortable at the back. With the peleton moving that fast, we were all strung out, so there was this huge rubber band factor at each turn. The sound of brakes followed by hard efforts to close up the gaps. Chris and I lost our patience around the same time and moved into the middle to maximize our laziness.

The WWVC train came together a little early. With 4 laps to go 5 of us were gathered together near the front - probably too early. Chris changed his mind as designated final sprinter and told me I was doing the closing. Mike was cramping, and Ryan and Chris G were looking a bit toasted from all the Rolleur work - That left Rusty to position, Chris to lead out and me to sprint - only we lost Rusty's wheel with two laps to go. By the time we got it back we were in the last lap, Chris in front, Rusty on him and me in the back - so I called it out the order to Rusty, who relayed the message to Chris, just in time for Chris to make the big move after turn 2. Chris pulled us up from about 20 right up to the front. I had to fight hard to keep Rusty's wheel, to the point of bumping elbows with my neighbor - definitely down low in the drops. Chris took us through the last turn and Rusty took up the lead - just as he did, I lost his wheel - he faded a bit left and I got pinched to the inside right. I hollered "COME RIGHT, COME RIGHT" but the speeds were too high for a drastic move, and Rusty stayed safe. After 10 ugly seconds and many wasted watts in the wind, I got in line fourth behind Rusty and looked for the window - but the time in the wind had cooked me. I sprinted with about 150 meters left, just as the rest of the peleton came flying by. I went from 4th to 10th in a matter of seconds.

No power data, servo battery died.