Tokeneke 2018

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twetmore
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Tokeneke 2018

Post by twetmore »

Today's race was both mine and Derin's first in a pure 3's race. Derin because he had recently upgraded, and me because my last two road races were combined with other fields. I knew who the players were and was looking out mostly for the other two guys who were on the podium at Hilltowns. The race started off as a pretty solid noodlefest. I spoke with Owen, the HIlltowns cat 3 winner (and total watt-monster-freak), and we decided to force a break on either North Hollow Road (the second big climb) on the second lap or on 181 (the first climb) on the third and final lap. After a few failed break attempts by people I was unconcerned with one guy rolled off and nobody decided to chase. He fairly quickly got out of sight, and after a few more miles people started getting antsy. At some point during these miles I conferred with Owen and the decision was made to go for it earlier to ensure that we would be fighting for the win.

As we rolled up to the 181 climb Derin was right next to me. I wasn't exactly sure when the climb was going to start, so I told him the plan. Not but 2 seconds later Owen put in a massive dig, and I told Derin to GO GO GO. After the first steep bit was over the resulting break was the Three Musketeers from the HIlltowns podium, a dude from 545, and Derin. We absolutely drilled it up the climb, setting the KOM in the process. 545 guy was skipping pulls, so he was dropped. As we approached the top of the climb I told Owen and Anthony that Derin was on junior gearing and asked if we could ease into the pace on descents so he wouldn't get dropped. To my surprise they were totally cool with that. Fast forward a couple miles, and Derin entered the hurt locker. I told Owen and Anthony that Derin would be skipping a few pulls, and we should rotate in front of him, and again they cooperated. This process repeated itself for the next 21 miles with Derin recovering, taking pulls, and then needing a break. He contributed as much as he was capable and the break steamrolled through the parcours smoothly.

Side note: at some point we caught the solo breakaway rider who made the decision that it was in his best interest to take a long, hard pull on one of the descents. In news that should surprise nobody he was jettisoned from the break at the base of the next climb.

At mile 59, as I was pulling off after finishing a pull, I felt some resistance, heard an explosion, and the sound of carbon scraping. Not necessarily in that order. Apparently Owen was half wheeling (tenth wheeling?) me while eating, and when I pulled off I took his wheel out. After the race he told me that it was his fault, which was nice to hear because he's a super nice dude and him crashing was a bummer. The crash also took out Anthony, so all of a sudden it was a 2 man MRC break!

I asked the moto what our gap was, to which he responded 'BIG' so I told Derin that our only priority was to get to the finish without blowing up. As we approached the top of the final climb Derin asked if he could have the win. We rolled through the finish, with Derin about a half wheel ahead. MRC 1-2. Success!

Edit: I should add that Derin picked up our cash winnings and handed me the envelope for 1st. Gentlemanly move.
Last edited by twetmore on Sun Aug 12, 2018 10:15 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Tucker Wetmore
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Jacob
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Re: Tokeneke 2018

Post by Jacob »

Nice job!
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KTeves
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Re: Tokeneke 2018

Post by KTeves »

Wow, nice work Tucker & Derin!
KT
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pace21
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Re: Tokeneke 2018

Post by pace21 »

Tucker = Le Patron

Awesome job guys
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Mkidd3
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Re: Tokeneke 2018

Post by Mkidd3 »

Whoa! Nice work guys!
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davidmccay
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Re: Tokeneke 2018

Post by davidmccay »

Outstanding.
Derinm1
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Re: Tokeneke 2018

Post by Derinm1 »

Thought Id throw my perspective into the mix as well,

Waking up on race day for me always has the same moment, how do my legs feel, and that morning, I knew from the get go that I was sore and my mindset going into the race was be conservative. So as Tucker said the beginning of the race was ansty and nervous with people not wanting to work but at the same time wanting to bring back and cover every move (me also being one of them). A few groups went away but were reeled in quickly as people didn't seem to want to work. Going into first major climb Tucker pulled alongside and said on the next climb Let's set pace and shell the field and I being the confused child was like Which climb? But before Tucker could respond Owen slammed the gas and it was go time, we ripped up the climb and then absolutely floored it for the next half an hour at which point I was chewing on my stem hanging on for dear life, each rise felt like a full gas effort and I just couldn't get my power up, enough to hang on but it was disappointing not being able to pull my weight. going into lap 3 the pace backed off and we all collectively new that we were gonna drive it to the finish and it was right about then that I began to severely crack and tried my best to keep my legs turning over. After the middle climb when I was choking on a clif bar I saw Owen swerve and heard an absolute gunshot as Owen swerved into Anthony and blew his tire, it happened so quickly and I was lucky to have just missed it. At that point it became, as Tucker put it, a two man team time trial to the finish,
I can't thank Tucker enough especially on the last lap as I was cracking at the seams he coached me along and we were able to go easy up the final climb and cross the finish line together with him letting me take my first win!!!
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cbusick
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Re: Tokeneke 2018

Post by cbusick »

Nice job guys!
-Chris Busick
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JeremyC
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Re: Tokeneke 2018

Post by JeremyC »

Awesome. Love the teamwork. Tucker what a great thing to do!
djming
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Re: Tokeneke 2018

Post by djming »

First and foremost - amazing job and congrats to Derin and Tucker.

My 50+ report in summary:
Largest field of the day with 57 pre-reg'd and I noticed a good handful of day-ofs that seemed to put as over 60 starting. Stacked field with pretty much all of last year's top 10-15 returning.
Best part of the day was planning with Rich to lead out the big descent on lap 1. After JDZ put an attack in at the base of the final "step" before the descent, 6 of us got clear and following Rich's wheel down at 40+mph for over 2 miles with nobody coming around us was a blast!
Despite a PR for me on the climb by nearly 10 seconds and after multiple attacks on the climb by at least 6 different people (including a half-assed surge by me) only whittled the main field to 20-25, once we passed back thru the start things settled for a stretch but then got very animated on the "front side" rises and into the causeway stretch.
I got off the front again with JDZ for a nice little bit on the first part of the back side hills but we really needed 1 or 2 more with the power remaining in the field and we were shut down after the 2nd "step" of the long backside climb.
Then less than 10 minutes later I went from feeling very controlled to a sudden cramp, then being spit out the back of the main field as a big surge went and then desperately trying to work with 2 others to (unsuccessfully) latch back on. While I didn't blow up, the final climb was almost 2 minutes slower than the first time up. My mantra simply became "don't be last of the main field", which I was successful by 2 places...
Last edited by djming on Mon Aug 13, 2018 8:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Dave Mingori
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Re: Tokeneke 2018

Post by rraymond »

It seems like every week I get to write "this was the longest race I've ever done" and Sunday was no exception at 92 miles. I was super sore from hiking the Presidential Range 2 days before with Roy so I hoped the more gradual gradients would allow me to get draft and not get dropped instantly.

It seemed like attacks started before we were even done with neutral roll out or maybe my legs were just that tired. Anyways 2 guys (ccap and community) get away at some point and build up a 3+ minute gap. I sit comfortable in my favorite tail gunning position. 2 laps go by and yay I haven't been dropped yet!

I did my best to let a gap open on the descents so that when the next climb started I could carry my speed and momentum into the pack and then slowly sag my way to the back again allowing me to do little to no pedaling on the small rolling climbs.

On the 3rd lap a few people got shelled including the community guy from the break. I managed to stay with but knew my time was short. Around mile 80 on the big climb in the middle of the course I finally got dropped as the pace picked up substantially and the field splintered. Turns out I got 6th in the cat 2s and am extremely happy with how I rode the race.

Great to hear about the cat 3 race domination and a big shout out to Tucker and Lane for the post race food!
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PJ McQuade
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Re: Tokeneke 2018

Post by PJ McQuade »

That course is no joke, impressive ride fellas.
To climb steep hills requires a slow pace at first.
-Shakespeare
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peterkuhn
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Re: Tokeneke 2018

Post by peterkuhn »

class move. Great rides all.
djming
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Re: Tokeneke 2018

Post by djming »

twetmore wrote: Sun Aug 12, 2018 9:21 pm Edit: I should add that Derin picked up our cash winnings and handed me the envelope for 1st. Gentlemanly move.
Wise beyond his years.
peterkuhn wrote: Wed Aug 15, 2018 9:50 am class move. Great rides all.
C'mon Peter, you were in an open cat 4 field. Surely something interesting occurred...
Dave Mingori
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peterkuhn
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Re: Tokeneke 2018

Post by peterkuhn »

djming wrote: Wed Aug 15, 2018 2:10 pm
peterkuhn wrote: Wed Aug 15, 2018 9:50 am class move. Great rides all.
C'mon Peter, you were in an open cat 4 field. Surely something interesting occurred...
I don't have time this week to do a write-up for this one but here is a pictorial representation

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JeremyC
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Re: Tokeneke 2018

Post by JeremyC »

You've outdone yourself.
fowleezy
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Re: Tokeneke 2018

Post by fowleezy »

lmao
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Mkidd3
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Re: Tokeneke 2018

Post by Mkidd3 »

Briliant
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Jacob
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Re: Tokeneke 2018

Post by Jacob »

I still feel sorry for Gary.
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