Hatfield RR 2019

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jraguin
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Hatfield RR 2019

Post by jraguin »

New race for 2019. About as flat as can be for a road race. Drove out there with Capt Cratty, and on the way out the rain varied from light to medium. When we got there, it was definitely raining at a decent clip. It was probably medium rain to outright torrential during about 3/4 of the 2+ hour race (4 laps, 52 miles for the 50+). We were totally soaked about 1/2 a lap into the race. Thought about quitting a couple of times because my eyes were stinging so badly and I couldn't see between the rain and spray. But the image of getting harassed by Jeremy all the way home kept me motivated.

I'm in the 50+ with Rich, Mike, and Doug. Warm-up ended up non existent because it is raining pretty hard. Although it is around 60 degrees, I still went with a fairly non-aero rain jacket. I guess I had a few too many spring races where I was shivering half the race and decided that wasn't worth it. My legs also felt like crap yesterday on the FMR so I wasn't feeling too confident.

The summary is that there are two main teams to watch in these races. Stedman's (former ClifBar) has the leaders jersey on (Schultze) and Scorpion has had some great results and clearly wanted a breakaway. So Scorpion attacked a many times to make a break, with Rich often going as well. Stedman's and a few other individuals would have none of it. I tried blocking a few times as well as chasing down anything that didn't have Rich in it, but no one would let a break go. I think once there was a break with 5 guys including Rich & Stedman's & Scorpion, but somehow they must not have been organized enough and others pulled the field up to the break pretty quickly.

Fast forward to last 2/3 lap. It thankfully was barely raining so I am now somewhat motivated. I am at the front with Dan Goldman of 545 and we are alternating leading at about 200 watts because we are basically lolligaging. I just want to stay near the front. 6 miles to go and Wisse of DRV goes hard. I leave it to the two big teams to chase but they don't. Wisse has a big gap before Scorpion finally comes up to bring it back with limited help from Stedmans. I contribute a number of pulls since I feel fine and figure my sprint may suck in my big rain jacket. We catch Wisse with 3 miles to go and things start getting antsy. A few attacks which are pulled in and probably with 1 1/2 miles to go and I get on the wheel of Schultze. People are exploding at the front but I am staying calm and in the top 10 wheels right behind Schultze. With maybe 400m to go a guy blows up off the front and unfortunately Schultze squeezes by to his right but the door is shut by someone else and I lose momentum. I sprint with what I have left and get 8th. Schultze wins so it was the right wheel.
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mfwestbe
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Re: Hatfield RR 2019

Post by mfwestbe »

I lined up in the 4 race with Cal and Emmanuel. It seemed a decently strong field, and for once I made sure I lined up at the front (I think I even led out through the neutral start for good measure)

Turn 1 and attacks were going, as expected. But no one was getting away. Our plan was to stay protected as much as possible, so I kept myself toward the front so keeping up with the pace changes wouldn't be so detrimental as in the back. In the first lap, Cal also helped bring back some escapees off the front, and by the end of lap 2, it was clear the pack wasn't letting anyone really go. There were a couple guys who went and got a gap, but out by themselves wasn't going to cut it. Cal and I did a little talking going into 3rd lap (we only got 3...) to stay on the same page. At one point I thought we were hanging out midpack, only to glance behind and realize our size had diminished and no one else was there.

Anyhow, kept at it and things did slow a bit before the final 1.5k. I found a wheel going up toward the front, and going into the final km, pace ramped. Cal said "here we go..." and gave me a huge pull up the side and I think around 500 to go I was in a good spot. I had used the first couple laps to pick landmarks where I could reasonably sprint from (which, as we know, I'm not really a "sprinter"), and kept finding wheels till then. 200 to go was 4th or 5th wheel in a line. As I was about to make a run, the BU guy comes blazing by, and as I started to make for his wheel, Park (of 545, who also ends up winning) comes shooting up beside me. I swerve back to avoid taking us down, which took out some momentum and stride. Still hammered as best I could and came across in 6th, which is the best result I've had in a while and even worth a couple upgrade points.
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JeremyC
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Re: Hatfield RR 2019

Post by JeremyC »

The 40+ was a really fun race, and we had similar conditions as the Pirate described in the 50+, except we had an extra lap due to our youthfulness.

It was myself, Busick, Burgel, Jacob and AJ. We bounced around some strategies, and we decided to go with the tried and true - attack relentlessly until people are sick of chasing us. Spoiler alert..... it worked (again).

Lap 1 - Many attacks, I got in a 5 man break for 1/2 a lap
Lap 2 - Many attacks, AJ got in a 2 man break for 1/2 a lap (or more) - He had the stealth light blue jacket on so no one knew it was MRC
Lap 3 - Many attacks, Burgel was in a promising/larger 6+ man break for 1/2 lap

When Burgel got caught there were still 2 guys off the front. I followed a counter-move to bridge, but the guys I was with gave up. I persisted a little and was in no mans land by myself. Busick to the rescue, he shoots out of the field like a missile, past me and bridges a LONG way across to the 2 guys. No reaction.

Next 2 and a half laps we're really fun. Guys would attack, I would join the attack, sit on, secretly hope it worked so I'd get a free ride across, but they would be demoralized by my presence and give up. After a while though I realized it was just me, what happened to the other guys??? Something must be wrong, Burgel has never gone 5 minutes without joining an attack in a race. I went to the back and only AJ was there, apparently Jacob and Josh both crashed. DAMN. I talked with AJ and he came to the front to help out.

Spoiler alert. Busick stayed away and got 3rd. (OK maybe not a spoiler, this is pretty much the end of the report) Coming down to the field sprint for 4th I tried to get away thinking people might be bored or lazy at that point. It didn't work. I was running low on matches when 2 guys got away. The group finally picked up the pace for the sprint for 6th and I safely surfed in for 10th place, AJ close behind.

Our tactics were flawless. There was murmuring afterwards of "negative" racing, but I have to assume they were referring to the 2 teams (Aetna and Corner) that had no one in the break, put in a weak chase, and wouldn't let anyone get away. Both teams had multiple racers in the group, yet only committed 1 guy each to the chase, which never had a chance. Also 545 basically pulled the peloton around in the early laps, chasing breakaways for no apparent reason. They only had 2 guys so they were done once the winning break went away. Very strange tactics.
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eboos
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Re: Hatfield RR 2019

Post by eboos »

4/5 40+

Having felt some success in the last few races, my confidence was up and I was ready to go. After reviewing race predictor, my plan for the day was to stick with any move that 545 Velo was doing. They had three members, and was the only team with strong representation. On the first lap, I stuck towards the front, and made sure I stayed with 545. A few times some others tried unsupported attacks, but they got reeled back in. At some point in the beginning of the second lap I think, I was out of position and feeling tired when two from 545 along with a few other racers took off. I matched only enough to get on the wheel of the third guy from 545 thinking this break wasn't going to happen. I was wrong.

I stayed in the front, but not first wheel while the third guy from 545 blocked, and others tried a weak chase. By now the rain was coming down pretty hard, but the road surface was fine and there was plenty of grip. At the end of the second lap I talked to two people who I thought would be willing to make a move to bridge, but when it came time for it at the beginning of the third lap, I launched, no one really followed and just ended up burning a bunch of energy with no gain.

At this point I knew the break was not going to get caught and I just needed to make the best out of what was left. Again, stayed towards the front, never further back than 5th wheel. On the final straight, I was feeling pretty tired, but there was 6 miles to go. I dug in and kept my position. 1K to go, and thankfully nobody really started turning up the heat. 500M to go, the pace quickened getting ready for the final sprint. I was holding even, but didn't think I would have anything left. Matt Halfrey passed me, and I didn't think that I was able to do anything about it at that point. 200M left I begin my sprint, pass Matt and another. 4th in field sprint, 11/21 overall.
djming
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Re: Hatfield RR 2019

Post by djming »

JeremyC wrote: Mon Apr 22, 2019 9:16 am Our tactics were flawless. There was murmuring afterwards of "negative" racing...
Negative Racing - what everyone else was doing when you fail to get a result
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Re: Hatfield RR 2019

Post by rraymond »

I lined up shivering for the P123 with Derin. The pace and neutral roll out started out pretty reasonably for the first time ever. But pretty soon attacks started flying and the pack was strung out 50 guys long. Everything was getting chased down for the first few laps. I tried my hand at one point and rolled off the front in the headwind section because no one was doing any work. I stayed away for a little bit with and NCC guy hoping that others would bridge up. But the bridging attempts were chased down and soon I was swallowed up by the field.

The race was very surgey. The pack was either sitting up at 20mph or drilling it over 30mph. But the rain soon stopped and the roads even started to dry up! Eventually on the second to last lap a break did get a gap which increased as we caught the women's field in a corner. The break turned out to be 9 guys and stayed away. I didn't realize how large it was until after the race.

On the beginning of the last lap Derin bridged up to another rider and they dangled off the front for a few minutes before the pack swarmed. Small groups kept rolling off the front, some staying away and some getting caught. So when the pack slowed up momentarily I jumped and tried to bridge up to another rider ahead. What should have been a short effort turned into 5 minutes as that rider caught another rider and began working together. By the time I caught on, there were 6 others in the group. I joined in the rotation until people started playing games. GLV jumped first with a long sprint and won with me finishing just behind for second in the bunch and 11th overall.
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cbusick
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Re: Hatfield RR 2019

Post by cbusick »

Pare asked if I pray for rain at road races.

I don’t wish for it, but when it comes, it’s like an obligation for me to show up and see what happens.

I went to wheel works on Friday to get some water proof shoe covers.  I ended up with the Endura covers because they have a much beefier cuff with a rubber seal that is supposed to keep the water from running down your shin.  Also, being a Scottish company, they must know how to deal with ‘proper weather’ .  In addition I ran a bead of Vaseline around the top of the cuff to add to the seal.  5 miles in my feet were completely soaked. 

There were a bunch of breaks early on, with Jeremy, Josh and Jacob being active, and getting in some promising looking ones.  I jumped in and disrupted bridging attempts, and tried to interfere with the chase being put on by 545 as much as possible.

Then AJ went up the road and got someone else to go with him.  This was the first break that the other teams weren’t killing themselves to jump across too. They were off for a while, and Josh and I even tried to help AJ out by missing a right turn when we were on the front. Eventually they were caught as well.

At some point on the first lap we changed directions which shifted the wind and my glasses fogged up completely. I took them off with the idea of tossing them at the start line, but I had no idea how far into the lap we were. The rain/spray stung my eyes badly though and I decided to put them back on. Then I played a game of how far down my nose I could slide the glasses so they’d stay unfogged but still give me enough protection.

The rain was pretty ridiculous. It was warm though, and I was comfortable. Maybe I’ll just sit in for the rest of this race and just pray I don’t get taken out by a unseeable hole in the bottom of one of the various road lakes, or by crash caused by the fact that nobody can see anything. I should make myself seen one more time by the president so he doesn’t accuse me of sitting on the back all day…

The latest break was brought back, with just Jason Yannelli off by himself. Cratty was floating about 20 feet ahead of the pack, which didn’t seem interested in doing anything. I had an opening up the right side so I cruised up and shot by Jeremy and started bridging across to Jason. I got about half way and looked back to see Andrew Tine coming up. I gave him a little time to recover on my wheel before flicking him through, and we settled in to working together. It took a while, but eventually we caught Yannelli, who latched on.

After a couple rotations Yannelli asked me “Will your boys block for you?”
“I KNOW they are back there blocking for me” I replied, (not realizing by this point Jacob and Josh had crashed, and it was down to just Cratty)
“Good. I’ve had them chase me down enough times before”

At this point we are 30 miles into a 62 mile race.

Tine surged every time he pulled through which I had a harder and harder time dealing with as the race went on. He’d do a very short pull, with me barely getting back on his wheel before he’d pull over and expect me to pull through. I did manage to pull through every time, but I also skipped a couple turns when I couldn’t close the gap before he pulled off. Yannelli was a beast. Nice smooth pulls. I maneuvered to be behind him in the rotation, which helped a little since he smoothed out Tine’s accelerations to a certain degree.

We rode into Hadley. Oh look, there’s a 1000M sign, and buildings and a 200m sign! Never saw those when I was in the pack the other times we came through. 2 laps to go

I can still tell you every rock, mud hole, log, jump from the O’Hill MTB race I did the week before. This race was not like that. My whole world narrowed down to pulling through then over to the double yellow and then accelerating to grab the wheel when it went by. Occasionally we’d try to look back to see what the gap was, but we’d just guess if the car we could see behind us was a pace car or just a civilian who’d gotten on the course between us. Eventually the officials told us the gap was 40 seconds.

Looking at the fly by the gap stayed at 40 seconds for the whole lap. Pull through, jump on the wheel, pull through, jump on the wheel, pull through, jump on the wheel.

10 miles to go. My lower back is screaming. Pull through, jump on the wheel.

8 miles to go, I’m starting to make Bill Turner grunting noises. Pull through, jump on the wheel.

6 Miles, we turn into the wind for the last time. This sucks. I used to tell myself that I can survive anything for 10K. I have serious doubts.
Pull through, damn, missed the wheel, there’s a gap now. I can’t quit, Cratty will never let me hear the end of it. I claw my way back on, only to have Tine say “no sitting on, we all have to work!”
“Dude, stop opening gaps with your pulls then!”

4 Miles, I look back, empty road. How is that possible? Thank you Jeremy.

3 Miles, pull through, jump on the wheel..

2 Miles, at this point I’m starting to believe we’ll stay away.

At 1000M I just keep a steady hard pace while Jason and Andrew are watching each other for the sprint. I just want to keep the pace high enough that I don’t get caught by the pack. I have nothing left to sprint.

500M Andrew takes off with Jason in tow. I just keep trudging on at the same pace. Jason takes the win and and I roll through for 3rd! The pack is still over a minute back!

1 Hour 16 Minutes in the break. 312W average. Thank god it’s over!
-Chris Busick
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peterkuhn
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Re: Hatfield RR 2019

Post by peterkuhn »

Great writeup Chris! Sounds brutal.

I can't help but notice we're missing reports from a certain category with results to write about....
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eboos
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Re: Hatfield RR 2019

Post by eboos »

peterkuhn wrote: Tue Apr 23, 2019 12:48 pm I can't help but notice we're missing reports from a certain category with results to write about....
:(
twetmore
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Re: Hatfield RR 2019

Post by twetmore »

For the wife and I, Hatfield started Friday at 5pm when Lane picked up our car from it's 50,000 mile service. She went to do some errands near our house, and when she returned to the car it would not start. The lights would not turn on, nothing. Totally dead. I rode my bike to the scene of the crime and tried to jump the car with standard jumper cables. No luck. We were fortunate enough to be saved by a good Samaritan with a battery jumper, which got the car going. So, much later with a trip to Autozone (where the battery was tested and we were told that the alternator was no good) to pick up a battery jumper and a lot of stress in our systems, we called it a night.

The battery jumper seemingly only had enough juice to get the car going twice, so we needed to be careful with how we rationed its juice. One start to get to Hatfield, the second to get to my Grandparents for Easter where we would recharge it. Happily we were able to get to the race, but if Lane hadn't gone to run errands after picking up the car we would have only discovered the issue the morning of the race and certainly would have missed it!

With all the extra commotion of the morning from needing to be certain that we could get the car going, we were running a few minutes late. I got to the start line with just a couple of minutes to spare, only to realize that I left all of my food in the car. So I went back to the car, retrieved my food, only to realize that I left my sunglasses in the car. So I went back to the car, retrieved my sunglasses, only to realize that the rain had stopped and I was wearing too much. I proceeded to rip the hat off my head during the neutral rollout, and shoved that, my gloves, and arm warmers in my pocket.

For reasons unknown to me, I was towards the front at neutral. As the race moto waved us on to indicate that neutral was over, I pushed the pedals a tiny bit harder to see what would happen. Dan Fitzgibbons and a couple other riders seemingly panicked and started sprinting to go after me, but I had no intention of doing more than a few hard pedal strokes and I burst out laughing, causing the riders who had not seen this to look at me like I had three heads. Seeing these riders react so strongly gave me an idea though: I could probably wear out the field by casually rolling off the front by holding momentum, and having the nervous field sprint after me.. I told AJ that I planned on doing this 'roll off the front' thing as much as humanly possible, and both he and Paul took advantage of the ensuing counter opportunities.

Aj, Paul and I proceeded to be present in nearly every move that had any chance of survival, and also did a good job of not spending unnecessary bullets. We rarely did any chasing that wasn't on a wheel, until a small group (including a B2C2 rider) got a decent gap up the road. AJ got on the front, and with the help of one GLV rider proceeded to pull it back within a manageable distance. I told Paul that when we got close I would attack, knowing that everybody would chase after me, and that it would be prime time to counter when I was brought back. We executed this well, but Quinn from B2C2 was a bit over eager to block, and instead of letting a lone GLV rider bridge up (which would have meant that MRC, B2C2, and GLV were all in a break together) he shut it down. Oh well.

Half way into the race Quinn went off the front. I made a soft effort to bridge, and the sprint to get on my wheel ensued. I shut it down for a few seconds, and did my best 'Julian Allaphillippe stretching at Strade Bianche' impression while pushing somewhere between 500-600 watts. The stretching feint worked, and Andy Muir, who was on the front, didn't realize that I was putting distance into the bunch. I sat back down really tall, still pretending to be coming back, and continued to push the pedals hard. The gap grew, I stopped my feint and got aero, and was able to latch onto Quinn. We went really hard for a bit, and saw a group of three chasing from behind that included Butcherbox, GLV, and Tate. We eased up a touch, let them catch on, and proceeded to build up a sizable gap. Once the gap go to a minute, it very, very quickly got to 1:40 and then 3:00, which I can only attribute to some extremely effective teamwork from AJ and Paul. Thank you guys!

The rotation continued smoothly until about 1500 meters, when people started looking at each other. I was very pleasantly surprised to not be marked at all here, and was allowed to be on the back of the bunch. Sweet! At Mystic Velo I heard that I had a reputation of not being able to sprint, which I supposed helped me quite a lot here. Tate was on the front, swinging right and left predictably like a metronome. I let a bit of a gap open up, and attacked when they were just hitting the left side of the road, knowing that they wouldn't be able to see me at all and I'd have just enough room to squeeze by them as they were moving right. I must have had 10+ miles an hour on my break mates when I went past with 220m to go, and the sprint was over.

And the cherry on the cake is that Paul took the field sprint. The dude is a monster!
Tucker Wetmore
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Jacob
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Re: Hatfield RR 2019

Post by Jacob »

Congrats Tucker! Strong and sneaky.
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peterkuhn
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Re: Hatfield RR 2019

Post by peterkuhn »

Chief mode. Good writeup!
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