Saturday, April 12, 2008

Island View ala Gabe! Congrats Coach!

Congratulations to everyone who participated. That's what it is all about. At the bottom of this post is a slideshow of the photos John Goodman was so nice to give us permission to use. I went through his photos and pulled out all the Chicken Ranchers. Make sure you check out all the photos from the race and if you see some you like cough up some dough to John. That's what he does! Thanks John! Good Luck to those of you going to Ojai.


4/5's

KEN WINS!...........KEN WINS!..........KEN WINS!!

As you know from Dave's previous email, Ken Doyle smoked the 4/5's race with an impressive sprint that started w/ a lead out on the back side of the course.

Friday evening I stopped by Dave's shop to get a few pre-race bike adjustments. We talked really quick and he gave me the advice that we should be giving it "full gas" going into the final turn and in full sprint. So this morning I got to the start finish line and saw the rest of the CR's and relayed Dave's advice. As we were getting ready to take off, a rider from the other local team looks at me a says out loud, "I'm gonna get on your wheel for the sprint. I heard how you did at San Dimas." So I'm thinking, "great, just tell everyone to mark the CR'ers." Going into the race, a few of us had talked and determined the obvious, we have to be in the top 3 out of the final corner. The consensus was that whoever was positioned into the final turn would start the lead out. Whether it be me, Craig Foley, Pete Sproul, Brett Harrision, etc....

As the race got going, it was noticeable that the CR's were going to have a good showing. We were constantly near the front and looking strong. But mid-race going into turn #1, some knucklehead pulled a typical Cat5 move and tried to squeeze in between the curb and Craig Foley, who happened to be on my wheel at the time. The next thing I hear was bikes crashing and riders yelling. Craig was able to remount and get back on, but the bruises and bike issues prevented him from moving back to the front.

Going into the final lap I was somewhere around top 5 coming out of turn 2. On the back stretch, Ken moved up on the inside and I got on his wheel. We quickly passed the one guy in front of us coming out of turn 3. As soon as we came out of turn 4, Ken started his sprint w/ me on his wheel and Pete Sproul and Brett Harrision on my wheel. On the final stretch, I went to the left to come around Ken, but it was about that time that Ken kicked in the supercharger and held me at bay. At this point I became a riding cheerleader yelling, "GO KEN GO, YOU GOT IT!" The impressive part was that Ken led it out on the back side and was able to hold it going into turn 3 and 4 and finishing it off at the end. Both Pete and Brett then came around on the cool down lap to congratulate Ken and mentioned they both got top 5. We ended up w/ 4 of the top 5 placings. A friend later said that it looked awesome in the final sprint w/ a wall of CR riders spread across the road sprinting to the finish.

35+
In the 35+ race, I went into it w/ the job of helping w/ the work load at the front. As soon as the race started, the tempo was high, but not flying. That soon changed when a large group of 8+ riders got off the front and quickly put 15 seconds into the pack. A couple of teams were represented in the break, but unfortunately CR wasn't one of them. There were a couple of teams blocking at the front, so Craig Foley and I both went to the front to string it out and try our best to drop the gap. A few laps later Dave Larsen took a monster pull w/ both me and Matt on his wheel to help w/ the chase.

The break was finally brought back, and it as at this point that I thought I could recover a bit. But a couple of big hitters decided to give it another go, and we found ourselves chasing again. A number of CR's took our turns at the front, but the blocking teams did a good job of not allowing an organized chase. For me, after numerous turns on the front, my legs were shot. With 2 laps to go, I thought my work was done and I could just sit in and cruise to the finish in the pack. But just as I was moving back into the pack from a turn on the front, Dave yelled, "Gabe, go to the front and bury yourself." So that’s what I did. I went to the front and fried my legs to the point that I could no longer pedal. My work was done and I cruised in alone in serious pain. Thanks Dave! :-)

With a full day of racing behind me, I now have to try and recover, so we repeat the CR success of today.

See you tomorrow,
gabriel



3 comments:

Greg Knowles said...

congratulations Ken! That had to be fun to have a possey of ranchers to lead across the line.

Tom Anhalt said...

Good report Gabe...one correction though. Peter wasn't on your wheel when the sprint started. I was...and thought I was sitting pretty. Until you guys all pulled away from me that is ;-)

Oh yeah...it's OK if you say who that rider on the "other local team" was that said something to you at the start...I don't mind. It's all just racin' :-)

Tom

Anonymous said...

Tom, I'm not one to call anyone out. I just didn't want to come off the wrong way.

As for the correction, I don't normally look back when I'm in full sprint, so I assumed that both Pete and Brett were on my wheel since they came in behind me ;-)

Gabriel