Madera Stage Race
Greg White, Pro 1/2, writes about the March 10-13, 2011 Stage Race
The Pro/1/2 race starts on Friday afternoon with a 10.5 mile TT that includes steep rollers, some really rough pavement, and a 3 mile climb. There is always some debate about what kind of bike to use and what wheel choice to make. I think that the TT bike with disc and deep front wheel is the way to go because they have a huge benefit on the first half and don't hurt you too much on the climb since the average speed ends up over 13 mph.
I pre-rode the course and felt that the wind was going to make it a slow day where as last year it made it fast with a tailwind pretty much the whole way. That ended up being the case as my time was a bit slower than the year before but I ended up being in 23rd place which I was happy with.
The next morning we do the same 10.5 mile flat time trial as everyone else. When I got on the bike to start warming up my legs were really feeling quite stiff. I probably needed to cool down a bit better after the TT with a short easy spin. I was a bit disappointed in the TT I did because the power was pretty low. I'm not sure how much faster I could have gone if my legs had felt better; but I did a 22:45 which was 26th on the day. I was hoping to be around the top 15 or so.
That afternoon in the criterium my legs were feeling a bit better after using the TT to open them up. My goals were the same as most criteriums I do. I try to get into a break and if it comes down to a field sprint try to do well in the bunch sprint. There were a few breaks that I missed out on so I went to the front to help keep the gap close. One lap after going a bit too hard and too long on the front, there was an attack that strung the group out single file and I almost went out the back. I had to dig really hard for the next 2 laps as it was full gas and I was just hanging on. When the pace eased up, I moved up a bunch so that I wasn't so far back.
That is something I've learned over the years. When the race is a single file line or when you’re climbing at a crit like Santa Cruz, you have to waste a ton of energy to move up maybe 5-10 spots. Instead, just wait for it to ease up and then move up 20 spots. At Santa Cruz, everybody sprints up the hill, so to go past 10 guys takes a huge sprint, and then you have to sprint out of the hairpin and it starts to add up. If you can just follow wheels up the hill, then move up on the false flat at the top, you won't have wasted nearly the same energy.
So towards the end of the crit, there was a little break that had like 8 guys. I wasn't sure if the field was going to go hard enough to catch them or if they were even motivated to catch them. It turned out that the field was motivated to catch them, but just ran out of time. The field sprint caught a couple guys in the break but the winner came from the break. I was up there with 2 turns to go in 3rd wheel, but the guy on the front ran out of gas half way down that last straight and we got swarmed in the final turn. I finished 20th easing up in the sprint when it was obvious I wasn't going to be in the top 10. Everyone ended up getting the same time.
The next day we had quite an early start with the road race set to start at 8am, but feeling like 7am with the time change happening that morning. The first 3 laps were pretty tame. On the 4th lap through the rough road, Cal Giant had brought the break back to around 40 seconds when there were a few attacks from Marc Pro Strava and
Eric Wohlberg that pretty much brought the break back. The pace was high enough that light winds that had us sitting in the gutter before was causing some damage to the group. When we got off the bumpy road the field was down to around 25 or 30 with a couple groups behind chasing. On the rollers, Evan Huffman and Vince Owens (Sierra Pacific) got away and bridged up to the Hagans Berman rider who had attacked the break when it was about to get caught. Evan had pretty much secured the GC, but Vince was in 10th going into the stage so I'm surprised other riders in the top 10 didn't work to bring them back. The Marc Pro Strava guys didn't have enough people to just ride on the front so they were attacking to try to get someone up to the break.
As the group turned on to the long downhill section there was a bunch of attacks and counters. Another rider attacked trying to bridge up to them. I knew that he was a pretty strong rider so decided it wouldn't be a bad time to go either. Pretty much the field shut down and fanned out as no one wanted to take responsibility for the chase or had someone up the road. The two of us were chasing the group ahead of us when Kris Lunning flatted. This caused the Adam Carr to sit up and wait for us. It was now a group of 4 with the Hagens Berman guy not willing to work.
We were getting time checks of 1 minute to the field so I knew that I was in position to move from 19th on GC to around 12th or so. Everyone pretty much kept working and in the final few K I knew that I was the one that had the most to gain so I rode on the front until the final roller when everyone came by me. I was pretty happy with 7th on the day because I ended up moving up to 10th on GC. We finished around 40 seconds behind the leaders but with over 1:40 on the group. I pretty much moved as high as a could have on GC and am glad that I rode hard the last few K even if it meant that I would get last in the sprint because I finished only a second ahead of the guy who finished 11th on GC.
