Strava: http://app.strava.com/rides/1105907
GC (legacy for non-conformist): http://connect.garmin.com/activity/104154096
Being that we left from the parking lot of the at 9:40 PM, let's get right to the race talk, shall we?
Today, the plan in general was to not let team Sho-Air dictate the race results like last week where we were caught with out pants down. With us showing up in more numbers, that's EXACTLY what we did. We probably could align better with what we plan to do more, but one never knows how these races are going to go down. Despite this, I'm pretty sure they'll remember us for the next outing. What's funny is that the guy who stages the race outed us and told Sho-Air that there's another team (didn't know our name but referred to us as the team in a black kit) coming for them. Can you say "foreshadowing?"
There were six of us out this afternoon with this being Todd's and Seon's initial outing. For the most part, we had guys marking the point leader from the front (Vince and Todd), from nearby (me), and from the rear (Shannon, Mitchell and Seon). There were attempts in breaking away, but all of them were pretty much neutralized.
Todd, despite his first outing, represented in BAM fashion. I think he actually even went after someone who took off for the first prime. Shannon and I worried a little about him, but Todd is legit to crit. He never faded, and now can't wait for the next race. In fact, I think if he had lights for his bike, he probably would still be out there!
Shannon saw how the race was going this week, and took 2 stabs at breaking away. Stab 1, he offered Scott (point leader) a draft but got refused. When he broke the 2nd time, no one followed thinking it would turn out the same. In the meantime, Todd and Vince started managing the tempo of the group from the front, while I watched Scott from nearby. This allowed Shannon to work with a non-conformist Sho-Air guy (James) and keep the breakaway for the rest of the race...and there was still 4-5 laps to go!
With Shannon up front, we never wanted to lead anyone up to him, so we absolutely flipped the script on Sho-Air giving them a taste of their own medicine. Needless to say, I don't think they were too happy about it.
We did try to set up the last lap for a leadout in the chase group, but it got a little chaotic as we neared the bottom of the track. Vince and Todd were there, but I went after others who were already starting to bring the pace up as we neared the turn at the bottom. After the 3rd to the last turn, things got even more chaotic where someone actually went down right in front of me. Thankfully, we were all able to avoid the guy.
Shannon ended up getting #2 from his breakaway, which was definitely an awesome team effort. Of course, he says he would have liked for us to go with him, but we did exactly what we needed to do for this race. We'll do something different for the next one for sure, but being able to give the other team a dose of their own medicine was just what the doctor ordered.
Great job, team!
Official results:
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