Pro Group/Fall River Crit

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djming
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Pro Group/Fall River Crit

Post by djming »

50+ with John Ehrlinger and Ron Hagen. 39 total starters.
Alice along to spectate and that turned out to be the bit of extra motivation to keep me going...

Right before we start our warmup it starts raining. Not a downpour but not just "light showers" either. And the temp drops into the high 50's. Great. Rummage thru my bag and thankfully last minute had thrown in an extra, warmer base layer and some arm sleeves. Ditch the flight jacket, put these on and head to the start.

Sunapee/Buchika's had the numbers (6) plus Scorpion and Wheelworks each had 4 with some strong guys. Plus a couple strong individuals with no teammates (Dixon from Downeast and Schultze from Stedman's in particular) so I'm thinking a break with some combination of these will stick. Whistle blows and right on the first time (and the 2nd, and the 4th) up the hill the pace is hard. Breaks are trying to go. Things brought back. At one point I got a bit of separation with Schultze, Dixon, a Sunapee guy and 2 others but Scorpion and/or Wheelworks shut that down. Then on I think lap 6 or 7 after a hard effort on the hill a hard move goes into the finish stretch that gets me worried as I'm a bit gassed, but John is right there and jumps up with them allowing me to drift back a bit and get a tow back up.

Fast forward a bit (past the part where a car and a box truck get on the course, at least it was the uphill) when I think it was Dan Dudzik is off the front into the downhill. Nobody's reacting but I was 2nd wheel and just ended up getting 3-4 bike lengths on the rest of the field. I start to sit up and wait but then I think back to Tokeneke where I hesitated and over thought things too much so decided to push up to Dudzik to get his draft and see what happens. No reaction so I pull on the hill, we hit 9 to go, he pulls on the downhill and into the backstretch (he's bigger than me) and we have a decent gap. We come off the hill again and around turn 3. I flick for him to pull thru but instead he falters. So I attack. 8 to go. Maybe this will draw out a couple others to get a break going. Instead the gap grows. 7 to go, am I really gonna go for this? Approaching 6 to go and 5 to go and I'm still "easily" able to hit 350-380 and hold that on the hill but still maintain just below FTP on the finish stretch.
See Alice, decide to start giving her the lap countdown fingers. 5 to go. Threshold on the finish stretch, tempo on the downhill, threshold on the back flat, VO2 max on the hill. "Recover" on turns 2 and 3. Repeat (x8 it turns out).
On the hill approaching 3 to go and I notice the field has closed - they're into the climb and I'm not quite 3/4's up. Okay, now's the time to go full red for a bit - bring it up to solidly 140% thru the rest of the climb, hold just over FTP as I come by Alice (3 fingers...) and this time flat out drill turn 1 into the descent. DAMN - it HURT but DAMN it worked!! Gap goes back up and when I'm at the top of the hill approaching 2 to go and don't see the field I know I can do this.
See Alice - 2 fingers. Another VO2 max climb. See Alice - 1 finger. Get the bell and give it just a bit extra this time time thru the downhill and flat. Drill the final turn, one more check (nobody in sight), pass Alice the final time and ease/cruise over the line to enjoy it. Even went with the "V" salute, which brought on a little quad quiver trying to stabilize the bike and a bit of front wheel shake. Probably gave someone a good laugh. Oh well, never did claim I was the greatest bike handler.

And I never did have to worry about trying to out "sprint" people from a break :D
Dave Mingori
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Jacob
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Re: Pro Group/Fall River Crit

Post by Jacob »

Yay! I watched this happen and I can attest that it was every bit as awesome as it sounds!
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Mkidd3
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Re: Pro Group/Fall River Crit

Post by Mkidd3 »

Yes! Nice work Dave!
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jraguin
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Re: Pro Group/Fall River Crit

Post by jraguin »

Just awesome Dave. You have definitely shown a willingness to put it all on the line and it has really paid off this year. I looked and it was a pretty strong field regardless of it was late in the season. Even more incredible that you pulled it off solo.
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ahamilton
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Re: Pro Group/Fall River Crit

Post by ahamilton »

Totally awesome W Dave! After I read the quad quiver part, I am so glad the story didn't end like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EaJMr26F5w
djming
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Re: Pro Group/Fall River Crit

Post by djming »

ahamilton wrote: Mon Aug 26, 2019 9:18 am Totally awesome W Dave! After I read the quad quiver part, I am so glad the story didn't end like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EaJMr26F5w
Ha, no it was never that bad. Had it (mostly) under control.
Dave Mingori
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