Giro del Cielo Road Race 6/21

[jraguin]

I had a graduation party to go to in NJ so I decided to see if there were any road races around. I found this one which was part of a short stage race. 5.5 miles per lap, 9 laps, not really any distinguishing features so I knew it would be tactical. Decided to do the Masters race with ~50 guys, about 35 who were part of the stage race. Rain stopped just before I got there, so decent albeit wet roads.

A few laps in after seeing the finish a couple of times I thought that I did not want my race to end in a sprint finish. Downhill until the last 200 meters and then not very steep uphill, it didn’t seem to cater to my strengths. So I decided I was going to try to get in a break.

Also a few laps in, I was chatting with a Brauer team guy who gave me the lowdown of the race strategies by the teams. Finkraft was the big team with 6 guys, and they had the GC leader coming into the RR (Some guy named Andreas Rung…blah blah) let alone Roger Aspholm (I knew who HE was). Andreas wore a pink jersey as the leader so he was easy to spot. The guy told me that Finkraft was going to protect the leader and then they had a few strong sprinters who they would set up to the win the stage in a sprint (remember this later). He said other strong guys from Deathrow Velo, Denos Wonder Wheel (5 guys), and CRCA were going to try to create a break.

So I went on my mission of getting in a break. I would watch to see if two guys got up the road (hopefully with a Finkraft guy there), then I would jump to get up to the break. I bet I did this at least 5 times. The most promising one was I got into a break with 2 Finkraft guys, a Deathrow Velo guy, and another guy for a 5 man break. I thought that one might stick. But the Finkraft guys seemed content to sit on the DRV guy and that ended that break. Another break I got in ON THE LAST LAP was with Andreas R and a Bicycle Depot guy. But the Bicycle Depot guy wouldn’t work. I would pull, Andreas would pull, and the BD guy wouldn’t do anything. Shortly after, we were caught. Frustrating.

As we headed to the finish, I made sure I was in the top 10 wheels and defended my position as there was jostling on the narrow road. I got over to the yellow line so I would be ready for the full width of the road when it came, and pulled in behind a big Finkraft guy with his leadout guy in front of him. PERFECT. As we approached the finish, I kept telling myself to be calm and patient. When the Finkraft jumped out of his saddle, I jumped. The finish happened so fast it was a blur, and when I looked up, I saw only 3 guys in front of me. I rapidly realized one of them was not in the sprint finish, as he had gone off the front with Roger Aspholm earlier (we almost caught him, not Roger). It turned out I was nipped for 3rd in the group sprint by a tire, add the two guys off the front, and got 6th! I was happy with that as this was my first top 10 finish since I became a Cat 3 / Masters racer. My only thought on the way home was this would have been a great race to have teammates to race it with!

[Smudger]

Result....well done John.

[JeremyC]

And in a sprint... Congrats. Sprinting is fun, trust me.

[pace21]

Meh, those New York guys are slow... I'm kidding, great result Sir Johnathon, our newest sprinter!

[Jacob]

That's a good job of mentally transitioning into plan B and committing fully.

[Bradford]

Nice work John - sounds like great positioning!

[PJ McQuade]

Yeah John!