CCB Coastal Classic
Posted: Sun Mar 26, 2017 9:29 am
I'm writing this report for Tom Coleman who is now all of a sudden too imprortant to write his own race reports...
A bunch of us went down to the New England Season Opener, a new race hosted by CCB called the Coastal Classic (not sure how it can be a classic already, but I digress). Its being held at the Hallowed Grounds of Ninigret Park in Rhode Island. Another solid weather day for bike racing, 40 degrees and rain. We had a smaller crew than last year's Chris Hinds opener, due to a bunch of guys frolicking in North Carolina and rubbing it in via social media and flooding my facebook account (along with Russ's London pictures)....
Ken Chadwick started us off in style by crashing in the Cat 4 race. There we're some new guys there as well, hopefully they can post up.
Anyway in the 3/4 we had myself, Oscar, Josh the HamBurgeler, Mingori, Scruffy McDuffy, and 2 Cratty Coaching Systems athletes, Mark and Tom. As DS I struggled with the strategy as we had a lot of solid all-rounders but no sprinter. The plan was basically to try to get in every move until people got sick of chasing us and one would get away. Not to spoil the rest of the report, but thats exactly what happened (pat on back). Pretty much everyone was on point, getting in moves while other guys disrupted the chase. Even Scruffy went in a solo move that lasted a while, at one point he had 10 secs on the field. At some point 1/2 way through the race, as a break was reeled in, Tom went off the front. I wouldn't call it an attach, which is maybe why it worked, he basically just rolled away until he had 50 meters and then we went to work on the front and he was GONE. This was an impressive feat as at one point he was 1/2 a lap ahead of us which what looked like an insurmountable lead. (as his coach I knew he had mad watts but even I was surprised at this effort)
I knew we needed to assist as much as possible because 30 minutes solo, in any race, is HAHD!!!!! We blocked the shit out of the race, people were getting literally mad at us, more out of frustration that we controlled it so well, not because we did anything wrong. in fact, they got so frustrated that one guy from CF racing actually tried to headbutt me out of the 2nd position because he knew I would pull through and soft pedal. Needless to say we had some words.
To give the field credit, there were still 5 or so guys putting in a solid chase despite our tactics, and the gap shrunk. Dan McCabe from Grinta jumped away and we let him go, figuring either he would die in no mans land or maybe even catch Tom and give him a breather. The chase continued...
I pause for a teaching moment. An MRCer who will go unnamed went to the front and put in a massive pull until I unleashed venom on him (which elicited laughter from the rest of the field). Later he would tell me he didn't know it was Tom who was in the break. Which leads to my teaching moment. If you don't know who is in the break, and the rest of the team isn't pulling, then, to be safe, find out who is in the break before chasing it down.
Anyway with 2 to go its looking good but not 100% done and people are lining up for the sprint. Josh and I are contemplating sprinting for placings, but the pace is really high and Tom still might get caught (kudos to Dan McCabe who successfully made it across). I knew Tom could outsprint Dan who is a TT guy, Dan made an initial attack that Tom covered. But the sprint trains made it a close call. The timing was so close that I couldn't decide to sprint or not because I just wanted Tom to win and be done with it. So we cruised in with the sprint and Tom ended up winning with a comfy 3 second margin.
All in all it was an awesome race. Tom's effort was truly spectacular, considering GLV and CCB had decent sized teams. But Tom wasn't done there.
Tom, Mark and I lined up for the P123, it was really fast out of the gate. After 4 laps or so all 3 of us we're near the front and we each tried to chase some moves. Tom's 2nd attempt was the charm as he got in an elite break with Keith Kelly, Cole Archambeault, Myerson, etc. It was GONE. They ended up lapping the field (which I was fine with) and Tom, dying a thousand deaths, held on at the back of the pack which was worth 9th place. MRC friend Pat Collins, which wasn't in the first move (which had CCB representation to his credit) got in a solid chase group and got 2nd in that sprint for 11th. Mark and I suffered tremendously and finished for the all-important "1/2" point doubleup. 70 miles at an average of 23mph and I was COOOOOKED.
Good times racing with MRC as usual!!!
A bunch of us went down to the New England Season Opener, a new race hosted by CCB called the Coastal Classic (not sure how it can be a classic already, but I digress). Its being held at the Hallowed Grounds of Ninigret Park in Rhode Island. Another solid weather day for bike racing, 40 degrees and rain. We had a smaller crew than last year's Chris Hinds opener, due to a bunch of guys frolicking in North Carolina and rubbing it in via social media and flooding my facebook account (along with Russ's London pictures)....
Ken Chadwick started us off in style by crashing in the Cat 4 race. There we're some new guys there as well, hopefully they can post up.
Anyway in the 3/4 we had myself, Oscar, Josh the HamBurgeler, Mingori, Scruffy McDuffy, and 2 Cratty Coaching Systems athletes, Mark and Tom. As DS I struggled with the strategy as we had a lot of solid all-rounders but no sprinter. The plan was basically to try to get in every move until people got sick of chasing us and one would get away. Not to spoil the rest of the report, but thats exactly what happened (pat on back). Pretty much everyone was on point, getting in moves while other guys disrupted the chase. Even Scruffy went in a solo move that lasted a while, at one point he had 10 secs on the field. At some point 1/2 way through the race, as a break was reeled in, Tom went off the front. I wouldn't call it an attach, which is maybe why it worked, he basically just rolled away until he had 50 meters and then we went to work on the front and he was GONE. This was an impressive feat as at one point he was 1/2 a lap ahead of us which what looked like an insurmountable lead. (as his coach I knew he had mad watts but even I was surprised at this effort)
I knew we needed to assist as much as possible because 30 minutes solo, in any race, is HAHD!!!!! We blocked the shit out of the race, people were getting literally mad at us, more out of frustration that we controlled it so well, not because we did anything wrong. in fact, they got so frustrated that one guy from CF racing actually tried to headbutt me out of the 2nd position because he knew I would pull through and soft pedal. Needless to say we had some words.
To give the field credit, there were still 5 or so guys putting in a solid chase despite our tactics, and the gap shrunk. Dan McCabe from Grinta jumped away and we let him go, figuring either he would die in no mans land or maybe even catch Tom and give him a breather. The chase continued...
I pause for a teaching moment. An MRCer who will go unnamed went to the front and put in a massive pull until I unleashed venom on him (which elicited laughter from the rest of the field). Later he would tell me he didn't know it was Tom who was in the break. Which leads to my teaching moment. If you don't know who is in the break, and the rest of the team isn't pulling, then, to be safe, find out who is in the break before chasing it down.
Anyway with 2 to go its looking good but not 100% done and people are lining up for the sprint. Josh and I are contemplating sprinting for placings, but the pace is really high and Tom still might get caught (kudos to Dan McCabe who successfully made it across). I knew Tom could outsprint Dan who is a TT guy, Dan made an initial attack that Tom covered. But the sprint trains made it a close call. The timing was so close that I couldn't decide to sprint or not because I just wanted Tom to win and be done with it. So we cruised in with the sprint and Tom ended up winning with a comfy 3 second margin.
All in all it was an awesome race. Tom's effort was truly spectacular, considering GLV and CCB had decent sized teams. But Tom wasn't done there.
Tom, Mark and I lined up for the P123, it was really fast out of the gate. After 4 laps or so all 3 of us we're near the front and we each tried to chase some moves. Tom's 2nd attempt was the charm as he got in an elite break with Keith Kelly, Cole Archambeault, Myerson, etc. It was GONE. They ended up lapping the field (which I was fine with) and Tom, dying a thousand deaths, held on at the back of the pack which was worth 9th place. MRC friend Pat Collins, which wasn't in the first move (which had CCB representation to his credit) got in a solid chase group and got 2nd in that sprint for 11th. Mark and I suffered tremendously and finished for the all-important "1/2" point doubleup. 70 miles at an average of 23mph and I was COOOOOKED.
Good times racing with MRC as usual!!!