People’s Community Bank Omnium June 5 and 6th

Johnson City, TN

June 5^th:

RR (the Roan Groan) – 30mile race up Roan Mountain the last 8 miles at an average of 7% (1st place Wcat 1-4)

The Roan Groan is an infamous climbers race that lived up to its reputation.  I have to admit being a little nervous since I have been dubbed a “climber” among the women’s field since the 2009 Highland Rim RR and this would be a true test of that title.  The women’s field consisted of Cat 1-4, with some serious power in Team Belladium and Nashville Cyclist.  Living up to our reputation, the women lined up and paraded out for the first ten miles.  There is nothing more frustrating than to sit on the front and drive a hard pace only to be stranded on the front.  The first hill began to break up the pack.  We dropped off some of the Cat4s.  Marilyn Senz from Asheville Fitness went on hard on the downhill and even harder up the next climb dropping off the rest of the weight from the group leaving about 8 people.  We began rotating the paceline to get some time on the rest of the field until we turned onto HWY 143 which began the climbing.  There were still a few individuals hanging on the back while a few of us worked so after some hard pulls, the thinning began.  Parri Gilbride, a powerhouse from Team Belladium, pulled up next to me and told me to trade off with her on the front to drop the rest of the field.  We traded pulls from the base until Parri told me that we were alone.  I sat up took a quick look and no one was behind us.  Fixated on the straggling men in front of us and the beautiful scenery, we climbed the next 8 (7%) miles together alternating positions.  At the 1K mark, I was concerned that I wouldn’t have enough to keep her off until after we rounded the corner and it leveled out some especially since she can out sprint me 99% of the time.  As we came around the corner, I stood up and started the sprint in, I could hear her get up to chase me and knowing she was on my left side I moved left to force her to go around me on the right.  The strategy worked and I won.

TT (Watauga Orthopedics Trial) – 2.7 mi; 2.75 laps around Boar Industrial Park  (4th place W cat1-4)

Not much to say.  The course was rolling with a long uphill on the backside.  It was hot and muggy and my legs felt like they weighed as much as one of Paul’s calves.  I made a mistake with my gearing on the long hill which slowed my time and ended u p with 4^th for the TT.  Not bad considering I didn’t have a TT bike, skinsuit, or deep dish wheels like some.  Parri placed right in front of me so we were tied for the omnium.

June 6^th – The Tennessee State Championship Criterium (9th place cat 1-4)

Originally there weren’t many women signed up for the Omnium but they allowed “day of” entry for the crit since it was for the state title.  We ended up with 35 women: team Kenda, Missy Petty, a few additional Cat1/2s that I didn’t know that were all fresh and ready to ride.  I had previewed the course earlier in the day and it seemed like a relatively open course.  I was taking the laps before we began and ran straight into the barriers blocking the road which had previously been open.  The course had been changed back to the original 8 corners, narrow  “s” turn, slight uphill and one sketchy corner.  The size and strength of the field made me nervous but the extra cornersI almost made me wet my shammy.  We started and I missed the jump because I couldn’t get clipped in fast enough.  I spent the next three laps playing catch up to the front field.  When I finally caught on, I settled in to get a feel for the race.  On the next lap, I jumped on the hill and ended up on the front.  I dropped back into the field staying in the top 6.  With five laps to go there had not been any serious attacks so on the next hill, I attacked again, bouncing a little on the sketchy corner.  I stayed on the front through the straight and then dropped back a little again.  With a little over a lap to go, I attacked the hill again almost laying it down on the corner but I sat my backend down on the saddle and regained control , Missy yelled at me to keep going that we had the gap but after almost crashing, it took a second to get back up to speed.  Last lap and I was playing recovery to get back up to the front.  I wasn’t as worried about winning as trying to keep my place in the omnium (tied for first with Parri).  With the mass sprint for the finish, Parri finished in front of me but I still managed second for the omnium.

Anyway, that’s it….  for this race….

How did I get here?

While most of the team headed up to River Gorge for the BMW Omnium, I headed over to Georgia to try to retake the lead in the Georgia Cycling Gran Prix series. Alas, I fought hard, but it wasn’t to be. Still with another podium finish in yesterday’s road race, I am happy to have finished 2nd place overall for the 11 weekend race series. Today’s circuit race was canceled because of a nasty thunderstorm with lots of cloud-to-ground lightning. Even though I wasn’t able to win the series, I was very happy with how it was organized and how it gave me and our team a goal for something to fight for all season long! Here’s a picture that Kristine got of the podium yesterday.

GCGP Summer Finale RR Podium Pro 1-2, (L-R) Brian Toone, Joey Rosskopf, Oscar Clark

Wes leading the road race breakaway

Mike Lackey keeping the pack under control

Quite an exciting weekend with a big “W” for Mike Lackey winning the Cat 3 bonus on Sunday and taking the overall Cat 3 omnium for the weekend. The organizers combined the 1/2/3 field but split the payouts and omnium for the Cat 3 race. So Mike in addition to winning the Cat 3’s was able to work along with Wes, Darryl, and Stuart to help me to 3rd place on Saturday, 3rd on Sunday, and 3rd in the overall for the 1/2 race. Terry and Sammy raced the masters race with Terry taking the crit win and overall 45+ omnium win.

Here’s how it all played out in the 1/2/3 races:

Saturday Criterium, 65 minutes scheduled (62 minutes actual)

This race got off to a fast start with Stuart hitting out on an early break on the first lap that lasted for a couple laps. Darryl, Wes, Mike, and Sammy were all active covering moves and getting into a few breakaways each time something was reeled in. My opportunity to try a move came 15 minutes into the race, when I attacked going into the quick right-left-right series of turns. Three riders responded immediately and we had a small group of four rolling. Soon more riders bridged up including a couple more Herring Gas riders (bringing their total to 4 riders in the break), Eric Murphy (Myogenesis), Paul Tower (warp9bikes.com), and Ben Gabardi (Hot Tubes). As soon as I realized my situation, I did not want to work with the break. Unfortunately, Herring Gas had enough riders in the break to not only help it stay away but also launch riders off the front of the break. To avoid having to cover or bridge to the small mini-moves that kept on forming, I decided it was best just to roll through at a slower speed whenever I made it to the front in the rotation. So that was the status quo for the next 40 minutes.

I felt great when they flashed “3 laps to go”. Eric was pretty aggressive and tried to get away a couple times. His attacks whittled our break down to just four riders going into the last lap. Brian Rizk (Precision Racing) attacked first going up the hill in the middle of the quick right-left-right. I covered and found myself in second position going into the last corner. I decided to hit out before the corner. I had a bit of a gap coming out of the corner and with a tailwind sprint, I thought I could hold it – but Eric and Bain Foote (Herring) were both able to come around me so I ended up third.

Sunday Road Race, 65 miles
Today’s road race went off really well for us with Mike getting the Cat 3 win. Nickole and Cindy were there to help us in the feedzone. We all communicated well. We put the right man in the break. We sprinted decently — but for all of that we ended up losing the 1/2 race in the last mile. About 250 meters into the race, Wes said that he wanted to attack. I said go for it, and away he went. This attack was covered, but then Darryl counter attacked immediately and was away for a while. When Darryl got brought back, Wes must have been feeling very spritely because he attacked a second time, and we didn’t see him again until 64 miles later.

Clark Butcher (Herring Gas) covered the move from Wes, and the two of them had a steady gap of 2.5 minutes for most of the race including all the way to halfway through the last lap when they still had a 2.5 minute lead. Myogenesis was content to defend Eric’s GC placing, and Eric was happy he didn’t have to cover a bunch of attacks. Warp9 was content to ride a steady tempo keeping the break within remote striking distance, but ultimately it was the late race attacks by Herring that ramped up the pace enough to bring back Wes and Clark with less than 1 mile to go. Paul Tower (warp9bikes.com) launched a strong counterattack covered by Pat Allison and Bain. This got brought back quickly because there wasn’t enough cohesion amongst the three of them. Once they were caught, Paul launched another attack that nobody covered this time. Bain attacked from just over 500 meters and again nobody was covering so I did a short bridge to him, started my sprint at 300 meters and ended up getting passed by Eric Murphy on the line. Paul held on for the win by just a few meters which also meant he overtook me in the GC so I had to settle for 3rd in the race and 3rd overall for the weekend. Still – kudos to Paul for such a strong late race attack. Also, Wes proved that he is a beast of a bike rider driving a break for 64 miles – I believe this is his third race-long break of the year, and all of them have helped lead to wins or high finishes for somebody else on the team … it’s definitely going to be his time to win soon!!!

Dahlonega Road Race

5/31/2009

Wes Douglas

I did this race “mountain bike style” by driving over on Saturday after work and arriving at the Montaluce Winery Dahlonega road race start location around 1AM….Slept right there in the car.  Before the start I took at quick look at the hill leading into the S/F line. It was something of a stair stepping climb…not too long but brutal with about a 18-20% grade starting out (with no momentum) then a second kick of about 13-15% and then a more gradual 8% or so to the top and the Start/Finish.  We were going go have to climb this after each lap.  Immediately after the neutral start the attacks began.  Nothing on this course seemed to be flat….It all seemed to be either up or down and what I would call a bit of a meat grinder for me.  There were a few small breaks and a few flyers on the first lap but the pace was killing me because we would go super slow and then all out….Off and On…Off and On. 

After the first lap and climb to the S/F and the following climbs I was getting a little worried about even finishing this race….I did not feel good at all.  I decided I needed to put an end to this stop and go business, if I could.  To that end, I waited until we were back on the main road where the terrain would allow me to use power and maintain some momentum.  Previously a Pacesetter rider had been allowed to go solo off the front and was still out there.  Once my heart rate and the pace had finally settled down I decided to give it a shot and made the attack hoping I could get away with another rider or two.  I slipped off pretty easily and was quickly joined by Myogenesis Adam Ray.  Looking back I saw this was going to work….at least for a while….and after a few minutes we had joined the Pacesetter rider.  The three of us were really working well together but it was obvious that on this day Adam was the faster climber followed by me and then Pacesetter.  I was certain that if we managed to stay away I would end up second. 

After the third lap the Pacesetter rider popped on the S/F climb even though we didn’t want this.  He was trying to hold on and Adam and I though for a second about waiting to see if he could latch back on but decided this would be the wrong decision.  We had to go.  We knew there was a chase but weren’t too sure about how far back they were or who was in it or their numbers.  Adam and I were crushing it now.   He would lead up most the climbs with me being able to hold on and do more work on the rolling sections.  It was getting really hot and with the hard work (my HR was averaging 180 the whole break) we were doing and I was going through a bottle of water every lap.  Halfway though the 4^th lap we got a glimpse of the chase group.  We could see there was a big group but didn’t know for sure who was in it.  I was just praying we could hold them off or that Brian was back there and staying fresh.  Adam and I doubled our efforts and were putting time back on them.  After climb to the S/F there was still no sight of the chase group but Ruth was holding a radio and let me know they were a minute back going into the 5^th and final lap. 

On the second climb I lost a little more ground to Adam but I though I would catch back on when we hit the main road however, just before I did the chase group surprised me as they came by.  I grabbed onto the last wheel and started to recover.  Adam was also caught a few seconds later.   It was a good run but now it as time to change tactics.  Time for me to recover a little if I could!!!  I saw a few stragglers trying to make it up to us but I didn’t want them to make it so the second I felt a little rested I went to the front to drill the pace….It worked…no one else got into the break of ten.  Still, Myogenesis and most of the other riders seemed want to take it pretty slow, rest up and let the Start/Finish hill sprint decide things.  Well at this point I knew I would not be winning that contest and I didn’t want the any other riders to catch and have a chance either…nor did I want the group to rest and have more energy to use against Brian.   To keep this from happening I attacked every time the pace got too slow, going off the front and forcing a chase.  At one point I got way out there and out of sight so these efforts forced the group to chase and not take it nice and easy until the sprint. 

I was pretty much dead and cramping on the hill sprint and came in ninth.  After I rolled though the S/F I saw Brian rolling back towards me signaling a number ONE….Awesome Day!! 

Mens cat3 criterium, 17 or 18 riders in the field.  VeloCity, Cumberland Transit, Mellow Mushroom, BBC, Jittery Joes and a few other were represented.  Jacob and I were the only Tria riders.  The first laps rolled fast with Tim Heard and a Cumberland guy getting off the front for a lap.  This was brought back and another small attack was covered by Jacob.  As we rounded corner #2 going into #3 the field had just made the catch and was sitting up.  I jumped wide and shot through the corner and opened up a gap.  Cumberland Transit and Jason Donaldson of BBC bridged up.  Jacob and BBC controlled the field to let the gap grow.  The three of us worked well together and got over a minute by the finish.  With a lap to go I attacked into the wind between corners 2 and 3 but they were on me.  We came down the back side three wide across the road.  I heard Donaldson rub his brakes and that was the signal to hit the gas.  I went into the last corner hot and put a gap on him that he could not close.  The Cumberland rider was better at the corners but was in bad position.   I got up to 34 mph in the sprint, 26.4 mph average for 20.25 miles.

This is a great course, downtown!  The corners are like fly paper!  Thank you Mayor Langford for repaving!  I hope this race is around next year.

Posted by Brian Toone
March 28-29, 2009
Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Quick summary – criterium
Pro/1/2 – 11th (Brian), Raced hard (Wes and Stuart)
Cat 3 – 2nd (Lennie), 4th (Sammy), Raced hard (Mike and Jacob)

Quick summary – road race
Pro/1/2 – 4th (Brian), Worked very hard (Wes and Stuart)
Cat 3 – 2nd (Sammy), Raced hard (Mike, Lennie, and Jacob)

P/1/2 Criterium
The Pro/1/2 criterium was Saturday and started at 8pm. The temperature had dropped off considerably, and the wind had picked up speed and started to gust in a few different directions on the course. It made for a crazy race with the dark conditions, too. I will definitely admit that I had a lot of fun on the course even with it being crazy. I made the mistake of going with the lap 1 breakaway and the lap 2 breakaway and then when that got caught sliding all the way to back of the pack for several laps. By this point, the winning break of 3 had gotten away and established itself pretty well. Stuart and Wes got to the front a lot and drilled it, but they weren’t getting a lot of help. Other people were constantly attacking, and the pace would slow way down again when the attack would get caught. Going into the last couple laps, I worked my way to close to the front, but could only manage 8th in the field sprint for 11th in the race with the breakaway of three already finished.

P/1/2 Road Race
If the Tour de Tuscaloosa is one of my favorite race weekends, the road race course has to be my favorite course of all the races I do each year. It has a little bit of everything – mostly rolling hills, but one longer climb, a couple flat sections, and even a short downhill switchback section. 7 laps of a 10 mile loop. We started out with the plan (devised on the start line) that Stuart would go with whatever break went off the front early. Sure enough – a break went very early (immediately after the neutral section) and we had it covered. Read the rest of this entry »

This last training race was the hardest one I’ve ever done and Ty and I both thought the final break was the hardest either of us had ever been in.  I may get some of these details wrong because I just couldn’t do much more than ride.  The race began with Ty and Mike out on the front and I was about 15 back keeping an eye on them.  There were several flyers on the first lap that were mostly ignored and rightly so.  I think the real attacking began on lap two after turn one.   This pace was insane.  It seemed to be so fast the field was stretched out in a long line and somewhere around the hill on the back side the string was cut.  Me, Mike Olheiser (Tristar/Warp9), Ty Stanfield (Kenda), Pat Allison (TNT), Eric White (ProVelo), Travis Sherman (Tristar/Warp9), Craig Armstron and Timo Stark made this break and started working really well together. This 8 man break continued until just after the start of the 4^th lap.  I had just finished my pull and had just rotated to the back of the pace line when Mike and Ty attacked all out on the long gradual incline.  Everyone popped and I was caught in the back.  I could see Mike and Ty getting away but I was not going to just sit there and let it go.  I came around the other riders and continued to hammer with everything I had.  I was going to make this bridge or explode trying.  Afterwards Ty said he saw me trying to bridge up and he didn’t think I would be able to make it because the gap was pretty big and they were doing about 30mph.  Hell….I don’t know how I did it either but I got on with them right before turn one.  Previously the average speed of the 8 man break was around 27 but when the three of us started working together I hardly say anything below 30.  Lots of 32-37mph..We work hard and in no time were out of sight and gone.  Our rotations were tight and fast and they needed to be with the winds…We never let up.  On the 5^th lap I saw Ty downshift to his 12 right before the hill on the backside.  Mike was in front of him and I was thinking…Oh crap don’t start this now….Well Ty attacked mike and Mike countered.  Then Ty attacked again and Mike countered and got a good gap on the two of us.  This whole time I had decided to let those two go at it and I would hold Ty’s wheel.  I had no interest in attacking and thought we should keep it together until the climb at the end where both Ty and I would have better odds on Mike.  Ty was thinking he should go ahead and start softening mike up but I really thought that was a huge mistake at that point and it was.  So when mike got that gap Ty tried to wave me by to go bridge it and I was thinking Hell no bro….You got this going and you are going to have to do most of the work to bring it back because I’m not going to sacrifice myself for it.  I told Ty I would work with him but it was too late.  We were on TT terrain and Mike was gone.   From that point Ty and I traded pulls until the hill.  I put in a small attack on the second switchback and Ty held on then countered.  He came past me but didn’t gain more than about 20 meters.  I settled into my rhythm and just held the spacing.  With about ½ k to go I came out of the saddle, bridged the gap, came past Ty and kept going until the finish.  So the finish was Mike, Wes, Ty.  I think I started to blackout at least twice on this race.  I know I was seeing spots on the bridge effort to Mike and Ty and then attacking on the climb. I’m toast.

-Wes Douglas

Posted by Brian Toone
January 4, 2009
Managua, Nicaragua

I had an incredible opportunity to race in Nicaragua on Sunday, January 4. It turns out that this also led to our first victory of the year! I am still humbled by the opportunity to borrow a bike and experience racing in another country. Here is an abbreviated report I sent out to our team mailing list:

For the race today, I borrowed a bike and shoes from Shannon OReilley, the president of the Nicaraguan Cycling Assocation. The race was a 1.25 km course with two 180 degree turns. The start/finish was at the top of a downhill which took you shortly into the first 180 which was a VERY large roundabout called “Rotunda La Virgin” complete with a statue of the Virgin Mary and for the Christmas season all kinds of camels, sheep, and wise men. The roundabout itself was probably 1/10th of a mile or more. When you exited the roundabout you came back up the start/finish hill but on the other side of the road. The hill wasn’t that steep but it was into a strong headwind (20mph?) so that going super hard across the top you were only going 16-18 mph. Then you went into this headwind all the way to second 180 degree turn which was a normal 180 (not a roundabout) so it was pretty sharp. Then you had a 20mph tailwind and we easily were topping 35mph through here on the first couple laps.

Two riders on different teams attacked on the first lap, and my teammate, Walter, joined them to form a small three man breakaway. They got a little bit of a gap, but the pace was just way too fast on the downwind part of the course. We caught them at the start of the second lap. My other teammate (the national road and mountain bike champ) attacked on the hill and got away solo but another rider bridged to him and then again because of the tailwind we caught them both at the start of the third lap. So for the first two laps, the pace had been super fast when we started the third lap and made it around the roundabout starting up the hill into the headwind. I attacked as hard as I could thinking that people would be tired and I at least wanted to put on a show as the token “gringo” in the race. I had a 20 second lead for the next 7 or 8 laps but then I could tell my gap was shrinking. It was awesome to hear everyone on the side yelling “allez”, “allez”, “allez”, and one boy yelling “allez gringo, allez gringo”. I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to stay away from the chase group behind me which included one of my teammates (Walter) who had bridged from the third group to the chase group so I eased up and then there were four of us off the front. We used our numbers perfectly with Walter attacking first and forcing the strongest sprinter in the race to chase. I hopped onto his wheel and when Walter was reeled back in, I launched a counter attack and only the Shell rider could follow. So the two of us got away and worked together with me pulling up the hill into the headwind and the Shell rider pulling on the tailwind section. We worked together for the last five laps and then I was able to outsprint him.

There was somebody taking pictures, and I am going to try to hook up with him on Saturday before we leave to buy a few for $1 each. Also this website has some pictures from the race including the podium picture: http://www.ciclismonica.com/Circuito2009/circuito.html

Posted by Stuart Lamp
September 13, 2008
Birmingham, Alabama

Wow, what a great start to racing with a new team! We started the
race with Mike, Wes, Daryl, Brian and I. At a pre-race meeting, we
had discussed our tactical plan for the night. Fortunately, the race
panned out like we had predicted, and here is a short report on the
action.

The race started off hard from the gun, and it never really let up.
Several attacks would go up the road, but early in the race, it
seemed pretty obvious that the field was going to stay together. The
Tria team was represented in most every attack, and this was thanks
to selfless teamwork from everyone. Mike and Wes rode extremely hard
covering move after already doing a race two hours before. Great job
guys!

At the halfway point in the race, I sensed that a lot of riders were
getting tired, and it would be imperative to stay near the front of
the group in case of a field split. Brian, Daryl and I had all been
in several ill fated moves, but the field was not bringing the moves
back as quickly at this point. The attacks just kept coming, and
with 5 laps to go, I decided to launch a solo attempt to get away
after catching a small break. After exiting the last corner, I had
the gap I needed to push all out to the finish. On the next lap,
Matt Winstead (Team Inferno) and Cleve Blackwell (Myogenesis) bridged
the gap to me, and I was just along for the ride. This was the
winning move, and unfortunately I just did not have the legs to beat
those two riders on this night.

The field sprint ensued, just seconds after we crossed the line, and
Daryl ended up winning the field sprint for fourth place. It was an
impressive effort from the team in every race it entered on Saturday,
and it shows that Tria will have a strong presence in the peloton in
2009.