I had a very bad start to the season. I injured my neck in the fall of 2009 and couldn't ride for almost 3 months. I lost fitness and gained weight. I started training again in January but it was much too late to have any real fitness or to get back to racing weight by Hau-Dong in April which was our first "A" race.
Because of this my best placing at Hau-Dong was 8th on DAY 1 which put me very far down on the points competition for the season. I was looking to these races to get back in the hunt for the season long points competition. I was lingering in the lowly teens and needed good results both days to move up significantly.Although I am starting to feel better and lose some weight (It gets much harder as you get older!) I still don't have the kind of power I would like for a course like this.
I could tell this after I tried to bridge to the first attack.
My first strategy was to get into an early move that had riders from at least 2 other strong teams. This was a technical course where riders would be out of sight after about a minute gap so I thought it was a good course for a break. The only problem with Plan ‘A' was that Bo Zhuo was fighting for top spot in his category and if I was riding in a break it would only help him if CKT had to work to try and bring us back. This was a gamble.
I tried to bridge across to a move I saw in the very beginning of the race but my legs were not as willing as my heart or head was and the group was too interested in not letting an early break go.
This course had 5 corners with the 3rd corner being a 180 turn. After riding the course I realized that after the 180 turn there was a sprint point into the wind, a bit more of a straight and then a right turn, a few pedal strokes, a left turn and sprint to the finish. I decided that the key place on the course was the headwind straight after the 180 and before the right-left onto the finish straight. I knew that if you weren't in position by then you would be sprinting for 20th place.
This was Plan B.
Keeping the group together and then getting Bo Zhuo into position here became the best plan for us and it would also allow me to help, if I could, at the end. By virtue of simply being in the mix at the end I was pretty sure I'd get a podium spot for myself as well.
There were lots of attacks over the rest of the race and Gavin and Steven worked well together to chase down dangerous moves. I rolled to the front a few times to lend a hand but mostly I kept in the group and watched key riders.
In the last laps a break had formed off the front. I had done some work to bring the gap down and I figured we would catch them just before the finish.
Coming into the last lap I prepared to place myself and Bo Zhuo. Coming out of the 180 corner a rider crashed in front of me and I just avoided him but I lost momentum and several places. I was now out of position to help anyone but I still had time to move up.
I positioned my self as best to sprint at the finish.
We caught the break just before the line and I ended up 3rd in my category. Bo Zhuo finished 4th in his cat but it wasn't enough and he slipped into second place for the season.
We had 1 more shot for him the next day.
DAY 2
This was a flat and windy road race. I spent most of the day hiding and keeping a good position in the group.
Today we were really riding to get a good result for Bo Zhuo to move him back into 1st place for the points competition. We didn't want to have him go head-to-head with the CKT rider in a sprint. This would be playing to his strength.
We decided that we needed either Bo Zhuo in a break or another rider in a break and to force other teams to chase. For me this meant I was chasing moves or leading out Gavin. Again Gavin and Bo Zhuo were busy at the front and we placed them in moves that looked promising but nothing was sticking for long.
As sometimes happens an innocent move rolled off the front and suddenly a few more joined them and there was a break and we were not in it. Crap.
We chased for a while and brought them back to withing a 10 seconds and then the bunch just stopped chasing because they though that the break was finished. WRONG! This was a serious mistake.
The break rolled away again and stayed away until the end.
When we had looked at the course profile we decided that I would lead Gavin out after a sprint point that was about 20km from the finish. We set up and jumped as planned but it was pretty windy and too far for 1 or 2 riders to go it alone. we needed others to come along.
After digging for a few minutes we realized we were just dangling and no-one was interested in our idea. We sat up and the bunch swallowed us up.
This meant my next task was to lead Bo Zhuo out in the final sprint.
With just over 3 km to go I got into position and got Bo Zhuo on my wheel. I flashed him 3km and started to move up. I flashed him 2km and rolled up next to the rider he needed to beat. I flashed him 1km and boxed the rider and started to jump.
The same bone head that had crashed in front of me on DAY 1 now pulled off the front and sat up. He was right in my line and the barrier was on my left. I wasn't sure what he was going to do and, instead of being aggressive and stuffing us in the small gap that remained I hesitated.
I had talked with Bo Zhuo about my lead out before the race. I told him that I would position him as best as I could but if he felt he needed to move to a different wheel, at any time, then he should do just that.
I'm sure Bo Zhuo felt my hesitation and he jumped around me into the tiny gap that was left. As he jumped in and through the gap it closed and he was gone.
I was still near the front and very much in the sprint so I kept it going. I was moving up and was looking at a good result.
There was a meeting the night before this race and at that meeting the organizer disclosed some changes to the course and other information. I was about to discover what the last change was.
The finish was down the main street of same small town on a double lane road with a divider. There was a long, straight run in: A perfect finishing straight. Now, mid sprint with about 150m to go, the course veered off of this road onto a single lane road with scrub brush and ditches on either side. I had no idea this was coming and barely kept my self out of the ditch.
As I straightened up my bike and tried to shift into a gear I could continue to sprint in riders shot past me and I lost several places. I got it going again and caught 2 riders but watched a rider in my category finish half a bike length ahead of me.
I was 5th in my cat and just out of the top 20 overall. Crap and double crap.
Bo Zhuo finished ahead of his rival but didn't finish on the podium or earn enough points to move back into 1st place. Not good either.
The positive from this is that we now know that Bo Zhuo and I can work together for his finishes. We've talked a bit and have a better strategy for next time. Long term I think this could work out well for us.
