Day Two: A Daisy
Hi.
Today, I won the 2nd stage of the San Dimas Stage Race...and now, the cliche bit about how it "was all a team effort." You've heard it before, every athlete says it, but damnit!!!!! I absolutely mean it when I say that today would not have been possible without the efforts of all five other members of the Amgen Elite Team superstars. With that said...
The race: First, instead of explaining what our plan was going into the race, let me repost an exerpt from an email I sent out to the team yesterday-
I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that most of us are not out
drinking it up for St. Patty's, though we should be. So a bit of
strategy for tomorrow. First off, let me say that i'm not bummed at
all with today's results. Relative performance was bad (for me,
especially), but geeeeeez we got some fast dudes this year. We are
the only team with a full SIX guys that made the front sheet (top 40).
This means we have the luxury of playing the breakaway game with any
of our riders. Rich is 2 minutes back, and it gets tighter from there
in. Another good thing from the bad: none of us are immediate
threats to the GC. We will not be amongst the names the guys in the
top 10 have taped to their stems, you know?
With those things in mind, we gotta kill it tomorrow. I will save
nothing for the hapless 55 minute crit on sunday, and hope that you
guys do the same. Really, we're used to 75+ minutes with much faster
dudes, lets just forget that there is even a crit on sunday. Real
basic stuff tomorrow, create/join an attack. If/when it comes back,
one of the other FIVE (no one else has this luxury) creates a new
move. The remaining five (or 4 if the guy that just got brought back
is too spent) move to the front of the field (where we'll hopefully be
joined by socalcycling/lagrange) where you sit and twiddle your
thumbs, marking and sitting on anything that moves. Basic stuff that
all of you already know. Only difference is, this is one of few
instances where we have full and complete resources to use this stuff
we learned so long ago to the fullest. If nothing else, I want for
people to say "shite, amgen, you guys rode a killer race." It's an 80
mile race. 2 minutes is nothing.
drinking it up for St. Patty's, though we should be. So a bit of
strategy for tomorrow. First off, let me say that i'm not bummed at
all with today's results. Relative performance was bad (for me,
especially), but geeeeeez we got some fast dudes this year. We are
the only team with a full SIX guys that made the front sheet (top 40).
This means we have the luxury of playing the breakaway game with any
of our riders. Rich is 2 minutes back, and it gets tighter from there
in. Another good thing from the bad: none of us are immediate
threats to the GC. We will not be amongst the names the guys in the
top 10 have taped to their stems, you know?
With those things in mind, we gotta kill it tomorrow. I will save
nothing for the hapless 55 minute crit on sunday, and hope that you
guys do the same. Really, we're used to 75+ minutes with much faster
dudes, lets just forget that there is even a crit on sunday. Real
basic stuff tomorrow, create/join an attack. If/when it comes back,
one of the other FIVE (no one else has this luxury) creates a new
move. The remaining five (or 4 if the guy that just got brought back
is too spent) move to the front of the field (where we'll hopefully be
joined by socalcycling/lagrange) where you sit and twiddle your
thumbs, marking and sitting on anything that moves. Basic stuff that
all of you already know. Only difference is, this is one of few
instances where we have full and complete resources to use this stuff
we learned so long ago to the fullest. If nothing else, I want for
people to say "shite, amgen, you guys rode a killer race." It's an 80
mile race. 2 minutes is nothing.
So that was last night. We got to the start area, I was late and procrastinating as usual. Jerry (team director) hooked me up with a sweet new pair of shades and enough cliff bars and tubes to last my kids' kids cycling careers. Thank you Jerry. Thank you Cliff Bar. MVPs. Yeah, so I set up the rollers, and rode them for all of 6 minutes. Who warms up for a RR anyway? Sprinted to the started line, and hung out with the team for a couple minutes. Spirits were high on the startline, as it was not yet raining, though the sky looked dreary -at best. Big black puffs hanging out all over the place. The pros went off, and three minutes later we were off.
Lap one was interesting. Mind you, I had every intention of working for Skye or Tony today, to maybe get them a time sprint or two (they were each only 10 ticks from 10th place). Not even a kilometer into the race, Perry shoots off the front. Healthy gap, he's gone with one other dude. Perfect. Just like we'd planned (though ironically, I don't think Perry actually checked his email last night...hah). So he was gone, Richard, Brian, and I hit the front, marked marked marked. And Perry stayed away until the top of the final climb (of the lap, not the race.), RIGHT as he was caught, I countered over the top of the climb, and established a larger group of around 8 or so. This hurt. Definitely my hardest effort of the day...but I guarantee a few guys in back were hurting as well, and people started to think..."Amgen, hot damn". Yeah. "If nothing else...".
Someone back there buried themselves, and right at the start finish, my group was caught. Oddly, the lap card that said "10 to go" on the previous lap, now went up to "11 to go". Turns out we're doing 12 (8 mile) laps instead of 10 now. Ah well. The guy also announced "hot spot sprint to the leader of the next lap." An uneventful lap, as I recovered a bit from my hard effort. I crested that hill comfortably, and found myself about mid pack, just hanging out. Eh. I looked around for skye/tony. Both were in front of me. I went into the wind, and moved up to about 5th wheel. Looked back to see if Tony/Skye were on. No one. Hmm. I felt swell. The socalcycling.com team drilled it with a clean but slow train. I hopped around the outside, and started a sprint. Some other guy was there to challenge me. (the following is a jerk move, yeah, but I can't help doin it) I looked right at him as we were sprinting and said "you're not going to take this sprint". It was close, but I took the sprint by about a wheel. We shook hands afterwards. Yeah. 10 seconds, some points. Nice. And above all.....it wasn't difficult at all!! Hmmm.
This entry desperately needs some photos. Apologies. Soon. I'll devote 100% of race earnings to the purchase of a new camera. Anyhow. Two laps later, another hot spot sprint. Different guys were sprinting against me, and I won it again, with more ease, alone. Even did a little salute (more like pointing to my number so the officials would get it) at the line. Nice. Tony got 3rd and picked up a couple valuable seconds. The field shrunk by a few dudes each time we went up that hill. I sag-climbed that thing each and every time, and got over without burying myself at all. Worked out. The team was fantastic. With their permission, I decided to make a go for the sprint jersey. Two more sprints remained...another hot-spot, and the race finish. The 3rd hot spot didn't go too well. I went much too late, and ended up 4th or 5th. Eh, didn't expend a whole lot of effort though, so it's okay. 5 laps remained at this point.
Not really a whole lot to write about in the remaining 35 miles. The field pretty much gave up hope of any breakaway getting clear. The only action came each lap on the final hill (which is only about 3 miles from the start/finish). The speed up the hill got faster and faster with each passing lap. By the time the last lap came, I doubt we had more than 40 of the 100 guys who started. We were by far the best represented team, with 5 of our original 6 still in the lead group. So the last hill comes. I don't have great position, but not terribly bad. I stayed well within my limits, and made it over in about 25th wheel. It strung out pretty good coming down the hill and onto the finishing straight. I lucked out and found that I was on Perry's wheel with a long flat 2 miles to go. We were at the back of the front group, with some scattered stragglers behind. "Perry, move me up!!". Nothing. "Perry, it's me, Aram, let's gooo!". Nothing. I could not make the move to the front alone, and no one was moving. I tried once more, and I think he finally heard me. A fantasttttttic pull right to the front, with 300 meters to go. Perry pulled off, and I somehow found a wheel immediately. At 250 to go, the wheel i'd found started to accelerate! Perfect. The guy had a weak jump, I got in his draft, and turned the rockets on with 100 to go to win by a couple bike lengths. Perry made it really easy, and I was fortunate to find that particular wheel. I'd practiced victory salutes all the time, and finalllly got to do one, but forgot all i'd learned (mostly from Bookwalter himself), and managed to get both arms up with 5 meters to go, but there was an intense crosswind so I quickly put them back on the bars. Gahhhh, almost a perfect day...heh.
This is long enough I think. Long story short: I got 45 seconds in bonus seconds. Won the day....and my favorite bit....I get to wear the spiffy green sprints jersey at tomorrow's race! I pretty much sealed the jersey up, regardless of how tomorrow goes. I've got 55 points, the second place guy has 20. The 2nd place guy has to win both sprints, and win the crit, annnnnd I have to get zero points. We'll see. I'm sure tomorrow will go well, too. The team's real motivated. Oh, and I'm in 6th overall now. Moved up 16 spots! Tony's in 10th, Skye 11th, Perry 22nd. Tip-top results. If there were a team omnium, we'd win it. Alllright....'till tomorrow...
Lap one was interesting. Mind you, I had every intention of working for Skye or Tony today, to maybe get them a time sprint or two (they were each only 10 ticks from 10th place). Not even a kilometer into the race, Perry shoots off the front. Healthy gap, he's gone with one other dude. Perfect. Just like we'd planned (though ironically, I don't think Perry actually checked his email last night...hah). So he was gone, Richard, Brian, and I hit the front, marked marked marked. And Perry stayed away until the top of the final climb (of the lap, not the race.), RIGHT as he was caught, I countered over the top of the climb, and established a larger group of around 8 or so. This hurt. Definitely my hardest effort of the day...but I guarantee a few guys in back were hurting as well, and people started to think..."Amgen, hot damn". Yeah. "If nothing else...".
Someone back there buried themselves, and right at the start finish, my group was caught. Oddly, the lap card that said "10 to go" on the previous lap, now went up to "11 to go". Turns out we're doing 12 (8 mile) laps instead of 10 now. Ah well. The guy also announced "hot spot sprint to the leader of the next lap." An uneventful lap, as I recovered a bit from my hard effort. I crested that hill comfortably, and found myself about mid pack, just hanging out. Eh. I looked around for skye/tony. Both were in front of me. I went into the wind, and moved up to about 5th wheel. Looked back to see if Tony/Skye were on. No one. Hmm. I felt swell. The socalcycling.com team drilled it with a clean but slow train. I hopped around the outside, and started a sprint. Some other guy was there to challenge me. (the following is a jerk move, yeah, but I can't help doin it) I looked right at him as we were sprinting and said "you're not going to take this sprint". It was close, but I took the sprint by about a wheel. We shook hands afterwards. Yeah. 10 seconds, some points. Nice. And above all.....it wasn't difficult at all!! Hmmm.
This entry desperately needs some photos. Apologies. Soon. I'll devote 100% of race earnings to the purchase of a new camera. Anyhow. Two laps later, another hot spot sprint. Different guys were sprinting against me, and I won it again, with more ease, alone. Even did a little salute (more like pointing to my number so the officials would get it) at the line. Nice. Tony got 3rd and picked up a couple valuable seconds. The field shrunk by a few dudes each time we went up that hill. I sag-climbed that thing each and every time, and got over without burying myself at all. Worked out. The team was fantastic. With their permission, I decided to make a go for the sprint jersey. Two more sprints remained...another hot-spot, and the race finish. The 3rd hot spot didn't go too well. I went much too late, and ended up 4th or 5th. Eh, didn't expend a whole lot of effort though, so it's okay. 5 laps remained at this point.
Not really a whole lot to write about in the remaining 35 miles. The field pretty much gave up hope of any breakaway getting clear. The only action came each lap on the final hill (which is only about 3 miles from the start/finish). The speed up the hill got faster and faster with each passing lap. By the time the last lap came, I doubt we had more than 40 of the 100 guys who started. We were by far the best represented team, with 5 of our original 6 still in the lead group. So the last hill comes. I don't have great position, but not terribly bad. I stayed well within my limits, and made it over in about 25th wheel. It strung out pretty good coming down the hill and onto the finishing straight. I lucked out and found that I was on Perry's wheel with a long flat 2 miles to go. We were at the back of the front group, with some scattered stragglers behind. "Perry, move me up!!". Nothing. "Perry, it's me, Aram, let's gooo!". Nothing. I could not make the move to the front alone, and no one was moving. I tried once more, and I think he finally heard me. A fantasttttttic pull right to the front, with 300 meters to go. Perry pulled off, and I somehow found a wheel immediately. At 250 to go, the wheel i'd found started to accelerate! Perfect. The guy had a weak jump, I got in his draft, and turned the rockets on with 100 to go to win by a couple bike lengths. Perry made it really easy, and I was fortunate to find that particular wheel. I'd practiced victory salutes all the time, and finalllly got to do one, but forgot all i'd learned (mostly from Bookwalter himself), and managed to get both arms up with 5 meters to go, but there was an intense crosswind so I quickly put them back on the bars. Gahhhh, almost a perfect day...heh.
This is long enough I think. Long story short: I got 45 seconds in bonus seconds. Won the day....and my favorite bit....I get to wear the spiffy green sprints jersey at tomorrow's race! I pretty much sealed the jersey up, regardless of how tomorrow goes. I've got 55 points, the second place guy has 20. The 2nd place guy has to win both sprints, and win the crit, annnnnd I have to get zero points. We'll see. I'm sure tomorrow will go well, too. The team's real motivated. Oh, and I'm in 6th overall now. Moved up 16 spots! Tony's in 10th, Skye 11th, Perry 22nd. Tip-top results. If there were a team omnium, we'd win it. Alllright....'till tomorrow...
posted by Aram at 6:57 AM
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