Plainville Spring Series Week 1

Cat 4 \ 5 

Antonio, Dillon, Bruce, and newest team member Monty Burgess toed the line and broke open the season for the team. The one and only Bob Roll was in attendance and watched a little of the race before heading off to do some work at ESPN. The pace in the race was expectantly nervous and the wet roads didn't help the situation. There was crash in the first third of the race as the boys just did their best to control the surges from the new look Team Edge. Dillon P took advantage of a 2nd crash right as the field got the bell for the last prime and attacked on the backside, holding it to the line easily to pick up some points and some cash. Antonio D stayed tucked in and awaited the sprint where he finished 22nd

Cat 3 \ 4

Cosmo, Peter Kenny, Peter Franzilli and Antonio started this one. Cosmo has been riding strongly during training rides and was looking to finish high in this one. Here is his recap:

 
It was clear just based on number of jerseys on the start line who'd be controlling the race,
and sure enough CLR was sending guys up the road before the first lap even finished.
The pack reeled them in pretty quick, but almost immediately, another group went,
with another CLR guy in it. Antonio and Peter Franzilli did some great work early bringing
the escapees back, but it became clear about 10 laps into the race that this pattern
of us chasing down moves just so that the big teams could launch another was going to be a
losing proposition.

I got a flat around 15 laps in, but a calm wheel change (two free laps!) and a few
minutes of discussion later, the team hatched a strategy of trying to get a guy into
one of the moves by trading off attacks once the group came back together.
After Peter Franzilli made a move that didn't quite get free, I came up a tried a few

jumps of my own, but the CLR guys—despite my attempts to verbally charm them,

still didn't want to come around.

I drifted back into the pack, and recovered a bit while the other guys tried 
their luck. We had some good digs, but no one could quite get free, so I met up 
with Pete Kenny to let him know I was gonna make one last effort, and give him a 
leadout in a sprint if it came back together.

At about 8 to go, Bryan McGill, a CLR guy who I knew to be decently strong from 
'cross, took a solo flier. I let him out for a lap or two, and as the pace eased 
up, I attacked through the start-finish and got a small gap. By the time I hit 
the wind on the back stretch, I took a peek back and saw (surprise!) a CLR 
rider, but there was open space behind him. 2-to-1 isn't ideal, but at ~6 laps to go,
I wasn't likely to get another shot. Plus, the burden would be on CLR to set the
pace in the break, and since none of the Cheshire guys loved their chances in a group sprint,
I wasn't really risking anything by continuing to pull. Plus all those CLR guys controlling things in 
the field would now be working to keep the three of us clear.
 ( Peter Kenny moved up as soon as he saw the break was established and put his footprint 
on the front of the field. ). So I kept hammering and closed the gap to Bryan, took a pull, but almost 
unbelievably, the other CLR guy was reluctant to come around. I believe I said 
"Seriously? 2-on-1 and you won't pull?" but with all that wind noise, it might 
have sounded like something a bit ruder. I put my head down and cranked for a 
few more seconds, and miraculously, the second CLR guy decided that yes, it was 
finally OK to come around. 

Once the rotation got going, we actually worked pretty well together, with one 
of the CLR guys smartly pointing out "see, we can pull through" after a few 
laps. I tried to game it a little bit, wrapping up my pulls right before the 
back stretch to keep out of the headwind, but all in all, the effort was shared 
evenly. 

As they rang the bell, I could just barely see the pack in my over-the-shoulder 
glimpses, so I took the risk and stopped pulling through. CLR Bryan either made 
an attack or took a stronger-than-normal pull, but he seemed tired, and I closed 
the gap down pretty easily. I sat on his wheel until the other guy came around 
on the corner into the home stretch, which was exactly where I wanted to be. 

I could make excuses about waiting too long to jump, or about coming off the CLR 
guy's wheel too soon after I finally did, but there's no real way to put it 
other than he was just faster than me—a point drilled home by the fact that'd 
he'd taken two of the three primes on the day. Guess I know what I need to focus 
on in training for the next few weeks.

Still, the Team rode great despite the numerical disadvantage, 
and now that we've got an idea of who the other strong riders are, I think we 
can definitely make a few friends in the pack, isolate a few enemies, and put 
together a good challenge over the next few weeks of the series.  

Cosmo rolled thru in 2nd. The rest of the team rolled in around 20th place. A great way to kick off the season for the team, and Cosmo gets some well deserved upgrade points.

Cat 1 \ 2 \ 3

Joe K, Tim Ratta and Hunter P started. Cosmo was back for some more training time but wasn't going to take on much responsibility in the race. The race had 53 in it but was 103 guys fast! There was NRC Pro Rob Sweeting from Kenda Geargrinder, 6 ready to rock CCNS riders, the Zane's crew, a couple of MetLife guys, and many other random strong riders. Hunter was going to watch early moves, with Tim and Joe taking turns covering the front. Sure enough it took half a lap for the attacks to start. Hunter, Joe and Tim all got into separate moves in the first quarter of the race, but nothing stayed away. A well represented group of 10 or so eventually rolled off the front so CCNS and Zanes went into soft pedal mode up front. The gap yo-yo'd for 15-18 laps with it sometimes looking like the break was gone for the day. Joe moved up front and did some full effort chasing, disregarding the blocking of other teams. He got help from some other teams but was also slowed by many attacks to try to bridge the gap. Tim did a bunch of work too and both of them at times were in small chase groups. The peleton would not fracture though and Hunter put in a crucial pull into the wind to kick start the chase that would eventually bring the break back in its entirety. Once it was all together there was some more attacks that Hunter and Tim covered, but with only a few laps to go, the Geargrinder pro and a CCNS rider moved off the front and were allowed some room. After a couple of laps it was evident that the rest would be sprinting for third. The usual chaos ensued and in the end, Hunter rolled thru in 15th with Tim and Joe right behind him.

All in all, a good first team effort. Everyone seemed to be aware of each other and the team did an appropriate amount of strong chasing, seeing as how we missed the break.