Angeli takes 5th @ Sterling! May 12, 2007
Posted by air9r in Race Reports.trackback
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.do?episodePk.pkValue=2715675
A victory for Ed & the team considering he was in the company of Mark McCormack and Bill Yabroudy. Ed followed someone off the front early, and was joined on lap 2 by Mark/Bill to form a 10 man break.
Ed later related that Mark flew up hill 3 of 6 and split the group into 5. Fighting off cramping, Ed managed to stay in the winning break with some tough company while some big teams (MBRC, Arc en Ciel) missed out.
It may not be #1 but just to stay clear on that course and gain over 1:30 to finish out of site from the start really shows Ed has what it takes. Between Ed and Brian, we’ve got a great one-two punch, with the rest of the team ready to capitolize on future opportunities.
AZW, Brian, Wade, Paul and I had no problems staying in the field which spent most of its time strung out and attacking on both sides of the course.
Great Job Ed…I smell great things real soon!
BTW I also had no problem sticking in the field….Somebody forgot about management..110Swiss Francs
Thanks Matt for starting the report. Given that I have never placed well at this race when the field stays together, I stuck to the plan of trying something early. I figured get into an early break, get ready for Mark to bridge while someone else on our team tags onto Mark for a free ride to the break. Then we’d have 2 in the break. Turns out Brian and others were not in a good position and missed the move. Bill Yarboudy did tag with Mark and latched onto our break. Anyways, on lap 1 immediately after the race started, I thought Paul Curely attacked and got away (turns out it was someone else from his team). Still on lap 1, after the grinders, a group of 3 or 4 guys get away with the Gear Works rider still out front. Brian mentioned he was way back early on and didn’t know what was happening up front. I asked Todd Hammel (stage 1) if he was ready to bridge with me. So I attacked on the downhill stretch on lap 1 and got onto the front group really quickly with another Stage 1 guy (Chris Crowell) in tow. Maybe a few more riders also. I felt good and kept it going and we eventually got it working. Not a huge gap but pretty good. On lap 2 after the climb and grinders, I notice that Mark and Bill have joined so we have about 10 riders in the break. Mark didn’t join the paceline for a while and then we all worked pretty well together. No-one really pushing it too hard. With 2 to go, on the bottom of the hill, Mark jumps from the back and gets a gap and I’m feeling like he’s gone. I dug deep to hang onto Bill’s wheel and thankfully no gaps opened in front and we then had 5. This was a move that hurt but helped and i was happy to have made it. We really got it going well after that, but my neck and calf were cramping pretty badly (could be my new mid arch cleat position that i made a few days before – yeah i know). Mark attacks again on the steep climb and we all hang on. My only chance for a better finish would have been to try for a solo move but I wasn’t up to it. We took the final right and I settled for last in the group. I really couldn’t sprint with the cramping in my right calf. Even if i did, it wasn’t going to happen for me. Tactically, the only thing that wished had happened was someone jumping on Marks wheel to join me in the break. Oh well, it was good to know that could easily have happened if others were in a better position at the time. We’ll work that out. Glad to chip in for the team.
Great job ED!
Good job Ed. You had a plan and you went for it. I saw Mark setting up for his attack and I just wasn’t in great position, both in body and mind. Can I try and go with Mark who was attacking up the steepest section of the course in his big ring!? Spent the rest of the race following wheels near the front. With 1.5 laps to go I attacked myself once on the backside false flat hoping to get a second group going. It was a group of one so I just rode tempo ’til I was caught on Rte 12. Talked over with Matt that we would keep the pace high on the false flat into town hoping to set up Brian, Arlen or Paul. I was in about 6th postion looking good when Matt punched it on the left. The surge began and I was ready to keep it going when a certain team’s riders who had been driving the pace pulled off on-mass right in front of me. I had nowhere to go. I shut it down. Race over.
Wade
Ed, great job! Sounds like a perfect example of heads-up aggressive riding in bridging up to the break. And an awesome job in keeping with the lead five. I know I would have been more than cramping if I’d been trying to follow McCormack attacking in the big ring on that climb (like, full cardiac arrest…). Sorry I wasn’t there to see it!
Sorry Arlen…I made an edit and included your presence in the post. I also aded the GPS data. 50.3 MPH max speed and 51.6 MPH @ Jimney. That’s fast. Also, 24.6 MPH average and Jimney was 24.5. I’ll be doing the Sunapee/N. Stonington double next weekend. I hope there is perfect weather like yesterday.
No problem. I just wish we knew that there were only 5-left, as we could have made a better effort on getting that last money spot. All-n-all, Matt, Wade and Paul tried to lead out on the right side, but I spent a great deal of effort getting around stalled riders and had to settle for an okay field sprint. Yesterday was aprime example on WHY WE SHOULD wear the radios.
Sounds like DS Wenzel is getting cranky…
I guess we’re going to have to work to set him up for a result really soon, otherwise we’ll all get fined.
In hindsight, I would have been better off to just ride the front and matched pace instead of trying to persuade the field to jump early. If I did that you could have stayed protected from the wind better and had a better position to sprint up the hill.
The riders on the right changed the sprint. I’m not sure if they were the five riders that couldn’t stay with Ed or a mix of other categories. It had the effect of slowing and shutting down the right side of the field.
Gary’s fined for talking back…100 S.F….I;ll expect payment on Monday.
I wasn’t talking back so much as pointing of the obvious.
You can go ahead and dock my team salary…
Did you see the Elite results? Six-man break, 4 Nerac’s, they take the whole podium plus 6th place. It’s like Paris-Roubaix that one year with Mapei.
Great ride by Ed!!! You were basically off the front for 50 miles!!! That spells a ton of pain in my book considering you were with a former uspro champ. When will you be racing in the usopen series?