Race Reports for 4-6 April

La Boucle de l'Artois - Trophee Arras Leader UCI 2.2
France
Who raced: Ian

Patriot's Trail Road Race
South Carolina
Who raced: Sean & Zach

Tour of Walkersville
Maryland
Who raced: Ken & George

Tyson's Corner Circuit Race
Virginia
Who raced: Ken & George

Ken's report from the Tour of Walkersville Pro/Elite Race
Place: Ken 3rd -- George 17th
Distance: 72 Miles
Description of Course: 9 ½ laps on a rolling course with a couple of power hills, very short efforts.
The Race: Very nice day in the high 50’s to low 60’s. The race with stacked with 15 guys from the rival Harley Davidson Team and about 8 from the Rite Aide Pro Team. We really thought this race would break up early. I am trying to be more than just a sprinter so given the fact that we only had 7 starters I made it very clear that I wanted to cover moves and try and be in the break when it was established. I got in a couple of moves that made it off the front but really went nowhere. One move looked good early on so I went across to it in the process I crossed the yellow line and was relegated to the back of the main field which was strung out single file at this point. I was nervous because I had great position. Within 5 minutes I was back to the front and out of trouble. With three laps
to go I told my club team director on the road that it was going to be
a sprint and he started to agree. At that point the decision was made to protect me for the last three laps and then get me to the back of what we were sure was going to be a Rite Aide Lead out for Olympic hopeful Bobby Lea. We were right; they set it up and strung the field out with about 1 mile to go I was sitting behind the sweeper and I knew what they were going to do. With about 200 meters to go their sprinter took off and the sweeper sat up. I powered by him and then the last lead out guy for Rite Aide pulled of to the right. I went into the soft gravel got back on the road and at the line drew a photo finish for 2nd. In the end I got 3rd. Thanks to George for helping keep things tough the last few laps to ensure it would stay as a field sprint. George is riding very strong and I see the pieces of the puzzle coming together for the Armed Forces Team.

Ken's report from the Tyson’s Corner Circuit Race
Your Place: Ken 2nd, George 19th
Race Distance: 75 Minutes
Description of Course: 1.2 mile circuit with a slight up hill section followed by a flat section and a fast downhill.
The Race: Not a very nice day as it was misty and chilly. The race had a lot of nervous energy in the beginning. Finally about 30 minutes in, a break that contained two of my club team members got clear and stayed clear for awhile. My Club Team Director was in the break and wanted me to bridge to it as it looked promising. I went as hard as I could and cut about 15 seconds out of the break but could not manage to get across. I was worried that it took too much energy out of me and that my day would be done. I went to the back and recovered. When I realized the break would be caught I moved back to the front to get ready for the big sprint. With about 3 miles to go it all came back together and my club team took control setting up a 4-man lead out train for me. They got me to 200 meters however it was a slight uphill and that proved to be just a bit too far as the Rite Aide Pro Sprinter came around me with about 15 meters to go. I held the rest off for 2nd.

Zach's report from the Patriot's Trail Road Race
Places: Sean - top-30; Zach - top-35
Race Distance: 90 Miles
Description of Course: 2 laps on a rolling course
The Race: Decent day on Sunday, upper 50's and wet from previous week's rain. Race started quick and kept a strong pace for the first 20 miles. Sean and Zach took turns covering breakaway attempts, but nothing was working. At about 10 miles until the finish a breakaway did succeed. Ten guys, with all major teams represented, moved off the front. Neither Sean or Zach were in the group. We went to the front to bring it back, but nobody was working with us. We were unable to close the gap, so we conserved for a fast sprint finish. Since the yellow line rule wasn't neutralized until 200m we had a fast and physical finishing sprint. Sean had many lessons for Zach, so it was a great learning experience for the "new guy."

Ian's report from the Boucle de l'Artois, France (UCI 2.2)
Final GC: Not sure, maybe between 40th and 60th
Race Description: 2 day stage race with 3 road races
Number of Racers: About 155
Friday Race: 170km Road Race with the normal neutral roll out, about 140km point-to-point winding through the hilly countryside and small towns, and then 3 local laps of about 10km each. I want to take a minute to describe neutral roll outs and local laps over here.
"Neutral Roll out" - Usually involves a parade loop through the starting town at slow speeds but don't be tricked there is more racing going on here than the middle of the race. It is a competition to get directly behind the commissares car or alongside while they constantly are yelling to stay back. It really comes down to timing and skill of when is the right time to take the craziest line up the sidewalk or through a yard and jump a small child to hit the front of the group just as the race starts. Believe me doing it well and starting in the top 20 as the flag drops can save you 30 minutes of killing yourself to get to the front from the back.
"Local Laps" - Hey you might think 'we've already raced 70 - 100 miles pretty freakin hard and finally hit the local laps, I'm home free' -WRONG. I'm pretty sure they sit down with all the little towns and they bid on who wants the race finish by telling what their town has to offer to make the local laps the hardest. What? Your town has 300 meters of country cobbles, hmm, but this town has a 1km climb at 15% followed by 3km of guaranteed cross winds and then cobbles -- they win! And all the clowns who know how to sit in and read a race perfectly saving every single watt now come out to play and make you look stupid. So hitting the local laps you'd better be able to sustain your max 5-min wattage or you're tailgunning at best, its like finishing a road race with an NRC crit.
Stage 1: Ok, so the 1st race was extremely hard and aggressive for the first hour as breaks tried to get established. Teams were limited to 5 riders and all 5 of us were constantly in the top-30 and were represented in every major break through that first hour. And then of course as we turned onto a narrow one lane road a 7-man break got away up the left side as myself and a teammate were boxed in on the right side only 2 riders from the front. Bummer. The next two hours were steady but I stayed on the front covering anything that might have a chance because I didn't want to have to face Bernard if we missed the second move. By the 3rd hour I was pretty cooked and was just hanging on through some bad cross wind sections. We hit the 3 local laps which included one climb of about 1km that averaged about 10% and then another 1km climb that was more gradual but in a cross wind. I hung on for one local lap but had to fall back to a chase group for the last two. In the last 20km I lost 5 min on the peloton and 6 on the winner even though my group was still going hard and working together. I finished 122nd GC but Steven finished 21st and 2 guys finished in the peloton. My work was fruitful.
Saturday RR A: 76km Road Race, similar windy countryside. My job was to help Steven stay safe and everyone was to stay near the front of course. I moved Steven to the front only to realize a few km later that he needed a bike change. Bernard brought the car up, they changed bikes and two of us hung near the back to make sure Steven could get back without difficulty. Later Bernard told us a very narrow country road was coming up so I led our top 2 GC guys up the side of the peloton in the wind, pushing people out of the way at times, until we were safely in the top-twenty just as the turn was made. That effort really paid off as it went completely single file with some cross winds and several riders were dropped. When we hit the two local laps it started to rain heavily and got very cold. The pace again shot way up by I was able to hold off the hypothermia and stay in the peloton to the finish line, shivering heavily. Steven took 4th in the sprint!
Saturday RR B:87km Road Race with just a crazy amount of climbing, I think there were 12-18 GPM (KOM) lines - made the Sunset Circuit race in Redlands look easy. I was already hurting and had to put on wet shoes as that's the job. Everyone knew the GC would be decided in this race and it went bonkers from the gun. It was either up, down or crosswind. In the first 5km a group of 16 split off the front and things were shattering. To make a long story short it was mentally and physically epic, I got dropped 5 times from the lead peloton but was able to fight my way back either with chase groups or by riding within myself and smartly choosing when to give it everything to reconnect. Heading into the local laps I actually was at the front of the peloton feeling ok besides some inner quad cramping. The plan all along was to let Steven do his thing in the local laps while Peter and I fought for the highest team GC places we could as we were the best climbers. Just past the finish line was a narrow climb of about 400 meters that averaged 15-20%. I could barely turn the pedals and my arms work working as hard as my legs but I made it over the top with the front of the peloton, GREAT! Except my rear wheel punctured and it took SRAM over a minute to change it out. I was pretty dissapointed and rode as hard as I could behind the team car until Bernard had to really hit the gas to get back up to Steven and the Commissaire was probably getting on him too. I finished out the local laps and the race and probably finished like I said 40th-60th but could have done even better. Steven finished 10th for a final GC of 12th, pretty awesome. Moving from 122nd to 40th and just finishing a UCI 2.2 was pretty darn good though.

I am going to go to the Ardennes this weekend with the other top guys to do some training and course reconning down there and then the next race I hope to do is a big one on the 20th. It goes over most of the knarly cobbled climbs in the tour of Flanders, we just reconned the course yesterday and those climbs are no joke!