Tuesday, January 20, 2009

This was a fun weekend, I raced on the marine base in Kailua and did alrite for such an early season event. I havent been training just rode to school a few times this last week and thought I would give it a go. After hanging in there for an hour at an average of 26.5 mph I sprinted and almost won at the finish line with a speed of 39mph! Here is the coverage I found on the sponsors website:




Aloha, Thanks to everyone for making the first Momentum Criterium presented by
MCBH such a success: we had great weather, a spectacular venue, safe competition
between 70 participants, and lots of wonderful fans! The volunteer Marines
helped make the event run like clockwork, with no traffic or safety incidents.
The course on the airport tarmac was wide and smooth, making for great racing
against the spectacular backdrop of the Ko'olau mountains. The mild wind and
sunny skies on the morning of the event tempted some to try their luck in
breakaways, but almost all the races ended in field sprints won by patient,
cunning sprinters who spent most of their races safely tucked away in the
pack.
The Expert race started at 9:00am with 15 experienced racers (those
holding USA Cycling licenses of category 1, 2 or 3). Alex Eiler didn't take long
to go to the front to speed things up after the neutral lap, then Carl Garrison
took an early flyer before being reeled back. A couple others tried their luck,
just to check out the new course and the conditioning of their competitors. The
most significant break went well before mid-race with Tony Lang of the Hele
Cambio team initiating a very long solo attack that lasted about 1/2 of the 1
hour race. His teammates in the pack had fun frustrating the chasing efforts of
the Tradewinds team, sometimes leading to vociferous objections. How does one do
such blocking? By subtle getting on the wheel of the front rider and not pulling
through or by letting a gap slowly open so that when the front rider gets tired,
there's no one there to pull ahead, thus wrecking the work that had been done.
The best blocking, however, was accomplished by Kevin K. who would sit on Alex's
wheel and not pull through despite his teammate's pleas for assistance (a good
strategy given the end results).
With little more than 10 minutes to go,
some concerted effort by Alex and his teammates and a tiring solo rider off the
front, finally brought the group back together. Then the counter attacks shot
away, with the Cambio team launching Ed K., David L. and Nguyen in successive
solo attacks in the closing stages of the race to force Alex, John and their
Tradewinds teammates to chase. On the final lap, Alex pulled the group around
with Kevin on his wheel followed by Tony, Dan Miller, Ed, Ray Brust and the
remainder of the group (Nguyen had tired after a solo attack on the prior laps
and took a short-cut to the finish line to watch the sprint). In the tricky
final corner, Tony missed the opportunity to come around Alex and pull his
teammate Ed to the line. Instead, Alex motored on with Kevin on his wheel. Kevin
launched his sprint, crossing to the inside of the course, while Dan Miller gave
chase. Ed came around Tony and closed the gap to the two in front, but he
couldn't come around before the finish line. So Kevin won the race with a strong
sprint after a great lead-out and race long protection by Alex and the
Tradewinds team. Dan Miller rode a smart race to place second.
Congratulations!
The message below from John Girmsey provides highlights of
the other races. A link to the complete results and pictures of all the races
can be found at: http://www.momentumhi.com/Events.aspx
. We also tried to upload some of the HD videos, but alas those files were
too big. You can stop by Momentum MultiSport anytime to watch the videos on the
big screen.

5 comments:

saltysista said...

Wow...that pic looks fake. I love it over there! Congrats on your awesome race and that is a sweet little article.

Proud Momma said...

That's an awesome pic Dan! Congrats on the 2nd place...so sweet and must feel good after no training lately!
Love you

Lynne said...

2nd place - Wow conngratulations!! How far behind the 1st place were you?

saltysista said...

Here is a picture of the finish, He was like 3 feet in front of me I think. I could have won had I been a little more aggressive.

saltysista said...

Or if you were faster...ha ha just kidding