Chris Helwig
03-27-2007, 10:54 PM
Today was scheduled as a training crit at Exeter road that was not going to count for points. As we warmed up with some light sprinkles as we headed back towards Exeter the clouds looked ominous. As we hit the course around 6:00 pm the skies opened up. It was coming down hard with hail at times. We took cover and eventually things lightened up. A little cold we quickly decided to head out to Scotland road to do a race simulation. About 6 of us headed out, but after we stopped for a nature break 4 more riders joined us. We started as about 10 riders, but people joined in and at one point I think we had around 15 riders.
The plan was to do 4 3/4 laps of Scotland in a race simulation. We started at the base of the rollers and Carlos went straight to work. For a guy that says he isn't in shape he laid the hurt down. After half a lap I was suffering and thought maybe my winter prep wasn't as good as I had hoped. Things settled down with Tom Fernandez attacking numerous times as little breaks would go up the road. Carlos continued to do strong pulls as Vedova was also active. Joe Torchia and Tony came in late, but were both active. Dean Lowrie was at the front some as was first year senior Colin McEacheran.
On the last lap Tom put in a solid attack with Dean Lowrie. Dean I think had to head home but Joe bridge up to Tom. Carlos was also heading home early, so he kindly did a super hard pull and delivered Tony, myself and Vedova up to the two man break. Carlos' pull made quite a few people come unglued and left just 5 at the front. I was feeling much better than at the start and put in attack on the rollers. Stayed away for a short while but was caught before the corner. Did another acceleration but it was all together mid way down the back stretch. Vedova went to the front and did a solid pull/leadout. He took us around the corner and to about 350 meters to go. I had Vedova's wheel and Joe pulled up along side for the sprint. We sprinted to the finish and I managed to take the sprint with Tom in second, Joe in third, Tony I think in 4th and Vedova 5th.
Not really a real race, but still a pretty hard effort to get things going early in the season.
The plan was to do 4 3/4 laps of Scotland in a race simulation. We started at the base of the rollers and Carlos went straight to work. For a guy that says he isn't in shape he laid the hurt down. After half a lap I was suffering and thought maybe my winter prep wasn't as good as I had hoped. Things settled down with Tom Fernandez attacking numerous times as little breaks would go up the road. Carlos continued to do strong pulls as Vedova was also active. Joe Torchia and Tony came in late, but were both active. Dean Lowrie was at the front some as was first year senior Colin McEacheran.
On the last lap Tom put in a solid attack with Dean Lowrie. Dean I think had to head home but Joe bridge up to Tom. Carlos was also heading home early, so he kindly did a super hard pull and delivered Tony, myself and Vedova up to the two man break. Carlos' pull made quite a few people come unglued and left just 5 at the front. I was feeling much better than at the start and put in attack on the rollers. Stayed away for a short while but was caught before the corner. Did another acceleration but it was all together mid way down the back stretch. Vedova went to the front and did a solid pull/leadout. He took us around the corner and to about 350 meters to go. I had Vedova's wheel and Joe pulled up along side for the sprint. We sprinted to the finish and I managed to take the sprint with Tom in second, Joe in third, Tony I think in 4th and Vedova 5th.
Not really a real race, but still a pretty hard effort to get things going early in the season.