MM 40+ CAT 3 Boulder Stage RR (2108.07.01)

The race started without issue with a field of 24. We were lead out by Pedal Racing Nate Pitzer and the pace was moderate for the first few miles from Lyons. Approximately half way up the first ascent Primal’s Jordan Sher picked it up dramatically and separated himself from the field by a good couple hundred feet. The group was broken at this point so that Jordan was by himself and I was trying to hold ground with two others. Given the option again I would have stayed there vs sprinting to catch up to the lead. It was eerily reminiscent of Guanella HC where I burned too many matches and fell completely off for a period. I was cooked when I caught up and could only hold the pace and was not able to increase the lead that Jordan and I had. A night of overeating didn’t help and found myself getting sick during a couple of intense efforts.

Before we took the turn to Nederland Nate P (Pedal) had closed the gap and it was now a group of three. The rolling hills were uneventful with the shifting winds. We were fortunate to have a tail wind on a few climbs and had enough of lead on the main group that being caught was not a major concern. Nate P spent most of his time at the front of the group pushing the pace on the climbs. As we started the last ascent, thinking we still had a downhill into Nederland, Nate P fell off completely with a cramping leg. I then realized that the race finish was not were I had originally thought and was coming up shortly. Jordan and I turned the corner to the dirt road, I felt like it was time to go, and to borrow the words of Jordan himself “it was magical”.

Z

Primal – Audi Team Starters – Matt DeAngelis, Michal Roast/Danger Panda, Adam Fivehouse, Lucas ClarkeWe had a good plan coming into the race, we were going to surf the back and not do too much work until 5 laps to go and then we were going to move towards the front and keep the pace high for the bunch finish.“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face”The punch to the face was a break of 5 guys that formed 15min into the race. The peloton thought it would be brought back but in 3 laps they had 40 seconds and Rio and Groove Subaru Teams were represented in the break and were doing a great job of blocking on the front.“Damn…we should have gone in that break!” I thought to myselfDanger Panda, Matty D, Myself, David Almanzan and Drew Christopher started taking hard, 30 second pulls on the front to bring the group back. In about 25min we caught the break after doing a TON of work. Louis Rodriguez moved to the front through the start finish and led the group through the round about, BAM, he hit the seem in the concrete and went down HARD. I bunny hopped his wheel and then bunny hopped the curb landing on my back wheel and blowing the tire. I started running back toward the pit and Danger gave me his rear wheel and I reached the pits just as the guys went off the front. Chased hard to get back to the pack and then patrolled the front.We got organized with 1 lap to go. I was on Matty D’s wheel and he was on Drew’s. We got squeezed on the far side of the pond and I had to go wide left in the run up to the sprint. Landed 10th, Matty D was 15th. The new course was great, fast and safer than the old course. You could pedal all of the corners at speed. It would have been nice to have 20-30 more guys to really string it out and we should have been in that break. I am still kicking myself for that.

Lucas

GUANELLA: Hillclimbs are tough to report on. The tactics are few and far between, and it often comes down to who had the smaller breakfast. I'm pleased to report that our team came with a plan and it worked great.

It started with Primal institution and resident Atlas Shrugged, Jeff Krause. Krause is 800 lbs and 92 feet tall, so just showing up to a hillclimb is a win. But he decided that he was going to make an impact, and that he did. From the gun, he moved to the front and dragged us all up the five hardest switchbacks of the course, strung out like we were following Team Sky. This allowed me to move up to great position with total confidence, and by the time he ran out of gas, I could make a move.

Once the power dropped and Krause's matches were all used up, I launched immediately. Luckily, the field was too tired from chasing to respond, and I was up the road pretty quickly, with only one follower: fellow teammate Mike Zimski. Together, we rode another quarter way up the climb until I felt like it was time to go.

Hillclimbs are funny that way, you're typically alone, riding against yourself and the fear of getting caught. That's why I do well. I have so much fear, and it only drives me to keep going. I was so scared the rest of the course. Scared of getting caught and dropped. Scared of getting surprised. Scared that I didn't have legs. And mostly, scared that I couldn't tie it all up after finding myself with such an advantage.

I kept it together for the remainder of the race, eventually winning, but not before I got to ride up to the SM3s in the field ahead. It was a good day; a great day, where my legs held up and I got to ride with some of my favorite people along the way.

Hillclimbs are everything - they're tough, they're funny, they're a referendum on starvation and training, and they're the place where weirdos like myself can finally act naturally. I love them, and I love Guanella. It wasn't easy. But it was magical.

- Jordan

Really fun and always interesting race. Our race was 4 laps (5 times up the wall), and I was joined by Murf, Donnelly, and Lamar for the day. Murf was determined to start a break, but unfortunately it seemed every other person in the group was determined to NOT let a break go. After what had to be 8-9 STRONG attempts in the first lap and a half that were either immediately chased down, or the front 10 people all tried to join in and ruined it, Murf finally conceded. As for myself, the first several times up the wall I tried to position myself towards the front at the bottom, and slowly slide back all the way up, attempting to conserve as much energy as possible. Every time up the wall people pushed pace and tried to make it hard, and I was determined to not get sucked in and waste energy when it didn't count. I continued to stay hidden in the back 3rd of the group throughout the laps (on several occasions shaking hands with the other people in the very back) and focus on confidence and patience until the 4th time up the wall. Here I knew it was more important to maintain good position then to continue to conserve energy, so I tried to stay near the front until people started attacking. At that point, there were several more serious attacks causing breaks in the group where it was easy to get gapped and have to sprint back on. I didn't want that to happen. During that attacking phase, (or maybe before the last time up the wall, I didn't see) the eventually winner of the race went off the front, and was riding solo with about a 20 second gap. At the far turnaround mark we noticed the solo break still had a gap, and it was not decreasing. At that point, Jonathon took to the front and put in a huge effort to try to close down the gap. It was somewhat hard to tell exactly where the break was, since at this point we were starting to pick up more and more of the Masters group in front of us as people got shelled from the group, so there were several people on the road in front of us. Either way, he got it close, but without much support from the other teams unfortunately it wasn't quite enough to close it down entirely. At the final turnaround before the wall, it was all about positioning, and everyone knew it, so it was a fight to get on the right wheel. At the base of the wall, Ben took the front and blasted the pace (for a very long time) keeping it nice and strung out before the attacks started coming. Finally, someone attacked, letting him ease up and get some air. This attack was very early though, so the rest of us moved up with it, but didn't respond in full strength. Finally about 2/3s of the way up the climb, someone else attacked and I felt this was a perfect distance for me to really push it. I followed that wheel for a short few seconds, and then hit a strong surge to come around. It wasn't sprinting distance, so I aimed for a huge effort to get a gap, and then the highest effort I could hold for about the 30-40 seconds left of the climb. I heard the announcer calling that the solo break was just seconds in front of me and slowing, so I kept the intensity on and just focused on the line and keeping my legs moving. I never caught him, but I was able to win from the rest to get 2nd by about 4 seconds. It's not the W, but few have the strength to solo a full lap, and fewer have the guts to try it, so he earned that win, and I'm happy being best of the rest. Huge shout out to Murf for chopping the legs of some stronger riders from the gun, Lamar for getting me as close enough for a chance, and Donnelly for leading out the climb and keeping things tight enough that the fight for position wasn't mixed in with people that had no business being at the front. Go team.

- Collin Z

After spending the 20-minute drive to the Federal Center trying to come up with good excuses to not race (the rain stopped, the roads were dry, my girlfriend was out of town, and I felt good) ... I pulled in, bummed 40 bucks from Gilstrap, registered, and was ready to rock!

It was pretty awesome rolling up to the starting line with 5 Primal Riders, we looked super intimidating in the black and green, so we already had the phycological advantage before the whistle blew! The game plan going in was to not do too much work on the front, respond to anything that went, and try to send a few attacks after the halfway point.

Right away we positioned ourselves at the front and helped tap out a pretty quick pace. On the second lap, I found myself working on the front like I was not supposed to do when I heard Chris yell "Go for it!" so I made an attack that got shut down quickly but it was fun to mix it up a bit!

This race was the best team race I have ridden with Primal so far, the guys all communicated extremely well and everyone helped beat the pack down little by little. Around 15 minutes in Gilstrap went for a Preem and helped drive the pace hard and Grant took over to carry the momentum forward. After a regroup Josh went off the front to hit the hill first. Once that got pulled back Brian immediately went out on an attack that only 1 rider was able to respond to... As he pulled away Mark placed himself on the front and helped let a gap open up, it was very well executed team tactics! The other riders were forced to do a ton of work to regroup and it let me hide out for a few laps.

On the final bell lap, with 1 to go it became obvious that this was going to come down to a race to the final corner, the best line was going to win. It was full gas up the hill and a mini sprint to the last turn. Pete from Palmeras hit the turn first but I was able to take my turn inside on him giving me a small gap to out kick him for the win. Josh finished in a hard-fought top 10 to secure the Primal team win as well.

Overall this was a fun course and very well organized by the Primal women’s team. Riding with so many teammates gave me a ton of confidence to be aggressive and know that they would back it up.

Murphy had laid down a solid plan to 1. Get into a break early on 2. If caught remain at the front to close down other attempts 3. Provide a lead out for Sani if possible 4. Have Travis do as much as possible to assist Murphy in closing down breaks.  We stuck the plan really well and even picked up a prime after Murphy yelled "Saaaaaniiii you there?!" like 3 times before I realized what he was saying.  We took off on the tailwind section and had no problem picking up an awesome winter jacket.  A few attempts to create a break went nowhere, and most of the race was pretty chill.  Last lap,  Travis and Murphy are sitting at the front with myself 10th wheel just waiting for the little kicker to move up to Murphy .  Travis was at the front hammering just before we made a left and started heading downhill towards the finish.  There was a little bit of a tussle for Murphy's wheel, but I managed to stay there.   Due to all the breaks that Murphy had to close down he didn't have the legs for a lead out, so I jumped to the front group of three riders with Travis at the front and waiting to see who was going to make a move.  I happened to be on the wheel of the kid that won the race, but when it came to dodging in between people and taking risks before the final corner, I said "I'm out".  Finished 7th.  Very happy with our communication and execution of plans

- Sani

Koppenberg.  This is probably my favorite race of the year.  It's short, punchy, and positioning is key in the dirt section particularly headed into the hill on the first lap.  Our plan was to be near the front headed up the hill on the first 2 laps, take inventory over who was still in the mix and develop a plan from there.  I started in the 2nd row and had a decent start.  I battled to hold my position, maintaining top 20 wheels for the first dirt section.  Just before the first climb, Drew moved up on the inside.  I followed his wheel into the top 10 or so just before the hill.  The hill was in great shape but the dirt was super hard.  My rear wheel kept on slipping and I had trouble maintaining my speed up the hill.  I was forced to sit down to get traction and I was able to get back up to speed and power up the climb.  Once we crested the climb, it was go time.  I had lost a few positions on the climb and there was a split in the field just behind me.  The pace was balls out and strung out single file with gaps opening until we got to the paved section just before the right turn onto Marshall road.  At the end of the first lap, the field was already whittled down to 40 or so guys.  I was able to position myself well going into the dirt section headed into the 2nd lap.  There was a breakaway up the road, and several bridge attempts which kept the pace high on the first section of the dirt and I continued to fight to stay near the front.  The effort became too much and I blew up.  I blew up so hard I put my hand up and stopped pedaling as if I had a flat.  I got spit out the back immediately where there was a slew of other guys battling to catch back onto the tail end of the field.  Rob from Rio encouraged me to get on his wheel as he went by.  I couldn't quite latch on, but I could see that the field ahead had slowed and were now sitting 5 wide.  I put in an effort to close the gap and was able to re-attach with the field just before the climb.  Lucas was looking strong and comfortable in this group.  I started up the climb but had no gas left and frustratingly got left in the dust.
Just before the final turn of the 2nd lap, I saw Lucas off the back of the field.  Lucas had a mechanical and could not finish the race.  I was super bummed for him as he was looking good and fresh when I saw him just before I got dropped.  Damn, bike racing is a B!*@#!  The rest of the race, I rode with a small chase group that set an honest pace and worked well together.   Every lap we would catch a few riders who had been dropped and loose some riders from our own group.  Even though we were off the back, we were still racing, I was on the edge every time up the hill, the heckling and cheering of those watching kept me fighting to reattach with the group after the hill lap after lap.  The final lap, there were 5 of us, all of us were working together but one guy who proceeded to attack the group.  He finally got away after sitting on for 2 laps and held it to the finish.  I decided to race all of the way to the finish and finished first in my small group of 4 dudes netting me a top 20.  I was disappointed to be out of the mix so early as this is a good course for me, but I was glad that I continued to race and finish in the top 20 in a super stacked field.

Matt Eberly

The first lap started hard from the whistle, and while dry, there were a lot of potholes and brake bumps that made the dirt especially challenging.  There were some splits on the plateau after the climb, however everyone came back together on Marshall road.  The pace settled down on lap 2, at which point I found Sani and checked in.  I think at that point it was just me, him, and Murphy still in the race from our team and the pack had already been whittled down pretty significantly.  
Not a lot happened on laps 2 or 3, no one wanted to break or nothing would stick, and the pace dropped.  On lap 4, there was a wreck on the climb that took out Murph and held up Sani.  Sani managed to catch back on just in time for the shitshow that was the last two laps.
Coming down Marshall road into lap 5, we overtook some of the elite women and I guess someone was not paying attention, because two guys in our pack went down and took out several people.  I was held up, but caught back on.  Coming onto Marshall road on lap 5, there was a wreck involving a cyclist who needed medical attention (not from our race) and there were EMTs and backed up traffic everywhere.  We neutralized and rode in the bike lane through the traffic.  At some point in the last lap, Sani flatted leaving only me from Primal with about 15 others.  There was still a traffic jam on Marshall, but of course that didn’t stop us from taking the descent at speed in the bike lane.  I was spooked out by this and drifted back.  To make matters worse, there was a wreck in the last turn and I was behind it.  So I finished at the back of the main pack.

- Jon Lamar

Stage 1: 87 mile road race. started off with 125-130 riders. The supposed to be 10k neutral was quite hectic when the moto led us on a wrong turn and then it turned out to be more than a 10 mile neutral instead of 10k. Enforcing of the yellow line rule also made it hectic with 130 guys. Anyway, headwind out to the first exciting part of the day made it slower and no breaks went away. Then, people started ramping it up going into the twisty Devil's Den switchback descent. I tried to stay up near Matt knowing he was a good descender. A few guys crashed hard on the descent so I was super relieved to make it unscathed. Directly after the descent was the climb up and out of the park. It was tame at first then really hard over the top. I made it over with about 10-12 of the top guys. We worked well for a short bit, then people stopped working and then smaller groups slowly caught on. Next climb was Hell's Kitchen and also super hard but I made it over again with the top guys. 2 escaped in the break before the climb then after the climb another 3 escaped in the kilometers back to the finish. With about 6k to go I attacked with another rider. The remaining chase group shattered and some caught us on the steep finish. Ended up 13th. 

Stage 2: 110 mile road race. Started with lots of crosswinds. Matt did a good job keeping me up there and safe in the crosswind. Just sat in most of the day. Ran out of water about 80k in, and we had a mishap running out of gas so received no feed. Andrei and Ben gave me the little water they had to help make sure I could make it over Gaylor. Luckily I made it over the top with a select group, got 2 bottles, and then had the rainy fast ride all the way back to the finish. Ben caught back on to the group on the descent back to the finish and helped position me to finish in the group and not get a time gap. 

Stage 3: early morning Devil's Den TT. Cold and early after the hard road race before. Legs felt stiff but everyone was in the same boat with tired legs. Did the best effort I could and moved from 11th GC to 10th after gaining 17 seconds on the guy 5 seconds in front of me in 10th. Also move me to first U23. 

Stage 4: Super hard crit. Finally warmed up in the afternoon but still windy. One of the hardest crits I have ever done. It was just Andrei, Ben and I left. Ben stayed in well and helped keep me safe. Every lap was a struggle to not get dropped with the wind and the hard climb. Crits are also one of my weaknesses. I rode as hard as I could to stay in and keep my 10th on GC. On the final lap I got gapped and was so gassed I could't stay with the group. I ended the stage with a small gap but stayed close enough to keep 10th GC and top U23. Only about 45-50 people even finished the crit which showed how tough it was. 

Overall it was an awesome week and couldn't have held my 10th overall without the help of the guys!

Primal Squad 4/5: Darren, Gary, Neil, and Eric

Before the race we all briefly chatted to reassure our plan to be up front when we approached the first major climb, don’t chase, and stay sheltered the best we could. Lap 1 – Somewhat uneventful –The field stuck together until the first climb and I realized I was far too back at the start. I snuck up to latch on with Gary, Eric and Neil. The climb was tame with Gary and myself sitting with the split. There were about 25 of us.

Lap 2 – Neil and Eric rejoined the main group on the descent with Gary and I staying in the middle of the group trying to keep this crosswind off us. I moved my way to the front and recognized a rider from Porsche Thunderbird – he got second so I knew he could climb. At the time I was feeling good, Gary had a great pace going and with the yo-yoing happening, I had thought about attacking halfway up the climb and letting Gary stay fresh with the pack with Eric and Neil there to help him on the third lap as they would catch back on. I couldn’t recruit this rider to go with me so after a few mins slightly off the front with a small 10-15 second gap, I sat up. I slipped off the back of the lead group before the finish. Gary was with lead group and pacing very well.

Lap 3 – I was basically dropped from the lead group and I saw Neil behind me a bit back. He bridged up to me and we had maybe four or five of us in this small chase group. After the third kicker, Neil asked what we should. We had Gary with a group of about 20, but, Neil and I were both at the time feeling pretty good. I did waste two or so matches – one on the climb and on lap 1 trying to get back on. I told Neil to get me the front group that way we would have better numbers to launch each other up the climb. Plus, we only brought three riders with us. Neil dropped the hammer and basically bridged us up to the main group. It was a huge effort. I made two pulls, but convinced two other riders to do their part and they did. I want to pretty clear here– Neil dropped the fricken hammer. This was a crazy effort, something I haven’t really seen before in the 4 field in terms of pure ridiculousness. We almost dropped the rest of the chase group. We caught the group just before the climb. We did find out one person was off the front with a 50-second gap. No one wanted to do any work and Neil hopped up front to drive the pace a bit. Again at the climb I was with the lead group with Gary and Neil and Eric not too far back. My plan was to pull Gary as he seemed the most fresh - A bit up the climb Gary slid back and was cramping. I hesitated for a brief moment to see if I should wait, he had slipped pretty far back, so I kept going. By this point the lead group had strung out and I did what I could do make up some ground but was exhausted by the final pitch. I came in at 22ndout of 75 with Gary, Neil and Eric close behind. I was about 2 mins of first. The rider who was off the front ended up winning.

-       Darren

Primal Squad 3/4: Trevor, Murf, Dolan, Lam, Sani, Todd, Tim, Orey, Donnelly, Darren, Collin

There are good races and there are races we learn from.

We had a sizable force out for the USAFA RR and had stellar communication during the race sending information front to back and back to front of the group. Shout out to our first lap heroes Sani, Todd, Lam and Tim for his sick flyer allowing our guys to rest up prior to the first climb. Murf was a beast the entire race sitting on the front for at least 110% of the time! Dolan for the huge support chasing down and making surges, Orey for solid riding protecting and moving our guys around the group and finally Donnelly, Collin, and Darren for solid climbing and pulling us into the top 10.

Lessons learned; communication is key and we nailed it. We need to use our watts more strategically and allow other teams to ride on the front - also there are some incredibly strong riders this year riding for themselves/small teams, we need to tire them out. We'll get it next time, one piece at a time!

-       Trevor