Today's race was 6 laps at the Donaldson center, about 45 miles. A break of 3 took off from the gun and the group just rolled around at 21 mph for 3 laps. Patience was the key as we weren't too worried about the break.
Since the group was riding slow it was pretty hard for anyone to get away since everyone's just sitting there fresh and not really working. Plus there were a lot of antsy guys just waiting to launch. The best time to attack in a race is right after a really hard effort when everyone is gassed. So with 3 laps to go we had to go to Plan B which is to try to make the race hard. Robert and I went to the front and instead of a steady chase we started just drilling it and putting people in the gutter due to the crosswinds. Then LL came up and joined in the rotation cuz he wasn't feeling all that great.
We were crushing it at the front. I had a 10' NP of 310w (110%) and 18' at 300w (107%). We had the group strung out and brought the break back from two minute lead within a lap. Great job by Robert and LL.
Once the break was caught there were many attacks with Jay working it the best he could. I was pretty much toast on the 5th lap but sat in and managed to recover a bit then went back up to see what I could do.
Ryan Jenkins was off with another guy and as I came up Jay told me to go as hard as possible up the next climb to try to set him up to go across. My legs were dead so I just went to the front and sprinted up the climb for as hard as I could go for 30s (579w ave Ha!). This got things a bit closer, the shit hit the fan and I just drifted to the back to try to stay in contact with the group which was pretty hard in the crosswinds. My day was done at this point with about 6 miles to go and I just cruised in at the back.
The break got reeled in and Ryan J. then slipped off solo and held it to the line. The strongest guy definitely won today. Jay managed to get 7th in the field sprint. Not the typical result for Team OSB but we worked together, were able to execute a plan and at least had someone in position at the end with a shot at the win. Next week should be better at River Falls.
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