Madera Stage Race Report

Madera Stage Race, P/1/2
27-29 April 2007
Team: Matt Beebe (AKA BB), Jono Coulter, Peter Dinolfo, Rob MacNeill, Tore Nauta, Bruce Wilford

The Webcor/Alto Velo Elite Team hit up the Madera Stage Race this past weekend. On the whole, we got some good stage results and the team road well together. Recent upgrade from the 3's and new addition to the team, Tore Nauta, was our GC guy after the first TT two stages. He did a great job in the early stages and the team worked hard all weekend to protect his position. Being Tore's first P12 stage race and only his second P12 event, he's still getting used to the pace of racing in the field and it took it's toll by the last stage RR. Into the last stage, Tore was in 4th place on GC but couldn't hold onto the leaders through the final lap of the tough road race. Still, we're still proud of the big fella for doing such an awesome job this weekend. Once he gets a few more races in his legs, he'll be up to speed and be putting the hurt on. He's already shown that he has the TT power to hang with the best, be it uphill or flat.

Here's a stage by stage accounting from each stage's best place finisher.

Tore's reports from the Stage 1 & 2 TT's:
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Team Placings:
Stage 1 Hill TT: Tore 5th, Peter 11th, Rob 12th, BB 18th, Bruce 20th, Jono 22nd
Stage 2 Flat TT: Tore 2nd, Rob 5th, BB 9th, Peter 12th, Bruce 13th, Jono 26th

The Madera Stage race starts for the P12 field on Friday with a hillclimb TT of slightly more than 10miles. It's not pure hillclimb in the sense that you have to climb from start to finish – the first 6 miles are rollers combined with false flat sections, followed by a gradual climb of 4 miles. Because of the mixed terrain it becomes relevant what type of bike to use. In the first section a TT-bike would be the obvious choice and in the second part you need a machine on which you can climb very well: i.e. a road-bike. The majority of
the field settled this issue by pimping up their road bikes with aerobar clip-ons and areo-wheels. I also did the same thing and lowered my stem a bit to compensate for the height of the aerobars.

Although I haven't done many time trials I noticed that a good TT feels like you are riding in a dream. After a perfect ride, you hardly remember when or what has happened. For this race that was definitely not the case - I kept thinking about the road conditions (rougher pavement than I expected), about the legs, about the trees… So I was pleasantly surprised when I heard I finished 5th at 33:00. The winning time of 32:00 was set by Andy/Jesse (BPG). Because I'm a heavy rider, this result gave good hope for the flat TT where the weight will not play a role.

Stage Results, Hill TT:

1: AJ - BPG

2: Hutch - Spine

3: Barbary - Spine
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5. Tore - W/AV

The second stage is a 10 mile flat TT held on Saturday morning (already hot and windy). I had a perfect bike, with perfect wheels, so no excuses. The first two legs of the loop are cross-wind and there I focused on sitting nice and aero. I noticed myself getting closer and closer to my 30-second man and I finally caught him after 7miles. My one minute man, Michael Hutchinson (Spine), was nowhere to be seen. Each pedal stroke felt great: nice high cadence, knees close to each other behind the elbows. In the last stretch you can maintain speeds above 32mph because of the tail wind. I finished 2nd in 22:44 just 3 seconds ahead of Andy/Jesse. Hutchinson was shown in the results as 22:08, though he had clocked himself a time of about 30 seconds faster.

Stage Results, Flat TT :

1: Hutch - Spine

2: Tore - W/AV

3: AJ - BPG
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5. Rob - W/AV
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9. BB - W/AV

Jono's report from the Stage 3 Crit:
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The Saturday afternoon stage consisted of a basic four corner criterium- 70 minutes. The Webcor lads were amped with Tore in 3rd on GC (we guessed) so the plan was to make sure he conserved that spot or even grabbed any bonuses on offer. We wanted to be in every move too, just to nullify any other GC rider gaining time or to go for the stage win. From the get go Bruce, Pete, Rob and Matt rode the front at a high tempo and covered all the intitial moves. 15 minutes of this and the attacks were being launched all over the place from Strawberry, Spin and BPG, with Rob Mac unleashing his super speedy kick to latch onto everything. Tore was surfing well and keeping near the pointy end, and everytime a move went down the road Webcor green had a rider in it.

Halfway into the downtown slugfest the single file starts getting nasty, splits occur everywhere and we have everyone in the front. A Strawberry and BPG guy launch down the road and Webcor Jono unleashes his triple kick to go after them. Salvatore (AKA Chava) from Strawberry and Kyle from Spine join half a lap later and the five of us argue a bit trying to ascertain who is high on GC and who is going to do some work. I'm trying to please everyone by doing half hearted turns to make it look like im doing something but really I'm hoping Tore stays in range.

We swap for a good half hour but with two strawberries (the other is Pat Briggs) there is only one of them working and the spine guy is doing nothing. Dave Pierce is turning himself inside out to come across alone. No deal. Then click click BOOM Salvatore smacks down the road and its full gas for the final 4 laps as he soloes 20 metres in front of us. 1 lap to go and the other strawberry guy hits and i get dropped and put the head down to keep 5th spot. A look over the shoulder on the line and Rob gets second in the kick, so fast that guy.

After a debrief, it transpires Pete did a killer turn on the last lap to help keep things fast and Rob was able to latch onto a late Andy/Jesse BPG kick of fury, which gapped Bruce off Rob's wheel when he was trying to come around for a leadout. That attack went nowhere and the field entered the final corner together. From there, Rob had to fight the wind a while before jumping into a full sprint for the line.

Super satisfaction for Webcor Jono getting a result in the USA. Everyone rode well and was part of the action during the stage. We had a guy in every break, did well in the sprint and helped our GC leader get through an attack filled race.

-Jono

Team Placings: Jono 5th, Rob 7th, Tore 12th, Bruce 19th, Peter 17th, BB 23rd

Stage Results, Crit:

1: Chava - Cal Giant

2: Uthman Ray - BPG

3: Pat Briggs - Cal Giant
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5. Jono - W/AV
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7. Rob - W/AV

Bruce's report from the Stage 4 Road Race:
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Team Placings: Bruce (12th), Tore (14th), Peter D (17th), Rob (18th), Matt BB & Jono (DNF)

The Madera road race course is a 17 miles loop, starting with a long smooth section of road into a headwind, which turned slowly right to become a long smooth section of road with a crosswind. After that was a right turn onto a very rough section of road 4 or 5 miles long, horrible surface--worse than Copperopolis. Then back to smooth road surface, several rollers, from the tops of which you could see the start/finish line, and then a short climb through the feed zone and start the loop again. We did this 5 times, for a total of 85 miles.

We went into the RR with Tore in 4th in the GC, so the plan was to work for him. Spine had Hutchinson in 1st and 2 more guys in 5th and 6th. BPG had Andy in 2nd and another in 3rd. Rob, sitting 10th in GC, wanted to be in an expected early break and so we could use that to take some pressure off the team in the early parts of the race.

We rolled out and the expected early break did not go right at the start of the race as most guys settled in and got a warm-up. As the pace picked up about 1/4 of a lap in, Andy & Chava attacked and Mike Buckley (Spine) jumped on to cover. Peter and I rode on the front to keep them near enough for Rob to move up and then jump over, which he did. At that point I settled into the bunch out of the wind. As we rode through the rough section for the first time, we could see the 4 break members in the distance, but nobody was too worried. After half a lap of that, Hutchinson decided that a break with Andy was not good and that it need to be brought back. He sent one of his guys to the front, who rode hard tempo and basically brought back the break on his own.

When the break came back, more went off with some frequency, usually containing some mix of Chava, Andy, Hutch, and his teammates. Rob covered another one on the 2nd lap but couldn't hang and came back to the field. Around that time, Matt BB did a great attack, which gave us all a rest, but nobody wanted to play with him and left him in the wind alone for half a lap or so. Peter put in a few nice digs of his own as well. The guys shared the load pretty well to protect Tore's position. On lap 3 Rob took one monster pull through the cobbles and into the rollers trying to keep a break in check.

More breaks, more chasing as the laps ticked by. On lap 4, another break was off that threatened our GC position. So Rob, Bruce, and Peter went to the front and just drove the pace, catching the break near the end of the 4th lap. Meanwhile Tore got to sit in. Of course there was a counter attack and a bunch of guys jumped. The spine guy that did all the chasing and a Cal Giant guy rode away followed by a group of about 6 guys. After that hard chase, we missed the break, heartbreaking. Tore and the rest of the guys were too pooped. We hung with the race leaders, Andy and Hutchinson, but should have made a move into the break. Although Rob, Bruce and Peter regourped for a bunch more chasing, we never did see the break again. On the last lap of the race, the third group split up after a good attack from Dave Pierce. Rob got gapped on the last lap and finished solo. Peter guided a battle worn Tore into the finish as Bruce tried to chase a stage placing.

Things could've worked out better in the stage but we were pleased with our level of teamwork. We rode hard and worked well together. We just lacked the punch to follow the right attacks at crunch time. With a few more P12 races under his belt, Tore will be matching those moves, no sweat.

Stage Results, RR:

1: Barbary - Spine

2: Keith Miller - Cal Giant

3: Chava - Cal Giant

Final GC Placings within the team: Tore 12th, Bruce 13th, Peter 14th, Rob 16th

Final GC

1: Kyle Barbary - Spine

2: Uthman Ray - BPG

3: Hutchinson - Spine