FTR Race Report 2015-05-15

15 riders attended this week’s Friday Training Race. Again the pack was evenly split between As and Bs with 7 A riders and 8 B riders.

In a change from the usual script, the hostilities were opened early with an attack by S. Wagstaff on the rollers after Hank’s bridge. H.-G. Becker stayed glued to his wheel and one by one the rest of the A group bridged up with most of the group regrouping by the sprint banner. The group stayed together until the first big climb (see attached video), which had the usual sorting effect. At the top Becker and Wagstaff were in the lead with K. Willers and F. Garcia a few seconds back and the third group containing C. Schumm, N. Law, and C. Wiedmann chasing. This situation persisted until the second big climb where Garcia came back to the chasers with Willers continuing solo in no-man’s land. Unfortunately Schumm succumbed to equipment failure leaving the chase group with only three. Willers increased this number by coming back to the group by the sprint banner. The next lap was uneventful until Law decided to hop into the team car at the beginning of the last lap. On the final climb Becker attacked, opening up a small but significant gap by the top of the climb. Willers followed suit in the chase group with similar success. The gaps were maintained for the rest of the lap with Becker taking the win with Wagstaff and Willers rounding out the podium. Garcia won the sprint for fourth (see attached video), with Wiedmann rounding out the A group finishers.

The B group established a good lead group on the first lap with six riders making it through within a 10 second span. M. Howard, F. Egan, N. Koenigstein and J. Lemon started the second big climb together. By the top of this climb Howard, Egan and Lemon established a small gap over Greig, Koenigstein and Gill. These groups stayed together for the remainder of the lap. The third big climb splintered the groups with Howard leading followed by Egan, Greig and Lemon. The riders soloed the last lap and a half to the finish with Howard taking the win, followed by Egan in second and Greig in third.

Results:

A Group

H-G Becker 1:00:40 (41.3 km/h)

S. Wagstaff 0:01:00

K. Willers 0:01:49

F. Garcia 0:02:07

C. Wiedmann s.t.

B Group

M. Howard 1:03:47 (39.2 km/h)

F. Egan 0:01:10

J. Greig 0:02:05

N. Koenigstein 0:02:36

J. Lemon 0:05:31

J. Gill 0:06:12

R. Van Praet

Note: Time gaps for entertainment purposes only. Corrections to placings and race narrative are welcome. I apologize for the brevity of the B group description. Since I was contesting my own race I can only report on what I saw in the rider list.

The first big climb (As): https://www.facebook.com/christian.wiedmann/videos/10204927907452233/

The sprint for fourth: https://www.facebook.com/christian.wiedmann/videos/10204924927817744/

Event Link: https://www.facebook.com/events/415145625313356/

Strava fly-by: http://labs.strava.com/flyby/viewer/#305149312,dwgwEl8vMBKJNDASRDowEn4/MBKEQzAS/EUwEhVKMBLoVTASg2wwEl55MBI=

The next race: https://www.facebook.com/events/996900647022050/