Racers were welcomed to the
race with pleasant spring conditions – sunny, mid 50 degree weather, and
moderate winds.
51 participants
18.2 miles
Master tactician, John
Rigdon architected the race strategy.
Often referred to as the “Patrick Lefevre of Livonia”, John devised a
strategy intended to:
·
Position the
team to take advantage of breakaway opportunities as well as a sprint finish
(should it come to that).
·
Take advantage
of the number of riders Team Bikesport had in the race
The strategy went something
like this:
·
The team was
broken into two sub-teams, green and black.
·
The “Green Team”
was responsible for animating the first half of the race, by initiating
breakaways, and ensuring that no threatening breakaway escaped without
significant representation from the “Green Team”
·
The “Black Team”
was responsible in the same way for the second half of the race.
·
Should no
breakaway escape, each sub-team had a designated sprinter. In this case the up-and-comer Travis Stebbins
and the old warhorse Randy Hermann were designated as the sprinters.
In most ways, the race
played out exactly as planned. Team
BikeSport both attacked and covered numerous breakaways in the first half of
the race. One breakaway in particular involved
one Bikesport rider (Alex?) and another rider.
While the breakaway was ultimately caught, it softened the rest of the
pack by forcing people to chase them down over the course of a number of laps.
The key breakaway in the
race occurred with about 5-6 laps to go in the race. Joe Lekovish, Dave Linden (AAVC), and Tom
Kelly took advantage of the pack’s disorganization by surging ahead. While often criticized for traditionally
building his season around one race (Waterford Training Race # 2), Joe Lekovish
demonstrated that his strategy has paid dividends. Joe raised the pace of the breakaway to
painful levels over the first couple laps of the breakaway, developing a
sizeable gap. Dave Linden contributed
significantly as well, with the third breakaway member barely able to take a
pull (coincidentally this short pull always seemed to occur when the wind was
at their back). It was clear that Joe
was one of the few riders to have performed reconnaissance of the climbs of
Waterford over the course of the winter.
Based on what I understand from
eavesdropping on the Flying Rhino Riders, Moto # 2 observed the “Green Goons”
(as they were dubbed by the Rhinos) in the main pack harassing anyone who tried
to bridge the gap. I am told that the
more prominent GG’s were named Mark, Gary, and Randy. Apparently, they were pretty successful as the
gap was quite large at one point.
With one lap to go, the gap
was closing. The breakaway dissipated
going up the hill the final time. Joe
drifted back into the pack after driving the pace so hard for the bulk of the
breakaway. Tom Kelly and Dave Linden
barely hung on to cross the finish just ahead of the pack led by Randy Hermann
and a score of other Team Bikesport riders.
Thanks again to Joe for
being the engine of the break and the many others on the team for enabling the
break to succeed.
1 Tom Kelly – Team
Bikesport/Lifetime Fitness/AAVC
2 Dave Linden – AAVC
3 Randy Hermann - Team
Bikesport/Lifetime Fitness/AAVC
4 Travis Stebbins - Team
Bikesport/Lifetime Fitness/AAVC
5 Jeff Elam - Team
Bikesport/Lifetime Fitness/AAVC
6 Paul Bailey – Flying Rhino
Cycling Club
7 Mark Caswell - Team
Bikesport/Lifetime Fitness/AAVC
8 James McConville
9 Steven Charles
10 Andy Birko
11 John Rigdon - Team
Bikesport/Lifetime Fitness/AAVC
12 ???
13 Doug James – Flying Rhino
Cycling Club
14 David Weiss
15 Anthony Ponton