Unforgettable National Championships (MASTERS)

okay this is what i wanted to show you sam so eight so eight point four kilometers to go we're going faster 35. this is quick coming in to corner two homies double dips the corner and he sends you into cyclocross mode i'm not a gravel rider that's not good all right sam welcome back nice to be back welcome back everybody we um we are back for some masters national action oh yeah this is a good one yeah man i've been excited to talk about this race for a while we're out here in albuquerque masters national criterium and um let's talk about uh let's talk about the teams because we don't really know who's who out here yeah it was different coming into this normally you know in norcal or even going out to nationals like you kind of know who the people are the hitters the teams and all that but now we we're not masters racers like all the time we're masters racers but we're like holdouts like we only do like one or two per year for the big ones yeah and so we don't know who these all these folks are who come from all these different racing districts so we went like full investigator mode we didn't have kids around we had an airbnb to ourselves nothing but time and instagram and road results and strava and we were looking at all of these guys and uh we just wanted to figure out who we need to look out for which is actually not a bad use of time if you really want to perform you got to know who you're racing that panned out it was very helpful for our strategy totally i get i get this comment a lot um and it's probably worth addressing right now um people are like oh jeff you do these all visa race commentaries or your local p12 races you're calling all these people out by first name and it's like yeah because i know everybody i know what everyone's capable of but i realize that people who are just getting into the sport or racing a different district whatever the case may be they might not know their competition so like there are all of these resources at your fingertips and i wasn't kidding like we did look at road results road dash results is a great resource um i looked at strava and you can look at their results and you can look at what they're good at oh he's won four time trials this year he's probably good at time trial and he's probably going to want to ride a breakaway yeah absolutely and that and that factors in and you're like you might be thinking i don't have time for that well if you want to perform then then make the time i mean we took about an hour and did some research on some people and that that really made a difference you know what else i do um is i get onto google maps and i do street view and i will walk the course if i'm like it's a big race so the funny part about this race is all you'll see is balloons because yeah this course is out on a field where they launch hot air balloons so anyway we did pre-ride the course the day before we did our research let's talk about our team on mike spikes and what our roles were because there are three of us that's right we had uh chris reichert hitter extraordinaire and then we had jeff and myself as kind of the the sprinters uh for this particular race and since i i have done a masters uh nationals before he's a modest he is the he is the reigning masters national champion the longest standing national champion that didn't do anything since we didn't race in in 2020 uh yeah so i was uh you know this is another nice thing about having a team is these guys signed up to ride for me since i since i had won previously that we had our plan that you know as long as i was feeling good that they were gonna lay it down for me and and lay out for for a sprint to come in and that that that's that's very very kind yeah well we and also uh we so chris let's talk about chris's role chris was the gladiator of the day that's putting it lightly one-man team basically chris was like hey don't worry guys i got this chris was second in the tt and second in the road race so he had something something to prove he had a score to settle here yeah so he was like i'll ride the front i want to neutralize the race and then those names that we had identified from the day before in our in our research quote unquote um i had a couple of guys that i had picked out that i was like i cannot let them go up the road so if chris needs help um if chris gets tired which i don't think does chris get tired i don't think he gets tired it's not been documented so we don't think so but he did not on this day so um we were able to sit in as lazy sprinters and that kind of had this this unintended benefit for us of like the field was like who's the sprinter because jeff's not doing anything and sam's not doing anything we happen to have a relatively famous person here and i think most people assumed that we were going to sprint for you which is a logical decision so then and we'll get to this in the closing laps when we started to organize people were wondering okay is is you know sam sweeping for jeff is jeff sweeping for sam like what's going on here there was a little bit of confusion which which we capitalized on so with that said maybe um maybe we'll just get into like the last few laps of this race absolutely all right actually before we talk about the last couple laps sam let's let's talk about this course let's just take a lap on this course because i think it's important to mention that albuquerque's at elevation yeah five thousand feet we had done time trial a road race and now the crit um masters nationals isn't only cat one like elite nationals is so you get this wide range in talent and um yeah a bunch of people it's it's a national title on the line so you got people maybe everybody still wants to win no taking that away and this is still a very fast course so it's uh it definitely uh there was some interesting bits out here so so here's chris marking an attack for us like he did the entire race and things are up to speed now we're up 35 miles an hour like we are moving on this back section and as we come through this corner number two oh homeboy double dips yeah sends you wide sam yeah that and that's something that's definitely worth looking at is you know as you don't know some of these people and and you don't know you know how their heart rate's doing if they can handle this intensity the elevation how well they're cornering at i made a mistake there and that i'm trusting this rider to to hold this line but who knows what's going to happen so you always got to be on your toes you know whether your solo have a team whatever you always got to be paying attention this middle wiggle was was was definitely like a pinch point and definitely like an important part of the course and we'll get to that uh once we kind of get to crunch time the last couple of laps but um but yeah that's the course i mean these wide roads people were complaining about the road quality it wasn't that bad it wasn't the best road i've ever been on but it wasn't anything to write home about the start finished straight uh you know there was one point where we were pointing out between you me and chris there was one particular bump that you had to watch for but these are the kind of things that this is why you pre-ride the course and pay attention to you you definitely don't want to be hitting a speed bump at 35 miles an hour while you're trying to sprint you also don't want to go into the gravel at 35 miles an hour sam and when i saw you do that i started thinking maybe it's my day today after all yeah i am a mountain biker at heart but yeah that's that's not what you want to do on a in a crit so that's a lap this is the start finish straight away we had we had some wind it was going right to left most of the day but in the closing laps it was pretty much just a straight headwind yeah pretty pretty still and a headwind is good for us as uh you know jeff and i both have you know more of a a powerful type of sprint so that that's going to pay dividends for us and especially with jeff's lead out ability i was confident that i just needed to to give it all ahead and not fall down all right sam we are coming in to two laps to go oh yeah crunch time my man it's time to win time to win a national title what what are we doing right here well the first thing i'm doing is i'm signaling back to you and i am like time to make sure you are on my wheel i don't want you off my wheel until 200 meters to go yeah it's it's really it's it's very helpful when you are communicating with your rider so you'll you'll see uh from my perspective like jeff puts his hand out here i'm coming up behind him and that's my wheel and i'm not letting go of this thing unless unless absolutely necessary but yeah get on jeff's wheel and start paying attention to what chris is doing up in front and what's chris doing up front he is still has energy we told you guys he doesn't get tired yeah he got tired i think on wednesday like a week later or something so he is he is kind of um he's ramping up the speed here and and i did something here that i kind of want to mention is i didn't move up to chris's wheel because i want there to be a buffer and this is not none of this is by accident we had talked about this i don't want to be right behind chris because chris has been on the front for the last 60 minutes that's right and i don't want um you know if chris drops us off with like a half a lap to go that could be a problem for us because we just don't have the firepower to to keep it at 35 miles an hour right right so i want there to be this buffer in front of us so i allow that to happen you want a buffer but you don't want to be too far in the back so we we want to be close enough to the front uh that we can make any adjustments but yeah that was a really smart move and you saw chris looking back to make sure that we were we're supposed to be and then um and then i keep looking back at sam i'm making sure sam is where he's supposed to be sam is communicating to me we are a well-oiled machine and we we pride ourselves on that on mike's bikes yeah it was actually something that we've practiced because you know neither jeff nor i uh in real life are super loud and so we had to practice kind of screaming at each other so yeah i could actually hear him and he could hear me and and we're working on that like we've we've made mistakes in the past of of kind of doing our own thing which is a big problem and it's a it's a very amateurish move so so we've definitely gotten a lot better at that and we are executed well on today's race i mean we were always on operating as one unit and we're going to make coming into one lap to go i think probably one of the more critical moves for me here in the race is i'm going to take this inside line because yeah i've recognized a couple of couple more more riders have squeaked through and i don't want that to happen so i'm taking this this kind of risky inside line but hey once my bars are in front of that guys then then we're good yeah your front wheel is your own responsibility and they can worry about what's behind you and you can see me checking back to make sure after i did that move that that sam was still there right because the last thing i want to do is lead out the wrong guy yeah and that's important like you know jeff has to trust that i'm gonna be there uh he and i have to make my moves too like he's not responsible a hundred percent for me so when something goes i need to be able to move around as well so you know i'm watching the you know rainbow socks who is a super cool dude by the way really nice guy uh you know he did that a little bit uh and you know he got in front of me for a hot second but don't panic stay where you need to stay and then i was able to lock right back into jeff's wheel so you know that that it was a critical move that you moved up right there yeah and and i'm kind of half wheeling here um because again i'm leading out the reigning champ on my wheel and i don't need that crazy good draft it's more important that i am offering that draft to sam who needs to save every bit of energy for the final so that's why you kind of see me half wheeling there for a little bit and uh and yeah now it's like i'm starting to think chris keeps looking back he knows where we're at so chris is timing his final effort there he is getting out of the saddle chris is timing his effort to drop us off in a position where we are ready to go for the sprint which means there's still a couple riders in front of us and you're gonna see me kind of swerving around a little bit here because i don't want any rider to to take my wheel jeff's wheel here and so i'm making sure i've got a little bit of room cost me a little bit of efficiency but oh wait here here you go jeff yeah well this is yeah this is a key moment um because chris is kind of finishing off his pull right here and now here goes thirsty bear with um an early sprint or a late attack something like that he sent a flyer he sent a flyer and and it's so late in the race with 600 meters to go we can't let it go that's for sure so i have to follow it and just as i suspected he doesn't want to lead us out so he starts to fade and it's like okay well this is earlier than i wanted to go yep but we have to go and i have to keep the speed high so instead of jumping up to 1200 watts that's not what you do in a lead out i do this slow burn i take this pretty wicked inside line corner to corner curb to curb and that only leaves room for one other person in my draft and guess who it is yep that that now it's my turn and basically don't fall down and i'm gonna kick with everything i got left and uh you know honestly i went uh i was excited and i felt good i felt like i had it and but i took off with about 225 to go which is about 50 meters earlier than i wanted to go but at the same time i got a 52 front chainring and uh you know and fives for days yeah so i was confident that i had it and plus you know we've we've talked about this before if i'm going i take this up to almost 40 miles an hour which means to overtake me you got to go 42 43 miles an hour at least because there's only so much more race left right into a headwind and so you know that's that's pretty tough to do so yeah i mean that's how you win a national championship boo yeah yeah and dude so stoked and like when you passed me i was like oh he's passing me already like i still had another five seconds to go of sprinting so party was like oh wait sam but at the same time i was like oh but that means you're supremely confident if you're taking it that early so i was stoked man i i knew that if i went a little earlier then you would have plenty of energy left to bring home the bronze so and if you looked back there we had quite quite a distance like that lead out that in that last corner did some damage so some bro time with sam here i was so excited and like you know i think a lot of people think that cycling is an individual thing but this really shows that what teammates can do in teamwork and strategy and and you know it's all good at the end of the race and i was so thankful and grateful for for chris and jeff just laying it out there for me and like that's what great racing is and you know get your friends and make a plan and give it a shot you're probably gonna get it wrong but yeah that's how you learn eventually you'll get it right yeah and sam is wearing the national championship jersey right now you guys will have to take my award for it he has not taken it off since this since that day smells great so congrats sam um i was super happy man um that was such a great team team effort and thanks for hanging in there guys catching the next one thank you so much

Channel: NorCal Cycling

Views: 91,154

Keywords: cycling, criterium, tips, p/1/2, racing, strategy, gopro, win, sprint, leadout, crash, Pro cycling, bike, bikes, bicycles, bicycle, road bike, road bikes, American cycling, zwift, indoor cycling, road race, Tour de France, peloton

Id: mOTeq7Ch7xY

Length: 13min 52sec (832 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 24 2021