Easter Sunday- 4-12-2009 Teamwork at 7:00am!

By Richard Pollock

This was the second time we would start at 7:00am (Wow that’s early!), at Ontario and it looks, in spite of all the complaints, like it will stay this way for the rest of 09. Being Easter, we ran the possibility of running low on entrants, but the field was complete with 35 riders. Not bad!

Soon after rolling out, minor attacks started and were fairly regular for the entire race. Attack, chase, regroup, repeat! If a rider or two got too much of a distance, UCC’s Dale Ludke would jump hard and initiate a chase. After 100 meters or so, everyone would catch, Dale would back off, the group would continue the momentum until the break, however strong or insignificant, was caught. Craig Jones (Velo Avanti) and Phil Richards (Citrus Valley Velo), looked the most likely to pull it off, but they were chased down in the same fashion as described above. There were four Primes, starting with the “Priceless” chain care kit, which I snagged, then two more (not sure which one was which) won by Rick Swanson from Acme and sprinter, Ricky Shorts (where was brother Al Shorts?). One Prime was a six pack of energy bars I think and the other was some socks. The last one at about the halfway point was 3 Ontario series points which was snagged by Paul Springer (CVV).

As the race was unfolding, I noted that the speed was a bit more like it was a couple years ago. Meaning not quite as fast as recent events. Which also meant that it would come down to a large group sprint in the usual Ontario fashion. With 3 laps to go, my teammates, Paul Springer and Phil Richards were at the front with Dick Gentili and Steve Borer close behind. I was near the back of the pack and moved up to execute “Plan A”. That would be that I think I would have about a Chinaman’s chance in hell of beating Dale in a head to head sprint, so I had to put some distance between us. Immediately after the right turn, everyone swung wide and then followed Paul and Phil back over to the right curb. Meanwhile I was rapidly advancing up the right gutter. Ten feet from the front, I attacked and was clear before the left hand turn. At the speeds we were averaging, I knew I could go a couple mph faster alone for the remaining two laps with little or no chance that anyone would want to chase me down and be wasted heading into the final sprint. I was wrong! And right! Shortly after the start/finish line, someone was catching me and I assumed it was the entire group. Someone did chase. Two someones actually and one was my teammate Paul Springer (60+). With him was George Chester(55+). Two laps to go and we had a really good gap. We pushed it very hard, sadly George was not able to offer too much assistance, but what he did allowed Paul and I the deep breath we needed as we attempted to hold the pace to the end. On the plus side teamamates Phil R. and Dick Gentili succeeded in shutting down the efforts made to catch us. Heading into the last series of corners, I looked over my shoulder to see we had maintained the gap and this time it was going to work. We held the pressure right to the line which gave Citrus Valley Velo first in the 55+ and 60+. George was second 55+.

However, there was much more action to come as the group hit the final corners! Steve Borer learned a valuable lesson about leading out the “Build-up” to the “Real” sprint which was yet to come. As Steve was tanked, the real leadout came from Monty Pettis who was passed well before the line by the human dynamo, Dale Ludke. Right behind them was John Rubcic in an uncharacteristic third place (for the field sprint and the 60’s). He later said, that his move to action was mistimed and he was caught out of the correct position. That’s probably only the second time in his life that has ever happened, but a great sprint for Monty regardless!

Next week we have a choice of two races with Torrance having the bigger purse. Valencia the long commute. See you somewhere!

55+

1. Richard Pollock

2. George Chester

3. Dale Luedke

4. Rick Swanson

5. Wayne Rosenkranz

6. Craig Jones

7. Ricky Shorts

8. Rino Barbagiovani

9. Raphael Gomez

10. Mark Wisnosky

11. Richard Gentili

12. Steven Borer

13. Demi Hechanova

14. Thomas Reilly

15. Antonio Vaca

16. Randy Clark

60+

1. Paul Springer

2. Leo Pettis

3. John Rubcic

4. Joe Wells

5. Loren Stevens

6. Mario Seri

7. Benjamin Maciel

8. Phil Richards

9. John Mckee

10. Stephen Whitsitt

11. Richard Rodriquez

12. Timothy Marquez

13. Domenick Forte

14. Robert Humphrey

15. Cary Alpert

16. Robert Paganini

17. C. Kevin Post

18. John Diemont

19. Michael McKinney

20. Michael Edwards

21. Ernest Hoffer