Team AVC/Hagerstown-Washington County

Good start to the season Saturday and Sunday. The 50+ gang could have performed a tad better with a few mental improvements other than that a great job. John had us ready to go, coaching us through the race and performing great lead outs. We have to learn some tactics when it comes down to a field sprint, especially Jimbo.

Saturday racing was in Walkersville Md., at the Walkersville Road Race. AVC was represented by Stephen Wahl, cat 4. Brian Fouche, cat 1/2/3. Tom Lane, Dennis Crockett, John Olinski, Mike Spinnler, and Jim Long, cat 50+. Don Fienberg, 35+ Masters.

Stephen finished on the PODIUM! 3rd position. More than likely he will be moving into the cat 3 ranks soon. He was seen driving the 10 up break cracking the field. 75 starters in his race, with around 10 finishing in the first break, another 10 finishing in a second break group. Thus dropping 55 riders during the race, awesome. Race report to follow.

Brian Fouche finished in the pack. He put in some hard work. His report to follow.

50+ race, had a good squad from AVC on the line. Tom Lane got caught up in a crash and had to chase for a lap that did him in. John, did some great work on the course. He was away on the first lap. Covered several break attempts. Kept us informed during the race, unfortunately Jimbo was not listening properly! Lead us out on the finish driving the field with 400 meters to go, and still came in 16th. Mike Spinnler was a diesel/eveready bunny, he just kept going and going. We need to sit down and talk tactics with Mike, too much power used at the wrong time. What a force he will be. Mike came in 14th. Jimbo, needs to work on his mental game, should have performed better, came in 9th. Dennis, new to the team is already fitting in nicely. We are going to have to change his name to Crocket Rocket, especially since he won the field sprint. He came in 4th.

Don, did well in his race considering he is still sick with the flu. Way to battle it out, Don. We are sure he would have place much higher had it not been for the "wheezing" every time around course. Most of the field in Don's race where dropped on the first lap. Don mentioned that only 25 finished in the field sprint. 75 rider start, dropping 50, not bad Don, hanging in there, pace had to be high. Don finished 17th.

Sunday had the team racing in Tysons Corner Va. Not a great day for racing. Cold, and rainy all day. The 40/50 cat race had Joe Jefferson, Dennis Crocket, John Olinski and Jim Long on the line. Several breaks went up the road, all where reeled back in. High paced race, around 50 or so lined up. John had us flying on the last lap down the back side of the course. We all bunched up coming out of the last turn and in effect messing up our finishing strategy. We will have to work on that end of our team racing. Jimbo came across 4th, Dennis 6th, John 8th and Joe 21st. Not bad at all!

Stephen, lined up for the cat 4 race. He was working hard through out the race driving the pace trying to form a break away group. With all the hard work early in the race he did not have too many bullets at the end. His race ended up in a field sprint, with Stephen taking 8th. On top of that Stephen jumped into a second race of the day, cat 3/4 race.

Looks like team AVC has gathered a fair amount of total team points to start the season. Soon as the point total is available we will be posting. AVC should be in the top 10 and likely to be in the top 5 for total team points, awesome!

Below are some reports from your sponsored racers. Thanks again for all your support to team AVC/Hagerstown-Washington County.

Brian Fouche's race, 1/2/3 WRR;

First, big thanks go out to scott gordon and river city cycles for
getting me a fuji frame and getting it ready in time for the race.

Bike was great, but it was my first ride on it and it was a race, so
it took a little getting used to. Race was full 75 riders, suppossed
to be 75 miles, but we ended up doing around 65 in 2:30.

It was a pretty uneventful race. A few teams with a ton of riders,
and they basically controlled the race. I stayed in the back of the
pack most of the race, as everything was getting chased down, and
nothing was going to stick as we were averaging 27-28 mph, and it
seemed rite aid wanted a sprint finish which they got. I felt good,
but for some reason started cramping 30 miles in, but managed to just
sit in and finish. with 2 to go before the first little climb on the
course there was a crash on a wide straight section and i got caught
behind it, came to almost a complete stop, but didn't crash. Field
had a good 100+ meters on me, but somehow i bridged back up to it on
the climb. Legs felt good on the last lap, but i didn't contest the
sprint, as i wasn't even sprinting and spinning out my 53x12 probably
doing 40mph the last K.

Brian Fouche

Stephen Wahl's race, WRR and Tysons;

The Tour of Walkersville
Walkersville was the most fun I have had in a road race. I did a fair amount of work on the front, chasing down a few breaks and then pulled myself and CG up to the NCVC guy at the end of the 2nd lap that would end up being the beginning of the breakaway that stayed away the rest of the race. The three of us stayed away for a lap (I think it was a lap) and then were joined by three more guys that bridged up.

We were working well together, communicating, rotating, and kept the pace up. A couple more bridged up and I believe that was it. Carlos, the guy from Bolivia was there in the breakaway.

On the last lap 2 guys got away at the stair step by the barn and I thought we wouldn't catch them. We caught them before the last turn onto Dublin and things started to get a little less organized since we were all getting ready for the sprint. The pace picked up again and guys would try to jump every once in a while, but someone always covered their move. I had good position coming up to the 200 meter mark but then got boxed in. I had to let the guys go around me before I could start my sprint, just missing 2nd place as CG rolled through a wheel ahead of me. Awesome race! My adrenalin was pumping just being in the break and working with a strong group of guys.


Tyson's Corner
I worked my butt off in the 4 race, trying to cover everything and stay at the front of the race. Every time I came to the top of the hill on the finish stretch, Joe was telling me to drop a gear and hammer it on the false flat. I couldn't. I needed to recover. That hill was getting tough. I basically did too much work and went too early on the sprint for the finish. Managed to pull 8th after leading out the Rt 1 guy that won the race. He said he was following my wheel waiting for me to go and jumped when I jumped.

I almost decided to skip the 3/4 race since I had done so much work the day before and then did a lot in the 4 race, but figured I spent the money and would race as long as I could. I actually hung with the field all the way up until the 2nd to last lap. I was feeling ok, working and mixing it up a little in the middle of the field but the hill was wearing on me. The last few laps were spent riding up near the front coming up the hill and fading to the back, and then chasing on the false flat. The pace picked up a little on the 2nd to last lap and I couldn't hang any more so I let the field go and finished by myself.

I was just happy to finish since I was planning on skipping the race all together. Got a great workout this weekend and when I put my jeans on after the race, they wouldn't stay up. Guess I lost those last couple of pounds today.

Team AVC/Hagerstown-Washington County