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Photo credits: Bob Jenney In 'cross, emphasis is often placed more on how you start (the sprint for the hole shot) than it is on how you finish (when gaps tell a foregone conclusion). There are times, however, when how you finish says a lot. At the Midnight Ride of Cyclocross back at the end of September, the classy Helen Wyman demonstrated that class. The whole story is here--read on for the Cliffs Notes version. Helen approached the finish with a huge gap. There was a slower almost-lapped rider ahead, but the finishing straight was wide and Helen could easily have made the pass. Instead, she sat up to let the other rider cross first. And as posted on the blog of that slower rider, here's what happened next. “Stay with me and I’ll show you some lines.” Helen, in her 6th/cool-down lap and I, in my 4th lap, had a private ride of the course. What I lack in cyclocross skills, I make up for in my ability to recognize a rare opportunity and just how incredibly lucky I am. I rode behind her the entire lap thinking, “Are you kidding me?! I’m riding with Helen Wyman. I am SO freakin’ lucky!”Flash forward to Plymouth. I was nearing the end of what I hoped would my second to last lap. The course was great, with enough technical elements--long steep run-up, barriers, deep sand with a turn, short steep run-up, all in just a few hundred yards--to suit me better than the "grass crits" of Canton and Crosstoberfest. Still, I wasn't on my best day. Alan G (lap 2) and Dan S (lap 3) had passed me despite starting farther back. They weren't far ahead (30 seconds?), but that was far enough. Dan's pass was pedestrian enough, but Alan and I had a fun back and forth. On lap 2 of the steep climb, I heard Alan behind me: "I'm right behind you, Jeff." "That's not good for you," I gasped between deep breaths. I led him over the barriers, across the sand, up the short climb, and through the woods. He tried an ill-advised inside pass on a line that didn't work for him (foreshadowing alert), so he braked and I fended him off. But the "win" was only temporary. As soon as the course straightened out on the open fields, he pushed passed me and built a decent lead. As I entered the finish stretch, Alan was nowhere in sight. When I reached the sharp left at the end of the straight, I saw the telltale white of his Mac kit entering the woods. By the time I got to the long steep run-up, I could have reached out and pulled down his shorts. (But that would have been weird.) I passed him over the barriers, then gave up my short-lived lead when I stalled in the sand. I stayed on his wheel through the woods before he gapped me for good on the flats. So, back to my nearing the end of my second to last lap. A few turns prior, I noticed the race leader not all that far back. I doubted that I'd be able to hold him off, but I stepped up my effort to give it a try. A rider just ahead gave me a nice carrot to chase. Another few turns, the leader was still there, but the pass wasn't imminent as I crossed the road and took a turn or two. All that remained was a right, another right, a left, a short straight, and the u-turn onto the finishing stretch. I took the wide line into the apex of the first right in order to set up the one that followed. Bam! The leader had tried a tight inside line he couldn't handle and hit me from the right. "Tell me you're there!," I yelled. "I did," he mumbled. But if he had, it certainly wasn't audible, and it certainly was picked up on my video. I'd later learn from a teammate that the leader had tried a similarly dodgy pass without warning. Had the leader said anything, I would have given him room to pass. And if he'd waited another few seconds, he would have had a straightaway to get it done. There wasn't much chance I would have held him off to earn myself a final lap, but I might have caught the rider ahead. I'd learn later that the leader's win was by a huge 50 seconds, so it's not like he needed to jam his wheel into a space he couldn't manage. Clearly, the guy had a great engine. Decision-making, not so much--he definitely crossed the line. And the class of a Helen Wyman? Not in evidence. The Numbers: click here for Strava
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2014 RESULTS
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