What Would Jens Voigt Do? W&M Men's B Road Race Recap

Keeping with my dirty background I warmed up by riding some single-track around, the venue, York River State Park, pretty sweet and just technical enough to be super fun on a road bike. Obtaining the correct amount of mud on my bike it was time to head over to the staging area.

"Shut up legs! Do what I tell you to do" -JV

I can't tell you what happened in the peloton after the neutral roll out, because I wasn't there!

Now this could mean one of two things, getting dropped immediately or dropping the entire field from the gun and never looking back. If one asks WWJVD the latter is obviously what happened.

"If you go (with a break), you can either win or not win. If you don't go for it, you definitely won't win" -JV

After sufficiently screwing around, watching one of the most solid mountain bikers I know attempt to take out the field and joking with friends new and old during the roll out, it was on! After we rounded the corner onto course, a grand total of 50 meters in Bryan Lewis (UVa) puts in a massive acceleration pulling away. Flowing my general race plan of hanging out with Bryan the whole race I quickly counter attacked and made his wheel. We were joined by a rider from UNC and made off like three bandits! With Bryan acting as the strong man giving massive pulls (probably too massive) we thought we might be able to do this.

Workload B-Lewis 45% Me 35% and UNC (Scott Krause?) 20%  

Three amigos digging deep

We were going for it and held off the pack for 1.5 laps about 25 km. Once we were sticking it out the moto ref thankfully kept us updated on the time checks 1:45, then 1 flat then 45 seconds, all three knew we couldn't hold off the train of Navy riders hunting us down. After a brief discussion the group decision was to make it up the KOA "Climb" (really it was a kicker to crush in the big ring for under a minute) we would sit up and be absorbed back into the bunch.

With only Navy using the feed zone the rest of the break stayed far left

As the peloton approached Bryce Lowery (UVa) had other plans for us. With a epic surge from the powerhouse from Charlottesville we all jumped into a quickly forming larger break. A hard hitting double paceline instantly formed with about 8 in the rotation we cranked the pace up to something ridiculous. Some one shouted "We've got a gap GO! GO! GO!" and what did we do? We went for it! Two Navy riders, Sean Gardner (VT) and Dylan Lawson (NCSU) bridged up. Once I saw Sean in the rotation I knew what I had to do, we had to make this stick and boom 2 out of the top 10 for Tech! The break sorted itself out shortly, cutting the dead weight and establishing a good lead, leaving about 9-11 guys off the front. 2 VT (Me and Sean) 2 UVa (Bryan and Bryce), 2 Navy, 1 App State (Gene Taylor), 1 UNC (Scott for the original break), 1 NCSU (Dylan) and maybe 2 other guys who got dropped in a bit. For almost two full 16 km laps we held a super solid pace all working together almost everyone keeping a smooth superb rotation down. Everyone knew that with 3/4 of the teams represented and Navy having learned some tactics in not chasing their own teammates down we had a chance to just stay away. Somewhere in there Bryan got tired/ sick of us and sat up to wait for the pack. I missed you up there dude! Next week we'll have to try again!

Only having one time check (at 2:30) I wasn't sure if we would hold or get swept up in the finial lap. Taking the reigns I attempted to lead the break and keep everyone working together and a high pace driving onwards. Leading by example I kept giving strong pulls all day and served suffering with a smile!

"If it hurts me, it must hurt the other ones twice as much" -JV

About half way through the 4th lap the moto ref informed us that the race was getting cut a lap short and this was it less than 10 km to go! No time check though. Sticking to my recently formulated plan of keeping the break together and well ahead of the field so that Sean could stay safe from any attacks, every time someone started screwing around I went to the front and held as close to 50 km/h as I could muster till someone relived me of my duty. The best way to prevent an attack is to go so hard that nobody even thinks to get into the wind. This had the added benefit of keeping the break together and going fast so we wouldn't get caught (no one told me the gap kept opening up to almost 5 minutes)

"Everybody has to suffer, suffer, suffer until they've all had enough" -JV

Then Sean had an idea, for an endgame, I would attack in the finial corner onto the finishing straight at ~1500m to go then he would counter attack bridging up and we would TT to the finish me leading Sean out as far as I could. Half way into the turn I kicked it with all I had and went areo putting it all out there 400m later I check back and see 7 hungry riders in my draft, that didn't work. I sat up, someone attacked, had to give it everything to hang on. with 500m we crested a small hill before the finial pitch in the last 300m. With everyone hard to the left I attacked on the downhill hard to the right in hopes to mess up everyone's sprint plans and open up the road for Sean. With everyone thinking I was a strongman or something they countered. I was caught with 200m to go. Totally gassed I easy pedaled to the line and gave my best wheelie for the crowd and 8th place! Teammates watching the finish quickly informed me that Sean made it happen in the sprint taking the coveted W! This caused an over flow of stoke and prompt celebrations! Having/helping a teammate winning feels just as good as winning itself.

"I'll burn, I'm ready to die for you on the bike" -JV

I guess I might be a breakaway specialist? Time will tell. Many more races to come!

This really needs no explanation

Overall VT did excellent the first day of racing in the ACCC, 1st in Men's A and B, top 10 positions in almost every other field. 

Shout out to Dylan for taking 3rd and Richard O'Briant for winning the field sprint! 

Thanks to everybody and congrats again to Sean and Taylor for your victories!

Photos by Tim Gardner and Wyatt Lowdermilk

Just remember what would Jens Voigt Do? Breakaway the entire day. 

What would Peter Sagan do? Wheelie the finish just because.

"You have got to be as insane as the insanity around you" -JV