Fayetteville 40+ stage 3 as told by Brownie

[This is a great account of yesterday's stage 3 in the fayetteville 40+ race as told by Mike 'Brownie' Brown on TxBRA.]

"This was one of the most tactical races I've been in in a while. Since Allen [Abel of Joe's Pro Bikes] and [Chris 'CP'} Powers were tied on time, MVC's goal was to get the two second time bonus and then sit back and let the pack bring the race to us and do our best to hold it together for the sprint. Well, Allen beat Chris up the hill with a huge power surge that nobody could match [to earn the mid-race :02 bonus]. That put Joe's as the leaders on the road by 2 seconds. As it played out, that actually proved to be their downfall. Because when [Mark] Wiggins [Austinbikes/Revenant] went up the road with Duane [Neu - NTRT], that put Joe's in a must chase situation to maintain their overall GC.

Chris and I also knew Duane was about 1 minute behind him and Allen going into stage 3. When Joe's went to the front to chase, we sat in the back and just monitored their progress. I must have done 50 time checks during that race. Every time we crested a hill and saw Wiggins and Duane, I started timing their gap. If their gap would have started to blow out to the 1:30 or 2:00 minute mark, then I would have had to have gone to the front to help Joe's in order to bring the gap back down to around the 1:00 minute mark, thus negating Duane's overall GC chance, and putting the ball back in our court hoping Chris could outsprint Allen, take the time bonus and thus the overall CG.

But Patrick [McGrath], along with an occasional pull from Allen, kept the gap at exactly 1:00 minute. It was a huge, impressive effort by Patrick. In fact, it was such a huge effort that MVC never had to come to the front. If Allen had not beat Chris for the 2 sec bonus on lap 2, then it would have been MVC on the front instead of Joe's. It was a pure tactical game all day of knowing where everyone stood on CG, who was up the road, how much power they had, constantly maintaining time checks on their advantage and adjusting tactics if needed to always keep that gap right where we needed it in order for Joe's to do all the work and us do nothing. So, in a nutshell, that's exactly what the 40+ 1's and 2's were doing all day...having a tactical war!"

[As reported yesterday, CP took 3rd on stage 3 and with it the :04 bonus that moved him to the top of the GCand the 40+ win.]