Tag: Paul Mach.

2009 Mt. Hood Cycling Classic winner Paul Mach passes along one strategy for breaking away when facing a vigilant peloton.

Have you been winning a few too many races in your category and suddenly find you’re a marked rider? When the course isn’t difficult enough to make a selection, crafty racers get creative.

Bissell Pro Cycling Team’s Paul Mach, winner of last year’s Mt. Hood and Cherry Blossom cycling classics, explains how he and another well-known NorCal rider escaped the peloton during the Paskenta Century, a Chico, Calif., Super Bowl Sunday ride “that is taken very, very seriously by the locals.”

Pay attention marked riders:

“The first part was dramatic but not climactic. Ian (Boswell) spent it getting a flat and chasing back on. I spent it learning that there wasn’t any wind to break things up. Thus, forcing more creative racing.
This creative racing resulted in a 60 mile break that started with 5 riders but dwindled down to just me and Jesse (Moore) for the last 25 miles.

“So how did it happen that two well-marked riders got off the front on an almost totally flat course? Well, I’m going to tell you, because it’s my blog and I’m really proud of it. First, Jesse lit up a wicked counter attack to get off the front. Perfect, because he wasn’t coming back by himself, so I just needed to find a way to get up there with just a few others.

“It took a while, but the perfect situation finally formed; 2 small chase groups just within reach. I attacked and bridged up to the first one. The peloton responded, as always, and caught us. As the tired guys were sitting up and blocking the fresh guys, I countered and bridged to the next group. “We worked well together for a few minutes until we caught Jesse, and that was the start of 2+ hours of hard riding.”

Moore and Mach went on to finish first and second. Read the entire post on Paul Mach’s blog.