On Sunday May 3rd, Nick Clayville charged to a solo victory in Longbrach, WA at the 75-mile long State Road Championships.

I have had the pleasure or coaching Nick for the past few seasons and it has been a LOT of fun being a part of his progression as an athlete. 2008 is Nick’s first season of as a “full timer” and without question he has the talent to ride on the professional level. This probably will not be the last blog post featuring a Nick Clayville race result.

The race. I might not go into the details of Sunday’s event if I had not been a part of the 4 man breakaway that escaped the field 15 miles into the event. BUT, since I have the details and I was “lucky” enough to find my way into the escape…. I will.

The course was an undulating loop with lots of wind a few sharp pitches that really put the nails to the chalkboard…. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH. It was my 3rd Road race of the season and the 3rd time I’ve ridden more than 50 miles in one day since our training camp in Tucson in February. I had plans to find a the break, but not as early as the 15 mile mark, but then that’s bike racing. The good news is that the break consisted of myself, Nick, Dave Richter (new HSP cycling coach), and a young New Zealander from Oregon. The bad news, at least more me, was that I was far from confident in my ability to pull consistently for 60 miles. And with only 4 riders in the move and few big area teams NOT represented and no doubt committed to the chase, there was no room for slacking. So be it. You can convince yourself of anything, and so I did. Our group was very cohesive and rolled very steady during our time out front. With each lap I felt my reserves slowing fading away but due to our efforts our lead got up to the 3 minute range and I was sure. I had a hard time believing that a group could not get organized behind to hunt us down BUT, no one was coming across and the finish was getting closer and closer. I was CONFIDENT that I would NOT be able to win against any of my companions and the real concern for me was not getting dropped on the last lap. I spoke to Nick about him attacking on the long climb on the course about 5-8 km from the finish and like a bat out of hell he darted from the back of the group and no one made a move to cover. Neither Dave nor myself was interested in bringing Nick back. Sadly for the other breakaway companion, that meant he was going to be doing a good deal of chasing. He waiting too long to start his dig and Dave and I rolled through without any real zest. And so the gap to Nick grew. On the last sharp climb up the feedzone the lad from NZ bolted and left Dave and I for dead. We were pretty sure we could ride him back, but that didn’t end up happening. I felt bad not being able to help Dave at that point but the reality was that I was broken in all kinds of ways and just wanted off of my bike. Lucky for me the finish came sooner than later and that was that. Hooray for Clayville, he rode like a champ.

Sure, there as a bit of COLLUSION. What is collusion?

It is an agreement, usually secretive, which occurs between two or more persons to deceive, mislead, or defraud others of legal rights, or to obtain an objective forbidden by law typically involving fraud or gaining an unfair advantage and can involve “wage fixing, kickbacks, or misrepresenting the independence of the relationship between the colluding parties.” All acts effected by collusion are considered void.

We definitely misled the lad from NZ. We did in fact have what could be called an “unfair” advantage, but I did not feel the need to share any information with NZ. I don’t consider the result to be void in any way and as far as legality is concerned…… I think we’re good? NZ was DQ’d for initiating the original break by attacking over the yellow line. Bummer. As a result I ended up 3rd, and not 4th. I’ll take it. In a breakaway situation, how do you know if any of the other riders are working together? And can it be said that I was working “for” Nick? Was Dave? Or did we just not chase because he’s a friend? Or because we were blown, or both? One never knows. If you find yourself in a move that you realize is going to the line, you need to pay attention the dynamics of the move.

Congrats Nick!

Best,
TH