I should feel pretty good according to the numbers but I think I am getting a cold or allergies are acting up because when we start racing, can't do anything except sit in and wait for the finales, and totally blow during the last race. 3/4 Scratch Race
Feel decent after a long day in the sun yesterday at Winters, but takes a long time to get comfortable. Two riders get off early. I lost track of them so I asked around and people said they got caught so I didn't worry. Huge mistake. Late in the race I could hear the announcer talking about their lead. Racing for third at this point, and the teammates of one of the riders are sitting on the front dutifully doing tempo so I start trying to up the pace, too little too late. At least keep it safer than it was, saved too much at the end on the hill, should have surged again once I caught the leaders of the pack, instead got swarmed on the descent, ended up tenth in field sprint.
My role is to attack and see if anything sticks, carry bottles for others, and regroup after the hill. When we signed up there were only twenty in the field and half were teammates but at the start the field is full with the addition of some representation from Safeway/Morgan Stanley and many others so someone who does well today will earn their t-shirt.
Peter goes off first, and gets such a big gap, no one even bothers to nibble. So when Josh goes and comes back, I surge multiple times and take a few riders with me, but nothing sticks. Then we hit the rollers and I just hang on for the ride. Pick up a fourth, neutral bottle in the feedzone from Lei but then hand it back to him because my pockets are full. The only difficulty on the course is the one constant grade on the final hill and when a few teammates are off the pace I wait for them and we start time trialing on the flat section. Unfortunately one is having wheel hit his brake pad so he has to give up after about 30 minutes, right when our field comes into view. For the next section I trade pulls with Lei and another rider until we get within 200 meters and I can't keep up. Lei gets almost to the group at the feedzone when he flats, and the rider he was with flats as well. Then I catch Jay who is working on his second flat. There is a very bad pattern starting here...
Luckily Mark's SO Amy volunteers to hand up water in the feed zone, on the second (and third laps for the really hard men), it's really nice to have something cold.
At this point there is no chance for me to catch up and help anybody so I give my fourth still full bottle to Jon after the hill so someone finishing the third lap will have some liquids, and roll to the finish where I catch Mark who gave up his wheel to Roger who flatted. Roger finishes the day in style by winning the field sprint for second.
Come into this race with a lot of pressure, lots of folks know I won this last year so I am not counting on the same tactics working. Many teammates this year, too. Not as big a team presence as in the past so I think this works against us, folks race pretty negatively overall, and we finish about five minutes slower than last year when I attacked like mad in the first half and got dropped in the second half.
As the race progresses, start to lose more and more teammates to flats and mechanicals, but we still manage a good leadout to control the pace for the last few miles. We get to the bridge that is a minor choke point and we get swarmed a little but I think I should have been more patient, and not gone with the early moves - maybe too many people watched my video of last year and were going to try to imitate it. One of the riders I am watching is Michael, who has had a great 2009 season, and when he jumps I respond immediately. Erik S. and Mike S. are there, too.
Surprisingly to me and Michael, he fades after about twenty seconds and when we catch him, Mike S. and Erik S. go again. We have not yet even gotten to the underpass, and this is really not where I want to go, but I don't want to give up without a fight. In retrospect I should have let someone else chase them down. But I surge again. Mike S. fades. I crawl back onto Erik's wheel, then before we reach the corner, he surges, and I have trouble getting on his wheel. In the back of my head I am thinking, wow, Erik is going to win. But as soon as we reach the corner, riders start passing me until finally it's me and Erik staggering across the line for tenth and eleventh place. This is disappointing for me because I feel like I let my teammates down.
Today I am to just relax and sit in and come out to play at the end. It's helpful to have the teammates to make that easy! Many attacks go repeatedly in the gently rolling hills until finally one sticks with a teammate, which takes off a lot of performance pressure because he is guaranteed a podium spot for finishing.
Now all I have to do is wait for the end game. Still seven Davis riders in what is left of the pack and they hammer on the rollers before the final flat sections. It's fun going this fast, though I should have taken it easier and not followed each acceleration so closely, and just let gravity do most of the work. The final straightway doesn't got exactly as planned, got a lot of help, but used up the leadout too early. Then I misjudged the distance to the finish from the final corner. Entered the turn in fourth position, got passed by one rider, then the two riders directly in front of me were so big I did not notice the gap had gotten quite large to the other two riders. This would not have been a problem except for the fact that the final straight of 200+ meters was up an overpass and down, and I noticed this on the downhill and my advantage against these much larger riders was behind me on the uphill... Salvaged what I could and got third in the field sprint. The last overpass is so close to the finish line I should have just gone with every single attack at that point, hesitated and relied on using the draft too much. Also, with a 50 front chain ring need an 11 for the 40+mph downhill sprint since I don't practice sprints over 120 rpm.
My third time doing this race, and got better results each time, hoping for a charm the third time, too.
Just was not to be, made a lot of mistakes. First off, conditions were harder for me than in past years, and I needed to bring a lot more hydration and neglected this during the race, might have gotten dehydrated while staging. Next, went with the surges up Patterson Pass. That was probably the silliest because the leaders went over the top in about the same time as they have the past two years when I was with the group. This time I got popped off with about one or two kilometers to go. When I got dropped and could see the pack of twenty five up the road, resolved to catch on or blow, and settled into a rhythm, concentrating intently on the white line. A little too intently as I didn't look far up the road and when the white painted line turned into a four inch curb I veered off into the deep gravel on the right. The smart thing to do at this point would have been to stop and just get back on the road but of course, I didn't do this, I tried to bunny hop from the gravel, over the curb, back into the road and I didn't clear it and took a tumble at five miles per hour. Doh. Duanefrom VC Monterey kindly asked if I was OK, mostly just embarrassed and set to work with Duane and another rider to try and catch folks after the descent.
Then, after we caught one rider, I felt a thump, thump for a short time from my front tire, almost stopped but when my tire stayed inflated I kept going. Then I could have sworn the same thing happened on the rear.
Did not put two and two together at this point, but my legs started feeling like lead going through the parking area and almost quit but I was only a few minutes back after one lap.
Then I totally blew the second time up Patterson and could not even hold tempo the rest of the race. By Midway I could feel my front and rear tires getting squishy. Now I just wanted to finish upright. Thankfully Anthony came along from a different field and shared some extra water with me. Then to add insult to injury, my left inner quad cramped on the last hill and I stopped to massage it out, got started again, and was thinking I could finish by just pedaling my right leg and then my right leg cramped. A few more minutes passed before I could get started again, and barely finish the race on two tires with only about ten PSI each,thanks to a couple of goathead thorns.
The four corner industrial park course with two long and wide front and back stretch and shorter, narrower straights between turns one and two and bewteen turns three and four.
Very big field. I'm supposed to sit in and help out at the end. This goes well except for a few unfortunate accidents along the way, including one which requires an ambulance so we neutralize for a few laps and finally have the officals stop and restart us for the last nine laps. Everyone on the team is still in it. At one point I mistake Darren for Josh and offer to help him move up, oops, at least I helped a teammate! Then with 1.5 laps to go, the rider I was there to help out has to stop for a crash but I miss this and have to improvise. I can see a train of teammates on the front about four rows ahead so just sit back and watch. Then they get swarmed and it's a bit chaotic - at this point I just want to finish upright and am closer to the front than the back so just start moving up.
With two turns to go, Eddie from SJBC goes for it. The last part of the race is just foobar because I can see I have to ride the brakes but can't move up because it's rider to rider around me, so we have a little more chaos to top off the day as one rider clips a pedal and the rider behind him start tumbling across the road in the corner. I have to tap the brakes and start steering away - this is enough to separate the front eighteen from us that are caught behind the accident and that's the race. Start sprinting just to get back up to speed and finish the race.
A little less fitness and am coming in about three kilos heavier versus 2008. Oddly, I end up with almost same final result. I would do anything to have that fitness again, well anything except eat and drink less and train more. I kid. A little.
Temps are very cool due to overcast skies, and even a little fog/rain. The course is a little bit different than previous years, instead of one out and back there are now two out and backs, the first out and back is more of a circle and back, and the second doesn't go almost to the end ( guess the whole road wasn't available ) but the one three to four minute hill is still the main defining feature.
Last year blew up on the one big climb, and was able to go pretty hard each time on the climb, not so much on the other parts. This year, tried to meter out the effort on the climb, and about about fifteen guys rode away very gradually. Then it was Ernie, Mike, some other guy and I, ten seconds back of the pack and figured we wold catch them no problem after the top, but Ernie and the other guy killed it on the undulating section before the finish and bridged up, and I could only watch. Worked with Mike and TT'ed and we got within 50 meters after Mike took a long pull and I didn't want to jump and leave Mike behind so I tried to TT both of us up and could not do it, so close. We ended up losing about 30 seconds for each 10.5 mile lap so with two turn arounds, we could see the group for about twenty five miles of chasing which was a very tiny carrot. We only catch one of the about fifteen riders in front of us, Ernie, who despite a thirty pound weight advantage stayed with the group longer than Mike or I. We end up going into match sprint mode for the finish with Ernie leading us out for fun. . T: 1:57:28 C: 92 S: 30.3 Pavg: 182 Pnorm: 226 D: 59.5 km
Gave myself an extra hour to get hour for traffic and needed two so got there with only fifteen minutes to spare. There's a theme running here that I need to break, since there were no bathrooms or portapotties for the first couple of hours I had to race with a full bladder...
No warmup meant I felt like dropping out after ten minutes but forced myself to stay in there - it always feels harder than it really is. I can see Josh and Mitch well positioned at the front near the man child from VOS, barely hanging onto the back of the field, a couple of times I am behind someone who is dropped and have to bridge back up and that almost breaks me but the pack goes slow enough in the technical sections that I can catch up again.
Finally with two laps to go try to move up to help and am thwarted by being almost last to begin with, luckily some gaps open up on the last lap so I can move up, almost get to the front and hesitate - should I just lead it out and hope the teammates can get over or what, and the time I spend thinking uses up the window of opportunity and we are on the finish stretch before I can do anything else and just sprint in for a 15th or so.
CTL: 117 TSB: 5 Gave myself an extra hour to travel to San Rafael through San Francisco traffic and it turned out to be not enough, started worrying a little bit when I had thirty minutes to show up at the race and was still on the Golden Gate Bridge. With five minutes to spare, change into the cycling clothes, and get to the course, Josh helpfully pins the number on so I don't have to do it during the race and my warmup consists of the first twenty minutes of the race where I get to consider the sin of not warming up and struggle to hang in the pack. The course is the same one used for the *daytime* San Rafael Crit, a long, slightly uphill drag for the start /finish, a short hill (the steepest section of the course) between turns one and two, a long, slightly downhill drag between turns two and three and a short hill between turns three and four to the finish straight.
I try to help our designated sprinter move up in spite of struggling to hang on while wheelsucking most of rest of the time. We get to three to go and I see a teammate closer to the front and move up to join him. With two to go I am on his wheel and then when there is a surge on the backside, I let it go, but others close the gap by the turn. On the last ascent of the steep hill I pedal as fast as I can but am somewhat disappointed to find myself only keeping even with the ten to eleven riders around me. Do not have anything left in the legs after this and roll in for somewhere around tenth to twelfth.
On the plus side this is the hardest I've gone in a crit since I got sick in February so slowly getting back in the groove of racing.
This course is in downtown San Luis Obispo. It passes through the brick *sidewalk* in front of the Mission there. It's wide so it's not too bad but there are some short brick walls on either side that tend to push riders in the gutter back to the center. Besides the sidewalk section there is a short, one block hill from turn one to turn two, a little more rise to the sidewalk, then a long gradual rise after the sidewalk to turn three, a very short straight, then turn four.
I am here to help my teammate, but I have a lot of trouble doing this - he is on the front of the field for most of the race! Not sure how to help. :) The course gives me difficulty in that I move up a few spots on the long gradual hill but lose them right back on the descent/finish straight. I try to minimize the amount of work I am doing to advance but I end up moving up one steps forward/one step back the whole race and staying about twentieth out of seventy - the twenty guys in front of me have the same plan and are as strong as I am or stronger. When it becomes apparent on the last lap and a half I am not going to move up from twentieth or so I ease up to reload for the next race.
For this race our team plan is to just stay safe since my teammate won a prime and placed in the first race (weekend mission accomplished) and even at the front of the field it was sometimes dangerous. I just sit in tenth to twentieth wheel. I didn't think it was possible but there were more close calls in this race than the first, and I'm only responsible for a few of them. :) Towards the end I think I might be close enough to the front to help out so when there is a lull in the pace with two to go I make a move to the front. Go a little too hard and find myself off the front, and figure I might as well go for it. There is a determined chase behind me, normally I could go this hard for about two laps of this course but looking back is can be fatal to motivation in these circumstances...so I am caught near the sidewalk section. My teammate counters. I hesitated and figured, he should do well, and ease up but I should have gone with the people who chased after him because he was really fatigued from being on the front in *two* races and faded before the finish. Gotta always be on your toes and react and not overthink in these situations.
Plateauing at February fitness, hard to get it up where it was with work and the racing all the time business.
This race is on a military installation. There is one short climb of significance, and only one lane of the road is open for the riders for the flattish part leading up to it.
Previewing the course indicate the climb is not exactly what is described in the flyer or the online profile at the race web site and the first time up confirms that the climb might only be 6% but it comes in a stair step fashion so some parts are much steeper. The narrowness of the roads makes for a lot of contact/close calls in a large field. Since I am near the front the first time up, it is pretty easy to hang in and sag climb, and still we drop about a third to half the field. This is kind of surprising because I only went at the equivalent of 4:30 pace up Mt Eden for 4:00 and this is not as hard as we usually do the *first* climb up Stage Road at the Pescadero Road Race where very few riders get dropped. We have the full 1.5 lanes for the descent, it seems a bit hairy due to the size of the pack that is left, and one 90 degree turn at the base of the first long, steep section, and the trip back to the start of the climb is uneventful.
Since I am at the back on the climb, I have to be more attentive and when a gap opens up in front of me, I panic a bit and go a little too hard to get back on, was just too hard for a short time but it's enough to force me to ease up on the last part of the climb. Consider chasing the pack down but some crashes on the descent by riders ahead of me discourages that and I pack it in at the end of the second lap to save something for tomorrows criterium.
Feel so much better today, but when I get to the race and get ready, realize I forgot the jersey at home! Luckily Michael H. has a *spare* so he lets me borrow it, and I don't have to pull a snokrashe and race in my t-shirt.
We have so many riders in this race that I am assigned to keep the pace up so the front of the pack is safe for our sprinter so I trade off pulls for as long as I can go or as it turns out about half the race. This is much harder than just sitting in but more fun and I am highly likely to be successful. :) rear view front view E4 T:40:02 D: 27.8 S: 41.5 C: 98 Pavg 199 pnorm: 233
35+ 4 Pretty much the same plan for the next race for me, we do not have a neutral first lap though, and some folks are confused about this, so when I get my usual quick start, and don't see anyone behind me, keep going for two laps, when the pack starts to get interested I ease up and get back in the routine of trying to get off the front again.
I thought I might have a bad day on the bike because after standing around for six hours at the Hellyer AVC my legs and back were still sore in the morning and only got four hours of sleep. Was looking forward to the post race snooze. The course is a figure eight with a lot of small undulations, maybe at most ten to twenty feet over the course of a block with the finish on a long uphill drag.
E4 Hang out midpack, feels like I am struggling. Half way through the race there is an accident and a gap opens up in front of me. I know some folks behind me so I pull to get us close to the pack and am really not feeling good at all and just quit. The data shows the race was not that hard. Hmmm...
35+ 3/4 I feel a little better during this race. When I try to move up the legs are not responding so I am not going to be able to help anybody out. I can just hang in the back just to finish but since I am racing tomorrow, don't need to just finish for the sake of finishing and pull out again...
Three or four of the really strong juniors are not in the 3/4 field tonight, one has upgraded to 2 and the others are saving themselves for Nevada City and the USA Cycling junior camp later this weekend, still the field is pretty big at fifteen to twenty.
3/4 20 Lap Scratch Race T: 9:03 S: 44.5 C: 104 Pavg: 270 Pnorm: 299 This is a little different without the kids - a lot less attacking so the field stays intact until almost the end AFAIK. I set tempo for a bit, then Rick counters and almost gets away but we bring him and the others back. At one point I am behind Shawn and we are getting dropped and I am wondering what happened, he got a bug in his unshielded eye and can't see anything for a bit! Then Rick does a leadout and causes a slight separation, I react too late and can only manage a fifth.
No rear view, didn't turn it on.
3/4 30 Lap 6x5 Points Race T:14:11 S: 43.6 C: 102 Pavg: 268 Pnorm: 297 On the plus side I didn't get lapped! Scored a few points, was pretty conservative after getting dropped the last two times, maybe could have gone for more points, not enough points to score.
Did five laps of the 123 Points race at the suggestion of Eric Petersen, this was a pretty good idea just to keep warm. It was really easy sitting in but I didn't want to burn any matches just to sit in back of the field T: 2:07 Pavg: 259 C: 105 S: 44.9
3/4 Miss and Out I use the simplest strategy which is stay on the front as long as possible but I only last a lap before the Neal, the strongest rider in the field, takes over. Then I am boxed in by Rick for most of the rest of the race, which sort of turns out OK. At one point he let's up and I attack (maybe too hard) but Neil reels me back in, and I am behind him and boxed in by Rick again! I keep waiting for an opening and for a few seconds I look back and there's an opening where Rick is ahead of me and Erik is off of my hip but I hesitate and Erik moves forward and I am boxed in again(!) so finish fifth - mostly by following Neal for all but three laps. T: 7:46 S: 41.5 C: 96 Pavg: 282 Pnorm: 311
Not quite the same shape as last year and five pounds heavier but had some different goals of helping some folks get through the first couple of climbs. That mostly worked and I didn't have to finish the race but felt kind of oddly fresh after the first climb on Stage so I continued. We had dense fog and a little rain on the first lap. From the data it looks like we went easier than we had in past years on both of the two hills on Stage. Then I just sat in. Takes a lot of pressure off in some ways to have goals that don't involve finishing!
When we hit Haskins we didn't go that hard either, though I was huffing and puffing. The guy next to me had never ridden it before and asked while we were going up "Is this it?" - I think if he thought it was easy, he should be able to win. :) We were in one pretty big clumpy group and I should have gone to the front to make things safer but got lazy and didn't think to have a secondary goal at the start. Then there was an accident near the McDonald Park entrance so I stopped to help out. Dan had his derailleur hanger bent so Mitch bent it back but it skipped all the time then they told me to continue without them. I just went tempo to the top and they caught me at the base and we TT'ed to the start where Dan dropped out and I tried to pull as much as possible before I had to ease up on Stage. The sun started shining so I decided to enjoy the last lap for fun, not really racing at all.
Signed up for this race because it's new and wanted to see the course. The name of the office park - Sonoma Mountain Village - portends a mountain top setting but it's more like Mountain View, the mountains are right there on the horizon. The course though is not the usual office park criterium fair, lots of undulations in the road, none long enough to cause any difficulty, and somewhat narrow twists and turns (for a sixty plus rider field of newbs).
The 35+ 4/5 race has a big field. I want to move up but am a bit scared by the riding habits of some of the riders ahead of me, not that I am perfect - see yesterday. There are so many close calls that I get out of the mode of racing and into survival mode and just finish with the pack.
S: 41.7 C: 98 pavg: 166 pnorm: 184 T: 38.24
e4 After not feeling notall that tired from the first race, decide to at last work a little bit to get a better workout, sprinting legs not back from yesterday's efforts. Am able to work to the front - it seems a little safer but we have one crash where there were only a bunch of close calls in the masters' race. Not feeling the mojo so only sprint enough at the end to finish in front of Lloyd. :)
Here's one lap for those who were not there (that junior is really strong as was near the front until the end):
TSB: 7 CTL: 115 Took it a little too easy on Thursday and Friday due to lack of sleep.
Trying to work on team tactics today, first race, trying to go for primes or lead out for primes. Lead out Reed for one, but I died before turn four, need to go a little longer or start a little later, or not go that hard at the start?
Next one I just happened to be near the front when there was a prime, Peter told me to go for it so I did, just sixth or seventh. Then Peter led me out, and did a much better job for me than I did for Reed. Unfortunately I made a few mistakes. Not following closely enough as Mark advised before the race. I also was not pedaling in the corners. Still getting confidence back after striking a pedal at Brisbane, need to forget about that and pedal through most corners, just not sprint through the corner... Ended up burning a lot of matches to stay close and came up a little short. Dang.
Also I totally blew after that effort, tried to keep going, but couldn't finish, sorry about blocking the course there everybody! T: 26:43 pavg: 203 pnorm: 245 D: 18.75km S: 42 kph C: 100
For the second race I was supposed to attack a little later but I screwed up here after ten minutes:
and couldn't get back with the group - made the mistake of pausing when I caught some stragglers and should have kept on going. I guess on the bright side I didn't sign up to do the time trial tomorrow since I could not do it today. T: 17:19 pavg: 198 pnrom: 227 C: 99 S: 37.1 D: 10.8 km
If my legs felt sore yesterday before the two hilly crits, naturally they feel a little worse for the wear today. Since I don't have much hope for a good result, want to work on spinning in the races today since I have a bad habit of using too big a gear and mashing. In that regard the E4 race is a smashing success.
e4 t: 37.24 s: 42.5 c: 106 pavg: 158 pnrom: 176 - it was easy but it sure didn't feel easy d: 26.6km
one lap of the course for the two of you out there who haven't seen it
35/45+ 3/4 race This race is a little harder, I actually stuck my nose into the wind a few times, and it's a little more strung out, even with a lot more riders in this field. No team takes control so the last few laps are chaotic with every one trying to get into a sweet spot location of close to but not on the front. A few times the field goes curb to curb over four lanes and am not feeling the the ability to move all the way to the front so resign myself to sitting in back. There is a mishap on the first corner of the bell lap, one rider goes down and I stop to avoid hitting him and immediately pull of the course so just in case that guy who hit me last time in the back is here so doesn't get a second chance! :)
CTL: 111 TSB: 4 Should be an OK day for me to race according to PMC but my legs are still sore from track racing on Friday night. This is a new race in Auburn which is about half an hour east of Sacramento. The course has a long slightly uphill drag to start/finish line that continues uphill after the finish with a steep section that lasts about twenty seconds, sort of like the start of the finish straight at Santa Cruz before it crests and leads to a 90 degree right that is narrow due to other lane being open to traffic, this goes under a railway crossing and immediately after the crossing (about 150 feet from the last turn) it turns 90 degrees right again (narrow initially then wide) with a long headwind and slightly uphill section until one reaches the top of the course which goes over the railroad tracks on a bridge a right turn onto the bridge, and 50 feet later a right turn onto the gradual sweeping left hand turn down to the hay bale lined left 90 degree turn. It was slower than I thought as I only reached about 32 mph into this turn. Then after a block there was a 90 degree right and another 90 degree right back onto the home stretch. Enough words:
The race goes with what is called a neutral lap so that everyone can view the course once with the moto ref at the front. We are not supposed to pass the moto, it's sort of like a keirin fight for position. My legs are not cooperating at all so I just sit on the back and it's strung out single file when we get the whistle for the rolling race start. My race is pretty much over on this first lap. I am getting gapped by the railway underpass, and after the two right turns come across the aftermath of a couple of riders sprawled on the ground, both talking so they are OK, and see a small gap to the field ahead on the long back stretch. Try to catch on, blow, and after a few laps chase for the rest of the race, get lapped once. Since our field is only about thirty five, the officials are nice and let us finish the race.
t: 36:19 pnorm: 239 - this is close to just doing Montebello at threshold for me - the part where I got dropped wasn't that hard ( i.e. I went harder for longer at the track on Friday ) pavg: 181 d: 18.4 km c 97 s: 30.3
On the positive side, I stayed attentive during the start and was on the moto's wheel or close to it for the neutral lap, but the steep section of the hill got the better of me on the first lap, and I went straight to the back of the pack. I was with the group for one lap which was a minor improvement, until we got to the steep section and I could not do it a second time at race pace. Luckily(?) the officials had mercy and let us stragglers finish even though the original field size was around fifty.
One of the course marshals told me I would go faster if I shut my mouth, the additional wind resistance from riding around with my mouth wide open is probably slowing me down! The loud breathing is a dead giveaway whenever I am catching up to people, too. I considered quitting both races early but I could hear people yelling my name or possibly a similarly named competitor and would have felt worse if I quit and someone was cheering for me, can't let the spectators down.
t: 35.17 pnrom 238 pavg 182 d: 18.3 km c: 98 s: 31.1 I want to try this race again, but I will have to skip the Friday track if I want to do well, even with one full day of rest my legs are not the same.
