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Lafayette Crit
7/10/05
Category 3
Place: DNF
Field: 59
Teammates: Rajiv
Well I got to the race at about 7:30 or so, which was 1 and a half hours before my race (9:00). I decided to ride my bike to the race, because it would be a good spin/warm-up before the race. When I got to the race, the masters 45+, 55+ were racing, and I watched Larry Nolan destroy the field. Later I went to get my number and had Steve pin my number on. After my number was on, I decided to go warm-up on the side streets of Lafayette for about 25-30 minutes. When the race started, it was like a junior race (fast with a few attacks), but still pretty steady. I felt really good in the pack, not breaking very often, and accelerating out of the hairpin corner. With about 40 minutes left, someone hit the baracade on the outside, and swerved across the road taking out almost everyone behind them (15+ riders). I did not crash, but came to a stop and had to chase to get back on, which took a lot out of me. I caught back onto them a few times, but the people at the back of the group could not corner very well, causing me to slow down and sprint back up. After catching the group about 5 times I decided to call it quits, and ride at my own pace until the group lapped me. The officials never said that they would pull riders, so I thought that I could get back in, but I got pulled with about 15 minutes left.
This was a good learning experience, because this shows that if there is a crash and you get stuck in it (even if you don’t crash) you should stop and get a free lap. Hopefully next time I won’t get stuck behind a crash, and I won’t get pulled.
Wente Road Race
4/23/05
Category: Juniors 17/18
Place: 6th
Field: 11+ (11 finished; starting field not known)
Distance: 33 miles
Teammates: Tyler, Rajiv, Charles
Well my dad was racing at 8:20 or so, so Tyler’s dad gave me a ride, that way I did not have to stay there from 6:45 till 12:00. We got to the race at about 10:45 or so, and I forgot my license. The lady at the registration was nice though and believed who I was when Jason said I was who I was. We (Tyler, Charles, Rajiv, and I) warmed up together in the parking lot. When we got to the start line we saw Adam Switters and Daniel Holloway, which was weird, because we had thought that Adam was going to do the Pro 1/2's. When we got to the hills, Adam pushed the pace way up and dropped everyone (except Tyler). The rest of the race was fairly slow except for the normal accelerations that came from Daniel, Blake, and Joe. On the second lap, my chain fell off at the bottom of the hill, and Blake and Daniel tried to push me so I could try to get my chain back on. It didn’t work, so I decided to stop and get it on with my hands which made me chase back to the group only to get dropped again by the attacks. But when we got to the freeway, I was able to push my pace up a bit so that I could catch the group again. Blake got a flat on the last part of the hill, which brought the pace down a little bit. I got dropped when Daniel attacked on the huge steep roller near the 2/3 point of the lap, so that I could solo it off the back of the group for the last 3 miles or so. Overall this race went pretty well (Three Tieni Duro’s in the top 6).
Appelation/Stockton Crit.
April 9, 2005
Place: 9th in the field, 4th in 17/18's
Category: 15/18
Starters: 50
Teammates: Tyler, Charles, Rajiv, Nick, JP, Jordan, Ye, Navin, John
Well, this race was definitely a bad one (bad in that there were so many of us, but we did not control it). Jason took Nick Riohas and I to the race, and I distracted him, and we took a wrong turn which added about 20 minutes. We got to the race at about 9:50, and the race was FULL! I could not believe it, this was the first time that I have ever been to a junior race that I had to pre-reg for. I got onto the waiting list, and went back to Jason’s car to get ready, incase they let me in. I went back a few times, and after a lot of talking with the referees, Steve talked the refs into making the race two groups, both 20 minutes long. This was good, because I got to race, but bad because I did not get to warm-up and it was extremely short.
The start of the race was not really fast (neither was the race), which was good for Tyler, because he could not get clipped into his cleat. This race was a very hard one to move around in, because of all the bad roads, and horrible corners. We really screwed it up, when Tyler and I were in a break with two 15/16’s, and we had a gap of about 30 feet. We ( I definitely) saw the group catching us, so we really lost motivation to keep going, but if we kept going we probably could have stayed away. That course was the perfect place for breakaways, because of the corners and roads. The group could not go very fast into most of the corners, because they went from 5 lanes down to two lanes in some places. In the last lap, I was in perfect position (2nd wheel), looking for my teammates, because there was no way that I was going to sprint against Blake who was right behind me. I was trying to find Tyler or Rajiv, but I only saw Tyler behind me (4th), so that was good, because I could do a really fast lead out, and then pull off early for Blake to tire out, but that never happened. In the last corner, the little tiny 15/16 CVC kid came up on the inside corner and cut all of the 17/18’s off (The CVC 17/18 that went on a break with Charles at Snelling, me, Blake, Tyler, and anyone else behind us). That screwed all of the 17/18’s up except for “Isham” or however you spell it. Hopefully next year we will do better.
P.S. – Now that Wolfpack and many other juniors are around, I would pre-reg for almost every race you go to, even junior races.
Copperopolis Road Race
3/26/05
Juniors 17/18
Place: 1st
Field: about 15
Teammates: Tyler G., Gaelan M., and Myself (Lars)
Well I got to the race at about 6: 20 or so, and had plenty of time to get registered and warm. I parked right up front in a coned off area, with a Delta Velo member because he is my neighbor at my cabin. I did not really warm up, but I did convince Jason to fix my headset. We lined up at the start, and it seemed as though there were a lot of 17/18 juniors in the group. Right from the gun, Tyler and I were pushing the pace, to get our warm-up in before the hill. When we hit the feed zone, Tyler attacked and no one reacted. So I decided to bridge up to him, and get into our break. We were flying up the hill the first time around, with absolutely no trace of the other riders. When we got to the flats we were going anywhere from 20-28 miles an hour. Then out by the huge potholes, we saw the chase group coming up on us. Tyler did not believe it was them, but I knew it was, so I pushed the pace, until the chase group was only two. Then on the finish hill, they were about 15-20 feet behind us, while Tyler and I were attacking at about 28-33 mph. When we hit the slight downhill after the finish, we were going about 32-37 mph, and we managed to drop the 2nd man in the chase group. We then decided to let the last chase man get into our break, so that we could drop him on the hill. Our average speed for the first lap was about 21 mph.
After the first lap (each lap was 21 miles), Tyler and I were completely on our own, having dropped the last of the chasers. We then had to go around 2 more times, which was really uncomfortable. Our average during the second lap was about 18 mph, and 17 for the third lap. It was all worth it at the end though (thanks to Tyler).
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