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Cherry Pie Criterium
2/6/05
Field finish
Category 4
Field: 70
Teammates: Lars, Julian, Tyler, Jason, Jordan, Gaelen
The pace was not too fast and not too slow, but it was REALLY TOUGH to get a good position in the race and hold it. For the most part, I stayed in the top third of the race and moved up quickly on the hill only to get pushed back on the hairpin at the top. Positioning was tough and I was pretty aggressive the whole race, although on the last lap I decided to drop back in case their might have been a crash. I felt great the whole day but I knew that I would probably not be able to match the sprint for first place. Overall this race was a good measure of my fitness level so far in the year and I think I’m doing fairly well.
Cherry Pie Criterium
2/6/05
3rd
Juniors 17/18
Field: 15
Teammates: Tyler, Lars, Julian, Gaelen, Charles
Overall a great way to start the season in crits. I arrived really early and got a pretty good warm-up doing some spinning and then some ME. Right before the race, I talked to the guys about the race strategy. I decided to send Charles off a little later in the race so that if he got away, we would have a guaranteed victory instead of waiting for the field sprint. This was also good because my jump and top-end speed of my sprint worsened during the winter and Tyler was recovering from a cold, so our sprinters weren’t in top form this early in the season. During the race, the pace was actually sane from the beginning and Lars took a super savage pull in the front stringing everyone out a little. Charles moved up to take a turn at the front, but I told him he didn’t need to pull because he needed to save his energy for the break later in the race. There were a few attacks in the race but we quickly neutralized them with the help of Julian, Lars, Gaelen, Ye, and Tyler. Then, with five laps to go there was a small gap in the group on the downhill portion of the course of about 10 feet. It was an opportune moment for anyone to slip off the front without any of the stronger riders noticing since they were a little bit behind. I told Charles to go on the downhill competition didn’t even really notice until a lap later while we were blocking. During these last five laps, we effectively slowed and blocked other riders from catching Charles and covered all attacks. On the last lap, I knew that we had won and I got ready to fight for the field sprint. During the lead-out from an LGBRC kid, I was right behind Tyler, but Blake took the corner before the hill wide and I immediately jumped on his wheel and he basically towed me to the line. I couldn’t pass him but I gained a little. However, with the fast pace on the last lap, we almost caught Charles on the top of the hill but we managed to place first with Charles, third with me, and fourth with Tyler right behind me. So congratulations team, we deserve it!
Patterson RR (Early Bird RR)
1/22/05
???
Category 4
Field: 40
Teammates: Jason, Julian, Tyler, Lars
This was my first race of the season and I was glad to compete after a break from racing. When we got to Patterson, I registered for the Category 4 race along with Lars, Tyler, Julian, and Jason. I frantically got ready to start and within 45 seconds of me getting to the start line, the race started. Jason was still getting ready and missed the start. We all yelled at him to hurry up and catch on before it was too late. He eventually latched back on, only to stop again to adjust his cable tension. Luckily we rolled out at a slow pace on some rolling hills to get warmed up. After about 20-30 minutes of tempo, the attacks started coming, even though it was still early into the race. On one break that was starting to look dangerous, Tyler tried to bridge the gap to the front break, while Jason and I tried to get things back together and organized in the main pack. Breaks formed and fell apart before the actual main climb. Finally we reached the main climb and I was pretty surprised as it rose up pretty steep right around a corner. From riding in the top 10 of the group almost the whole time, I almost immediately got dropped, with Jason right behind me. The main group was falling apart and other dropped riders and I struggled up the climb, descended upon the turnaround and headed back home to the finish. On the descent, Jason and I picked up several riders, some of which we dropped. We worked with anywhere from 1 to 4 other riders in a pretty fast paceline. There was an older Webcor/Alto Velo guy that I made sure to watch that was pretty strong. We eventually picked up Lars about 5 km from the finish and Jason tried to attack in an effort to tire out the other riders in our group. All of a sudden, we were caught by a chasing group and the Webcor guy jumped on their wheels and brought him to the line. Jason, Lars and I were too tired to match their effort and they all got away at the 200 M to go. I sprinted to beat a random rider and Jason and Lars came in a little behind me. All in all a good experience and I learned a lot from the day’s race. Also, congratulations to Tyler, Julian, and Jordan who all placed in the top ten in their respective races.
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