 |
Panoche RR
5/20/07
9th
Juniors 15-16
Field: 11
Teammates: Peter, Miguel
When I registered and learned that only 3 TD people were doing the district RR for 15/16, I was surprised that no one else had shown up. I warmed up for 25 minutes, and lined up. 3 AMD's, 2 Davis, 1 Swift, 3 TD, and 2 unattached. The race started fast and stayed fast. 23-24 was the pace. We did a rotating paceline with the 11 people until some started dropping off. I was 3rd to go after about 30 minutes of AT and AT2 and chased until the end. At the turnaround, the group had a 5 minute gap. It grew to 8 by the finish. Anyway, I kept chasing, caught a guy, worked with him, sprinted, couldn't tell where the finish was ( he couldn't either) but he did finish ahead of me.
Berkeley Hills RR
5/12/07
13th
Juniors 15-16
Field: 30 starters, 17 finishers
Teammates: Peter, Alex, Will, Miguel, Chris, Alicia, Nick, Max
Seeing that this race was in our backyard, I was hoping to get a top ten, but after seeing who was registered, didn't think it was as possible. I warmed up for 30 minutes while my mom got my number in all the chaos. Eventually, I lined up in front and once the race started just got another good warmup going up to San Pablo dam road. The pace was kept around 20 on San Pablo, mainly led by AMD with riders constantly moving up on the inside/outside. Starting the downhill, I got on Joel's wheel and made sure I was near the front. I heard about a crash involving Alicia, and understood she wasn't too seriously injured. We turned right, and two SJBC riders slipped off the front wanting to get a head start on the steep hill to come. I went with them and we were caught somewhere in the middle of the hill. The pack's pace was quicker than mine, so by starting at the front, at the end of the hill, I was near the back because I couldn't sprint uphill like the others. I moved up through the neighborhood and the pace slowed down on the flats. We turned right and the pace stayed the same. By this time, 15 riders were left with the main group. Mama bear started and instantly all the AMD's were on the front setting a hard steady pace. I ended up off the back with Nick, Luke, a kid from pacific state bank, and Daniel (SJBC). We worked together, and Daniel and I caught up to Luke. Will caught us, but he didn't stay long. We started the second lap didn't pass anybody, on papa bear, Daniel started sprinting and I ended up with 13th.
Cloterium
5/6/07
9th in 15/16
Juniors 15-16/17-18
Field: 25 in all
Teammates: Alex, Chris, Nick, Ye, Eric
I came into this race wanting a top 10. I warmed up for about 35 minutes, rode a couple laps of the course, and then we started 30 minutes late. During that time, we had the chance to lose the warmup. The race started fast, and I was in the middle of the pack. No one attacked for a while until a 17/18 broke away solo and won. Anyway, the race was kept fast by Cody, Joel and Edan. Zack was everywhere, and on the last lap, Ye told Nick to attack. He did, got a gap, Ye blocked for him with Eric, and he was caught like 200 meters from the line, on the start/finish part. I came in last for the field sprint but was pleased with a top ten and the food they had at the finish.
Cat's Hill
5/5/07
near last
Juniors 15-16/17-18
Field: 25
Teammates: Peter, Alex, Will, Chris, Nick A, Andy, Ye, Nick J
I didn't do well in this race last year, and I just wanted to see how long I would be able to stay with the field. I got a 40 minute warmup and didn't start so well. I ended up near the back going up the hill and remembering how last year, when I stood up my bike went all crazy, I sat down and went slowly up the hill. I was last on the start/finish part, and the second time up the hill had the same outcome. I rode pretty much by myself for the rest and despite people yelling at me to stand up, I kept remembering what happened last year when I had stood up, so that slowed me down a lot. I will try some different positioning on the bike next year when I go up that hill because I think that is what was causing my dilemma. I came in behind Alex after he almost got pushed over by a dumb fan who tried to push him up the hill after he dropped his chain. Not my best race, not my favorite either, but it's part of the points series, so I'll wait and see what happens next year.
Wente RR
4/21/07
11th
Juniors 15/16
Field: 27
Teammates: Alex, Peter, Nick, Chris, Trevor
I got to this race around 10, got my number, relaxed, and then started warming up at 11 for my 12:20 start. In this race, I was hoping for a top 10. At the line, AMD was represented with 4 guys, Davis with 3, and we had 6. The race started out nice and slow until we turned right onto a slight hill. AMD went to the front, just controlling things at a medium pace until we turned right again, this time going up a hill. AMD raised the pace, with 4 guys taking turns, not letting anyone else pull. The field shattered quicker than I though. Going into that right turn, I was in around 15th wheel. The group took off and in there was Peter along with 4 AMD and 2 Davis guys, a Swift kid, and Curtis. Andrew, Nick, and I started chasing right away. We had them in sight until the downhill. There, Andrew rode his brakes most of the way down. One course marshal waved his flag right, so I lined up on the left side of the road, but Andrew was on the right. He turned left, but slid onto the gravel, and I made a weird left turn, but stayed upright and waited. Soon after, Zach and Cody caught our group of 3. We kept chasing with many efforts from Cody, and Zach struggling on the climbs. On the finish hill the second time around, Andrew and Nick had gone ahead, and I was stuck with Zach and Cody. I went to the front, and just kept going, until I caught Andrew and Nick without Zach and Cody. On the hill, Nick was hurting, but Andrew kept going. I went with Andrew and Nick caught up. We caught Curtis on a hill, but going downhill, he was really slow. On the flatter part of the second lap, our group of 4 caught the main group, now consisting of 2 AMD, 1 Davis, the Swift kid, and us. I learned that Andreas was off the front with Davis and Charlie (AMD). I went to the front and pulled for a bit, but realized that they had too big a gap to chase down. Edan attacked a lot, so Peter told me to watch him. On the finish hill, Peter attacked around the turn and kept going to get 4th. I passed Andrew to take 11th, which I am pleased with, but off and on cramps would not let me go further. Oh and my average HR was 178. That was cool.
Wente Crit
4/22/07
5th in 15/16
Juniors 15/16-17/18
Field: 40 (15/16 and 17/18)
Teammates: Alex, Peter, Nick, Jon, Eric, Ye
Today, I wanted a top 10, and after looking at the pre-reg list, I thought I could do it. We were racing with the 17/18s so that was cool. I warmed up for 45 minutes, then lined up. We started with a neutral lap, and then attacks came from Davis, Daniel, and others. For the first couple laps, I was sitting in the pack. I chased down some attacks, like 1 or 2, then stayed near the front. With 2 laps to go, I found Peter’s wheel. I stayed there until about 500 meters from the line. Daniel had led out Joel, so I wanted to just stay behind Peter. Eric was also there, but when Peter went on the right, I was on the left. I still managed to sprint into 5th. I was happy and it sucks prizes don’t go 5 or 6 deep. Anyway, TD had 3rd, 4th, 5th, which was good.
Sea Otter RR
4/12/07
Place: too much confusion too tell
Juniors 15-16
Field: 40
Teammates: Peter, Alex, Miguel, Nick
I had ridden this loop the day before and spotted some areas of bad pavement and I knew where and how long the hills were. This was helpful because it would be easy to move up in these areas. I got to the race at 7 and we started just pinning our numbers on. At this point, we thought the race start was at 8:30. By 7:30, we were on our trainers warming up for the 47 mile road race. After about 30 minutes, we went over to where the rest of the team was and waited for the start. About 10 minutes later, a guy came, telling us the race was at 9:05, which was contradicting the newspaper that the race publishes. So, we went back over to warmup on our trainers, but then we decided to, as a team, warmup on the track. The pavement was really nice and after 3 laps, we went to line up. Our field was about 40 strong, and I spotted some threats in our field, but we wouldn't have to worry about those 3 until we became un-neutralized.
When the race started, everyone was chatting and the pace was like 12 going around the track in the other direction. We exited the track and started a small, steep hill on which all of our teammates made it okay except for Alex, who ended up riding on the curb. Eventually he got off, and we descended through the finish, but we were still neutral. We were doing 30 and I was with Peter in the top 10. I told him about the hill coming up, and when we started it, Davis Bently led everyone up it at a fast pace, at which I drifted to the back of the pack. I was able to descend faster than the group, so quickly I was back in the middle of the field. One kid swerved to his left and rode me into some grassy part of the road, but I got back on okay. Zack attacked on every hill, even the smallest ones, and some people started to get dropped. Coming onto a windy road, Tisdell attacked. Because I was near the rear, I couldn't hold on. I was then riding the windy part by myself, but I saw Alex ahead, so I rode with him. We caught two other guys, who rode with us. The next 3 laps were uneventful except for one of the kids in our group took the worst line imaginable through a corner and ended up off the road. He caught back on, and here is where we made some mistakes. We had almost completed four laps of this course. We were supposed to do one more like the race flyer had said. We all agreed that we would not do another lap, because we were just spent beyond belief. Coming down that downhill, we were passed by what we though was the lead break of the 15-16 group. Coming by the left hand turn to start another lap, the referee had coned off the corner allowing us only to go in the direction of the finish. By this time we were really confused, because we had though that everyone else had done 5 laps except for our group of four. So, we started up this hill at a casual pace, hoping to get passed by the 15-16 group so that we would not have to deal with all the confusion and protests had we come across the line after doing only four laps. So with about 300 meters to go, we stopped by the side of the road to wait for the group to pass. We saw some riders than more and more then we saw Andy who told us to keep going. We finished having not seen anyone on our team yet come by us. We saw them ahead and learned that some of them only did four laps also. Then to add to this mess, the kid who won failed rollout 4 times, but the officials didn't care and they let him win. Overall in this race I know I made some bad decisions and I hope next year, it will be organized better.
Sea Otter Circuit Race
4/13/07
Place:off the back
Juniors 15-16
Field: 40
Teammates: Peter, Alex, Miguel, Nick, Will
Having screwed up badly yesterday, I was hoping for something good today. I got to the top of the hill at 8:30 and had 5 hours to kill, so we watched the 3s race on the track and then by 10:30 we started to get ready and eat, and by 12:30, I was warming up. For our 1:30 start time, I warmed up until 1:05, then went down to the track. We rode the track once, the lined up. The race started out with me not clipping in after 3 tries, which sucked because I was at the back already. I moved up to the middle on the hill and moved up more on the descent. Coming around the finish after one lap, I was sitting on the inside of the pack. The pace of the field the second time up the hill brought me to the back, where I again moved up on the downhill, and after 2 laps, I was in the top 10 going up the hill. On the descent, I moved up to top 5 and right around the pit stop, seeing a blue jersey up ahead and thinking it was Tisdell, I went to the front and took a hard pull. It was a lapped rider, not Tisdell and so after I was done, I looked back and saw I had a 100 meter gap. I kept going, getting into my TT position, and I stayed like this until Tisdell brought me back with the field and I swung out to the left. Edan countered right away bringing with him a couple AMD guys, another Davis guy, Jacob, and one more who I forgot. Knowing this would be the winning break, I had not yet seen Peter behind me, so I tried to catch up, as Peter flew by me. I got onto his wheel but couldn't stay there long. Peter bridged up, and I got dropped on the hill. I rode the rest of the way with a kid from Utah, and it was uneventful the rest of the way.
Ronde Van Brisbane
3/31/07
Cat 4s
Field: 100
Teammates: Miguel, Jason
Since this was my first race since Merco at the start of March, my goal was to just see how long I could stay with the field. I was pretty much back up to form after having not ridden for 2 weeks. I got to the race 2 hours ahead of my start time, and I started getting ready and looking for people to warm-up with. I rode around the course with Miguel for 45 minutes doing 50 second intervals and then resting 5 minutes in between. I finished feeling good and I went to do rollout which was good, because all the juniors got to start in the front half of the group.
The race started fast and stayed fast. The course was a right hand turn going downhill, then a left turn, a long slight downhill, a hard right, another hard right, then a hill to the finish. I got comfortable in the first 35 riders and stayed there the first few laps. We were doing 35 on the downhill and 20 on the hill. We had a 50 minute race and each lap took about 4-5 minutes. We would always break before the left turn and on the downhill before the hard right where many hay bails were lined up. I always stayed on the left side of the field, but after a few laps breaking hard on the left turn and shooting past the cones on the centerline with the hay bails, I decided to try the right side of the field. I moved over before the left turn, and as a result, kept my speed up until I heard a huge pop, and bikes crashing. I was drinking and the crash was ~10 wheels directly ahead of me. I looked up, stayed calm and heard a guy telling us all to move left. In all 5 riders went down with everyone going safely around the crash. On the hill, I would notice everyone in the middle would slow down, and on both sides, people would move up. By this time, the field was down to maybe 60 riders. I was near the back and we had 30 minutes to go. I would also notice each lap that I would lose places on the hill and on the turns. With about 25 minutes to go, I fell off with one other rider. He pulled me two laps and on the third, while we were catching another rider, the official blew his whistle 3 times. There were ~12 minutes to go and I looked behind me, saw more riders that were dropped and wondered if he was pulling all of us, or just the riders behind us. So the riders behind me pretty much stopped, so I though I was still in the race. Before I had come past the line again, a referee on a motorcycle told me that if I had been pulled, I should stay off the course. But I wasn't sure if I had been pulled so then I just stopped because I was afraid if I went over the line again, they would somehow penalize me or take away my license away for a while.
Overall it was a fun race but confusing at the end. I'll check the results to see if I was placed or not. Any suggestions on what I should've done, or if it's possible that the officials could penalize me or take away my license or something?
Ronde Van Brisbane
4/1/07
Cat 4s
Field: 75
Teammates: Eric, Jason
After confusion in yesterday's race, I again wanted to see how long I would last. I warmed-up for 50 minutes on my trainer then had some trouble doing rollout because my chain fell off, and the official didn't know how to put back on, so I gave him some advice, but he wouldn't listen and he didn't want me to do it. So after that, the five juniors started in front of the 75 man field.
For the opening three laps, I was somewhere in the top 10, losing some places around the 180 turn. After those laps, I lost more places until with about 30 minutes to go, I was at the back of the pack. The 180 turn was the scariest part of the race, because everyone wouldn't look around when they started sprinting out of the corner. Some guys overlapped wheels, but no one went down. A couple more laps and the field was getting further and further away. On crash corner, I heard something hit my rear wheel, like a rock or another wheel or a bike, but when I turned around, the guy behind me wasn't at all close to me. Then I went hard the rest of the laps to practice my TT skills. I was only able to perfect my position for ~15 minutes before I became a "threat" to the field so I got pulled by a crazy official who yelled at me because I sprinted past him. The pace was around 25-26 the whole way, except when I did my TT I probably got up to 35-36. I plan to reveal my skills at Copperopolis next week.
Merco crit
3/3/07
10-15th (in 15-16s)
Juniors
Field: 50-60
Teammates: Peter, Alex, Will, Miguel, Chris, Alicia, Nick, Andy, Ye, Nick
I slept over at the same place as last week, and had to wake up at 5:15 in order to eat breakfast in time to get to the course by 6:15. I pre-rode the course once, and noticed some bad pavement, and that the barriers had legs jetting out into the street. I got in a good warm-up doing some 1 minute intervals and resting 5 minutes in between. I stopped warming up later than I wanted to, and because of that, I was near last in a huge line for rollout. I took a gel and lined up near the announcers' van with the biggest field I've been in since I started racing 3 years ago. They ran only 5 minutes late, so I didn't freeze on the line.
We started fast, the field stretching out into a long single file line right from the start. Most of the 17-18s were near the front, while most 15-16s were near the back. On the first or second lap, there was a crash on the backside of the course, where 5 riders went down, including Zach and Curtis. Since the free lap rule was in effect, they were able to rest a bit. The crash was in the right side of the field. Everyone avoided it, and we kept racing, slowing a lot before turns, and speeding up a lot after them. I started to feel tired with 11 laps to go. I was just sitting in the back sort of looking over everybody, and riding with Andreas, and a Cal Giant guy. I hung on for a while longer. I would always try and move up on the start/finish part, because it was easiest part as it was longer/straighter and the field always seemed slower there. Starting with 5 to go, the pace picked up, and I ended up further and further in the back of the field. With 2 to go, I was barely off the back and I stayed like that for the rest of the race. 2 other riders joined me, and we sprinted for fun, and I ended up with second. I liked this race, because it was a downtown crit, and because it wasn't like 15-16 races where there's a lot more stop and go. This race held a steady pace throughout the whole thing. I was pretty happy with my result and staying with the group for longer than I thought.
Adam Hodes
Snelling RR
2/24/07
15-20th
Juniors 15-16
Field: 25
Teammates: Peter, Alex, Will, Miguel, Trevor, Chris, Alicia, Nick, Max
I came into this race with a couple basic goals that seemed achievable throughout the course of the race. 1) Get Peter or Miguel in a break with a rider from AMD and Zach or Edan from Davis. We would then block if Curtis or Cody tried to bridge. Whatever happened, we did not want Andreas to get first. 2) Attack a lot, see who is strong, and then let the race play out from there. 3) Cover all attacks and call the side that they are going on. 4) If a break goes up the road, make sure one of our guys is in it.
Since I had the week off, I went up Friday and tried to ride the course, didn’t work out so well. I got two flats, tried to ride my mom's wheel but the chain was skipping, and a dog chased me for a while trying to bite my rear wheel. So, I decided to call it a day and just drive the rest. I noticed some sand and dirt on some corners left over from the rain and some bad pavement.
I got to the course around 7:15, warmed up for a half hour, a little shorter than usual because I knew the neutral part would also be like a warm-up. I put some gross cream stuff on my legs sort of like warming cream. It worked out alright during the race, as it was really cold at the start. I went to the line wearing arm warmers and no leg warmers. The officials were running late and so I became colder. Any suggestions on how to stay warm while waiting for a start??
Around 8:35 our race started slow, really slow, some people were moving up, some were just chatting away. Based on previous experiences with Peter and one of the newer riders in the field (DBC), I figured he was a new little barricade so I would stay away from him.
Halfway through the neutral part, Cody Kaiser decides to answer the call of nature on the side of the road. He catches up before the race starts. Once the race started, I noticed Daniel (AMD) moving back in the field, while everyone else was moving up. I was sensing an attack and up the left side of the road he goes, while I call out "left" to everyone in the pack. He is caught and slows down. Counter-attack from Zach, he is caught. Then another from Joel, and Edan goes with him. Worse case scenario, the two dominant teams have riders in the break, Curtis and Cody don't want to work. We are basically screwed now as each time we did a hard pull, AMD or DBC were right on our wheels and slowed everything down. Everyone was moving up now, some of our riders and other ones have been dropped, and I find myself ahead of only Curtis and Andreas. Curtis pulls around me, couldn't get myself onto his wheel. Andreas pulls around me and he brings me back into the field. On one of the next few rollers, I'm off the back.
Chris is right behind me, I wait for him and then we wait for Daniel on SJBC and Nick. Nick says he's dead, takes a couple pulls, then goes back. Later that lap, Chris goes back saying he has nothing left. Then it was just me and him. He is probably not even 5 foot, so when he pedals, and I'm behind him, I don't get a draft for the upper part of my body. I wanted to stay with him, and decided not to go it alone. On the last lap we pulled onto the windy part of the course. Since he's smaller than me, he could go faster so he turned around to have me pull, and sees I'm not there, then goes as fast as possible for the rest of the lap. I kept him within my sight, but could not get any closer. I finished behind him, and was later informed that the 15/16s were only around 2 minutes ahead of me and Daniel the whole time. A sort of radio system would have been helpful I guess. Oh well, it was fun, I got some practice for the TTT coming up.
Cherry Pie Criterium
2/11/07
DNF
Cat 4s
Field: 80
Teammates: Peter, Alex, Jason, Eric, James
Having done the juniors race, feeling dead, I was forced to do roll-out at the last minute which gave me a position at the very back of this huge field. Before, I was somewhere in the middle. I lasted in this group for about 3 laps and then didn't care how it turned out. I waited for some other people to pass me so I could jump on them. I sat on a small Strawberry guy's wheel for a lap then pulled him up to another group. He was smaller than me, I never thought that was possible, he kept on trying to do this super TT position thing that never worked out. I rode about 5 more laps, by this point the hill felt hard) and then the lady told me I was done. Oh well, so much for a 4s race.
Cherry Pie Criterium
2/11/07
15-20th
Juniors 15-16
Field: 25
Teammates: Peter, Alex, Will, Miguel, Trevor, Chris, Alicia, (sorry if I forgot anyone)
Having recovered from a mid-January crash, I was hoping to help Peter win the sprint in this race or help him or Miguel to get away by attacking and letting Peter sit on AMD or DBC's wheels. I arrived around 6:40 to the place under the overpass where we all set up our trainers. I rode the course once before I hopped on my trainer. In riding the course, I observed that the pavement sucked (even though in the race flyer it says "pavement has improved"). I noticed also some random holes and loose asphalt (the stuff I crashed on in mid-January). And finally, in turn 1 and 3, puddles were located in the apex of the turns. With the course change from last year, the hill seemed longer and the finishing straight was longer which was good.
We all hopped on our trainers at ~7:10ish and rode until about 7:55. I got a good workout with some sweat doing 45 second to 1 minute intervals on the trainer after a good 15 minute warm-up. I also rested between each interval for 4-5 minutes. Our race was at 8:10. Since the Eagle Cycling club or whatever changer our race time and field, we now had different tactics instead of just trying to sit on the 17-18s wheels. On the first downhill after the start, Peter was in first position, and I was in 7th or 8th. On the back stretch, the pace picked up and some riders were dropped. The first time up the hill, things were relatively calm, no attacking, just riding up the hill. On the second lap, Davis Bently (AMD) attacked on the flat part just before the hill and got a decent sized gap coming around the 180 turn. Even though none of our guys went with him, we were able to bring him back within a lap. By now, pretty much every lap, I was sitting in the middle or even a little further back. I could barely see out of my glasses at this point, the dirt/mud was covering them. On lap four, I fell a little of the back with Alex and Edan (DBC) but that only lasted on the back part. On lap five, I was feeling tired, so I figured I would attack and give it everything, and if I stayed away, great, but if I got dropped I would just finish the race. On the flat part before the hill, sensing the group was slowing, I attacked on the left side of the road. I was later informed the Joel (AMD) told the group not to chase me, and that is why I had a decent gap starting up the hill. Halfway up, I could not last anymore and I sat down and still came around the turn in good position with the group, but no longer had any energy left. I sat up and waited for Max to come by, jumped on his wheel and throughout the next 3 laps, just pretty much sat on his wheel, I didn't work very much. He finished ahead of me on the last lap (lap 8) in this very short crit where I though I had done my job in helping Peter.
|
|
