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Copperopolis Road Race
4/7/07
Jr. 17-18
Place: 3rd
Field: 20 ish
Teammates: Ye, Eric
This race, although not perfectly suited to my abilities as a rider, holds a special place in my heart because this year it marks my 3rd anniversary of becoming a road racer. Unfortunately for me, overall this race really sucked, and I left it feeling very unsatisfied and more than a little angry.
I stayed at Nick’s house Friday night, woke up at 3:45, and got to the race at about 6:45. I rolled around for 10 minutes before the race w/ Zach and Nick, then chilled at the start. My biggest threats in the race were JP, Ben Barsi-Ryne and Logan Loader, and Alex Wick. I knew I could beat JP and Logan in a sprint, and I had a score to settle w/ Ben, so I was pretty motivated to do well.
The group rolled pretty easy until the first climb, when Ben rolled off the front and up the road, getting a pretty big gap. No one chased, but all along the back section Davis kept attacking and countering, which really wore me out because I had to close more than a few gaps. Near the last climb we caught Ben, and the whole field sat up. I was really lucky that on the steepest part of the main climb, the Masters 1/2/3 field all passed us, so it was basically neutral. That saved me a lot. On the flats, Logan and David from Davis got away. I bridged up to them through the feed zone. Shortly after I bridged David dropped off, leaving only me and Logan. We both thought that we had a chance to stay away, but on the steep section I looked back and saw the remmants of the field: JP, Tyler Brandt, Jeremy Ferguson, and a kid in blue who was working with Logan. I was really tired at that point, but was able to stay in the group and work in the paceline. After the climb Joe Trujillo and an Alta Alpina rider bridged to us. Joe attacked almost immediately. Because there were only one of each of us, there was no organized chase. We started attacking with about 8 KM to go, but we all knew it was futile. We weren’t dropping anybody and we weren’t gaining on Joe, so we kinda gave up.
I was sitting 3rd-4th wheel over the climb and down the descent, and knew I had a good chance @ second place. Logan started the sprint from almost 250 m to go, and was passed by JP w/ 100. I was getting my speed and starting to pass JP with 50 to go, just at the final turn up to the line. But JP had other ideas. He did not hold his line up to the line and pushed me almost off the road into a spectator. He apologized and I forgave him afterward, but the more I thought about it, the more I knew that JP wouldn’t do that unless he knew what he was doing. I definitely should have protested, but I wasn’t sure. Next time he tries to pull that kind of thing, I won’t give him any slack.
Dinuba Criterium
Category 3
Place: 2nd
Teammates: Zach, Nick, Ye
So I’ll wrap up the weekend reports with our last race of the trip. After totally we all totally pwned in the junior race, I volunteered to help mentor the kids race. I was held up a bit from helping a little boy after he fell, and arrived back at the start line only minutes before the Cat 3 race. It started fairly fast, with many familiar faces from the previous days’ racing. After a flurry of attacks (most lead by our resident he-man Zach), I found myself in a four man breakaway with a Team Spine rider, a VOS rider, and someone else, who I had actually gotten to know on Sat. and finished with on Sun. We worked well together, and quickly gained a 30 second gap, thanks to blocking by TD in the field. At five laps to go, I decided to stop working, and just sat at the back. I came out of the final corner (~250 meters) in fourth wheel, and quickly got on to the Spine rider. We went wheel to wheel all the way to the line. I thought I had gotten it, but the finish line camera said otherwise, and I had to settle for second. I was frustrated at my bike because it wouldn’t shift into my 14, which may or may not have made the difference. But really, I only have myself to blame for not checking it an fixing it ahead of time. I have two bits of advice after this race: 1) always make sure your bike is in tip-top shape, because you never know when something isn’t going to work like you think it should, and 2) Remember your bike throws! It helped me out at Cherry Pie; today I timed it a little late and I think it may have cost me the win.
Excuses for not quite pulling off the win aside, I felt amazingly strong after 140 hard miles in my legs. I cannot begin to say how proud of the team I was this weekend. We honestly have never been better as a whole, and that fact, let alone that we are all super strong this year, will surely gain us more awesome results in the future.
Ahh! Bedtime!
Cherry Pie
Cat 3
Field: normal size
Teammates: Zach, Ye, Julian (kinda-sorta)
Place: 4th
Feel-Good rating: 7-9
I didn’t have much time to keep the legs going in between races because of Jr. podium, getting prizes, etc. I had to roll out again, then got over to the start, in the front row w/ Zach & some other Juniors. The race started slower than the Jrs., maybe because I wasn’t at the front haha. I had no trouble staying near the front throughout the race. A few times I dropped back to 20th or so, but mostly was in the top ten, about half-way through I followed Julian on a prime lap up the hill, and gained a slight gap with him, a Cyclesports rider (James?) and someone else. That got caught, I was tired, fell back a little, then moved up again. With around 5 laps to go Zach got off the front w/ a CVC rider, the eventual winner. He basically rode everyone, including Zach, off his wheel and finished with a huge gap on the field. In the sprint, I felt way too far back, then gained a lot of ground in the last 50 meters. I managed to get a bike throw ahead of 5th, so remember those from the camp!
Uh, yeah so not much else happened. I felt really strong this weekend, so hopefully I can continue to do well this season.
Cherry Pie Criterium
2/11/07
Jr. 17-18
Place: 2nd
Field: meh? Big enough
Teammates: Zach, Nick, Ye, James, Eric
Waah! Me no likey wake up early! Oh, suck it up, Andy.
Our strategy for this race was to try to get into breakaways, mostly, and if it came down to a field sprint, have me on Ben Barsi-Rhyne’s wheel and you know, win and stuff… It was mostly based off what other riders were there. There were some good ones too: the main threats were Ben, Taylor, Alex & Zach Wick, Michah, Bryan, and Logan.
I went to the front, at the start and opened up the pace, drawing out Alex, Bryan, and Logan. We gained a slight gap for 1.5 laps, and then were caught. Then Taylor counter-attacked, drawing out Bryan again, as well as Ben and Logan I think. We again had a good gap; the field had splintered at this point. I don’t have much idea of what was going on behind, but w/ 1 lap to go we were caught by Micah and James, possibly Tyler Brant as well. I glued myself to Ben’s wheel on the last lap, and was just inches from beating him in the sprint. I was a disappointed, but felt good that I can go mano a mano with a Tour of L’Abitibi stage winner. Looking back, I think I was just one gear undergeared; I’m used to spinning out my 52-14 on the flat, and kind of forgot that I had some more cogs to work with going uphill.
From what I heard, Zach and Ye worked at the front to slow the field down. Good job everyone today, especially Alex and Adam for their effort in the 4’s.
Martinez Criterium
2/10/07
Jr. 10-18
Place: 1st
Field:
Teammates: Eric, Ye, Peter, Miguel
Feel-Good Rating: 9-10
I woke up Saturday morning to the disheartening sound of rain pattering on my roof, as it had on Friday as well. I did not relish the thought of going out on a group ride in the rain, but was feeling really guilty about not riding on Friday and going to eat frozen yogurt instead (it’s okay, it was “fat free”) I didn’t have anything better to do, so I called up my trusty directeur sportif and hitched a ride to the race. I wanted to race the Elite 2/3s, but I was a too late and also wanted to save a little for tomorrow. As has been previously mentioned, the main competition was Steven Reid, Logan Loader and Bryan Larsen.
After my little break w/ Logan & Brian, I hung out for a lap while Peter attacked. Once I saw Bryan bridge up to Peter, I knew I had to be with him because no offense Peter, but Bryan is faster. Ok cut to the chase. Just a side note of advice that has helped me in the past year: Chasing down breaks is really hard. Period. I know the feeling, too. You’re not sure whether or not it is the right move, because you don’t know if it’s worth it to expend so much energy to get to the break, or if you will even get there at all. Basically, you need to keep telling yourself through that lactic-acid addled brain of yours that you can bridge the gap and you will be strong enough to hang with them and even do some work. As Yogi Berra famously said, “"Baseball is 90% mental -- the other half is physical." Remember that, you new riders. Remember that.
So unfortunately Peter got popped off the break, leaving me and Bryan. We had a good pace going, and eventually lapped the field. I tried to time it so I was at the front coming through all the turns, which was easier than pulling through the Start/Finish and up the little hill. We just sat at the front of the field after we caught them, until the last lap, when Bryan made an attack up the hill and we got another gap. Coming into the sprint, I felt great sitting on Bryan’s wheel. Just as I was coming around Bryan for the win, I think his chain came off and he came unclipped. I think I would have won anyway, but I still feels kinda bad that he got screwed over after such a good break together.
Good work as a team overall today. There are still some kinks to be worked out, but I think as the season progresses we will see more and more improvements.
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