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Sea Otter RR/Criterium
4/12/07
Juniors 15-16
Field: 40ish
Team: Peter, Miguel, Adam, Alex, and Will
The road race stared out good on the neutral part, other than alex ridding on the side walk it was not very interesting. Then we got the the first hill. They went up it very fast. I thought I was going to get dropped, but i refused to get dropped on the very first hill so i kept going and somehow stayed on with them. I stayed somewhere in the middle of the pack until we got to the feed hill. They took off up the feed hill, and I couldnt keep up. I kept ridding hard trying to catch up on the rollers, I started to work together with miguel and a couple of others. towards the end of the downhillish part on the 2nd lap I was able to get back onto the group. I stayed there for a minute or so when we got the feed hill again. I was dropped again on the feed hill, and so was miguel so we started to ride together once more for a while. We then saw peter by himself up ahead and went to go see if we could help him. He said that his leg was cramping and that the feild was so far ahead that there wasnt any point in trying to catch them. The one other guy that was with our group wanted to keep going. He was cool so i decided that i would work with him for a little while. he fed me some gel and then we started to chase. we got the the feed hill again and i couldnt keep up. I told him that I would see him later, then waited for peter and miguel. we then rode easy for another lap or two, doing a total of four laps before the official told us to start heading back up the hill to the finish line. Miguel wanted to go ahead to see the finish so he and peter left me and went up the hill. In the end we didnt get a placing because we only did 4 laps. I didnt really like that and felt that I would have done the 5th lap if I was given I choice, so it wasnt like we DNF or dropped out.
The circuit race was much better. I really liked racing on the track. I was worried that I was going to have a hard time with the hills but surprisingly they didnt feel bad at all. I was able to climb them much faster than zack wick, which made me feel good. I think at some point two groups formed and i was off the back of one with some stragglers. I saw peter by himself maybe 30 feet ahead of me on the big hill. Jason and dan if I remember were yelling at me to go and help him so on the corkscrew (which was awesome) I caught up to peter and pulled him up to the next group of guys. we stayed there for a bit then peter wanted to move up to the lead group so he took off, which caused a few of the stronger riders from our little group to go with him. I got on with them and we got back up to the front. I rode with that group for around 3-4 laps. On the last lap i was feeling strong and was thinking about starting my sprint before the hairpin turn since i really liked that run and felt that i could take it faster than most of the guys in the pack. But then the 17-18 decided to try and pass us on the inside of that turn, so that ruined that idea. on the last corner before the finish peter started to move up on the inside of the 15-16-17-18 mess that had formed. I followed him and we ended up getting run into the inside edge by a 17-18 rider. we had to slam on our brakes, and that was the end of our sprint attempt. which was a bummer because i was actually feeling ready for a sprint. ( ye taught me how to sprint today on the sunday ride, so I will be a little better at that now i hope) in the end I followed a guy from cole sport into the finish. For some reason they didnt have a camera so they had no idea who finished where. This bothered me, because this was one of the biggest races, but they just expected to be able to ask us all what place we came in and get it right...that was dumb.... First they put me in as 12, then I got moved down to 15th later on. I watched the video of the finish that my dad took of the finish and I believe that I finished 13th. (btw, andy was defiantly 5th, not 6th)
Copperopolis Road Race
4/7/07
Jr. 15-16
Place: 16rd
Field: 20ish
Teammates: miguel, peter, alicia, chris, alex, and trevor
This race was hard. On the first hill I felt good until near the top where I drifted off the back. On the flat I tried to catch a group of 3 riders some way ahead of me, miguel was in there. I got close to them but couldn't catch on so I waited for 3 more guys behind me to pass me and i got onto their group. I rode with them for a while and eventually we caught the 3 guys ahead and formed a small pack of 6 people. I found the long downhill part with really bad pavement to be the best part of the race, and was looking forward to it on the second lap. On the flatish part towards the finish line i felt good so i pulled for a rather long time, which was probably a bad idea.
On the second lap I was doing nicely on the start of the hills when miguel came and told me that I shouldn't be pulling those guys too much because peter was somewhere up ahead. I was riding next to him and drinking some water, when a gap started to open between miguel me and the 6 guys i was riding with. Slowly it got bigger and we were off the back. Then we got to another big hill and I really died. Miguel went ahead and I spent the rest of the 20 miles rolling around back to the finish line. I felt like I didn't have any energy left in my legs, even when other age groups came around I tried to stay with them as long as I could but then fell off again... not sure if that was legal, but I was tired and figured I wasn't going to be doing any winning anyways. I finished the race and didnt come in last place. That was also the first road race that I have finished
Santa Rosa Corporate Criterium
JR 15-16
Field: 9
Place: 1st :D
Feel Good Rating: 8
Breakfast: banana, half a bagel, cup of milk
Teammates: Ye, and Eric
When I registered I was the only 15-16, and there were only 3 17-18's, but there ended up being 3 15-16's and 6 17-18's in this race. We started out fast with people attacking a lot, then everyone started to slow down towards the middle, with some sprints for the 3 primes. Ye won the second prime, and I won the last prime. It was a good race. On the last lap Ye told me to sprint after the first corner, so I did. I got ahead of everyone until the last corner before the finish line and ran out of energy, but was able to come in right behind the 5 guys that passed me, and ended up in 1st of the 15-16's. Ye came in first in the 17-18's also, and Eric came in 4th. It liked racing with Ye and Eric.
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