Summary

Mostly stretched out, fast, a little windy, easy course. Top 10-15 most of the race. Took the second cash prime. Got a little lazy just before the lap cards went up. Jake finds me with 4 to go, we move up, sit top 10-15. We come through the last corner together as planned, I tell Jake to gun it, I come around at what I think is the last second, but ends up being a little late. We passed a couple of riders in the sprint, both narrowly getting into the top ten, Jake 9th, me 10th.

Details…

Course

Another standard four corner course, some curve to the roads, decent pavement. A bit windy by the time we got started at 1:05pm, maybe a factor, considering we shelled nearly 20 riders by the finish. Relatively long finish straightaway, 350-400m sprint, enough room to change things after the last corner.

Crew

Just me and Jake.

Goals

Top ten and either take the 2nd prime or deliver Jake to the 2nd prime.

Race

Started okay, weaved in and out of the 10-20 riders who had no business being up front, sat in top 15. For the first half of the race I watched and covered as riders would go off the front here and there, even before the first prime. We let two riders off the front for the first prime. Godspeed was doing a good job of controlling the front, working together more than I have ever seen from them before. Dragged the pack around a little myself watching the couple of guys dangling up ahead.

Second prime bell rings and I start looking for Jake on the backstretch. Couldn’t find him as an attack went off on the outside after corner three. I cover another attack on the inside of corner four and hop on a wheel. BBC guy takes off on the outside, I take another wheel to the gutter and then jump at 100m to narrowly win the Dash for Cash™ prime.

Sit back in, ignore the next three primes, just covering the attacks enough to stay top 20 comfortably. I got a little lazy before the lap cards went up, and should have been top ten when the countdown began. Took me too long to get together with Jake and close to the top ten.

The Finish

We came around the last corner, Jake a little far inside, me through the middle watching for the loose bricks. I hopped back on his wheel, and off we went. We passed a few riders in the sprint. I thought I came around him and another rider to snag 7th or 8th, but I think I confused a ridge in the road immediately after the finish line for the finish line itself -the official confirmed that Jake and I took 9th and 10th respectively and I made a little fuss for nothing.

Not quite as good as I would have liked, but respectable. Goals accomplished. Two consecutive top tens and races where I took the 2nd prime. As Kate put it, “consistent.”

Summary

Flat, fast, easy. Big crew. Felt awful after Mt. Hamilton. Took a prime and got 7th. Best race yet.

Details…

Warm-up

Felt awful after yesterday (Mt. Hamilton), seriously reconsidering lining up, I could barely turn the pedals over on the trainer.

Course

Fast flat easy, no rain, no wind. 90 degree corner, shallow corner, long sweeper, and 90 degrees going into a fairly quick homestretch.

Crew

2pies, James, Nole, Jake, Ryan, Sam.

Race

Good start up front with Nole, Stephen, and Jake. Nole goes with a early Third Pillar break and I sit up front with other Third Pillar riders to block. Pack gets wise and the break is successful for about 30 seconds. Nice try but the course is too fast and easy for a break. Nole sits back in and I drag the pack with unsure legs through the next two corners.

Fast forward about 20 minutes and one prime. Bell goes off for another prime and the pack surges. Sam attacks on the long sweeping back stretch and gets some to burn out early. I move to the front thinking of attacking after the prime but then James asks if I want this one and off we go. He gave me a ferocious leadout around the final corner to launch me for the second prime.

I kept spinning through corner one wondering if I was done, but I recovered soon enough. Fast forward, Jake snatches up the 3rd prime, then with three to go I start looking for my spot with no clear goals for the finish.

I jump up the gutter to head to the front at two to go and fight for my spot top 20 or so as some riders start getting shed left an right and others swarm the corners. Bell lap and it’s a little strung out, I try to get up ahead of Nole to give him some kind of leadout but I was uncommitted, not to mention dodging riders that went too early. I’m set up top 15-20 going hot into the last corner and gun it hoping for a top ten.

Result

7th/65 and a $50 gift card to The Grill (James, I owe you dinner). Best result yet, first cat 4 top ten, pretty happy considering I felt like garbage after yesterday’s four and half hour debacle, and I was kinda bummed out after the Golden State Crit on Saturday.

French Toast

I also just had post-race French toast-without a doubt the best way to finish three days of racing.

Summary

Monday May 26th through June 1st, 2008. Super trashed from a full three-day weekend of racing. Taking it fairly easy this week and racing again Saturday.

Monday

SugarCRM Memorial Day Criterium

Tuesday

Commute, rollers at home. Legs destroyed.

Wednesday

Too tired and too much work to head to the track. Planned on Sprints, but got busy at work. Lame.

Thursday

Planned on Presidio circuits, but got home too late from work. Lame 2x.

Friday

Lunch ride, fixed gear all over town, felt good.

Saturday

ICCC Dash for Cash.

Sunday

Skipping the Dunlap TT, didn’t get the aerobars in enough time to practice. Long ride wth Mike and Ashley instead.

Short story: I got popped like a party favor at mile five. Spent the next 10 miles with a Team Oakland rider, trading pulls, pacing, and chatting it up. Let him go ahead in the last stretch to the summit as I sat up to eat. Spent the next 40 miles alone.

First 20 miles a blast, love that climb. The descent was cold. Miles 30-40 were no fun at all, damn you Ammon, the last 20 miles were awesome, thanks Ammon!

Result: DFL. Verdict: I’d do it again, if for nothing but the donuts. Donut Wheel owns.

Course

Pretty tricky, even trickier in the rain. A lot like Brisbane, but replace wind with rain. Short homestretch, hard left, 180, sweeping left to hard right, another couple of sweeping stretches into right turns and a 200m sprint out of the corner.

Crew

Seth, Sam, and I. Felt awesome lining up, even okay with the rain after watching a bunch of juniors wipe out in the 180.

Race

Got a decent start, stayed top 10-15 for the first half of the race, but had to work hard to do so, the jump out of the slow started to 180 hurt, and the cold/wet didn’t help much.

Crash

Decided to sit back, catch a little break. Bad idea. Boom, first corner riders starting at 7th wheel go down, dominoes across the entire width of the field. Sam and Seth and many others manage to sneak through pretty quickly and get back in the reforming pack. As soon as I get to the crash riders start standing up, reinforcing the wall. Takes me a lot of time and a huge effort to get back onto the end of the pack. I dangle there for another few laps before losing them in the 180.

No Man’s Land

I time trial off the back for a while until the crashed/restarted group catches up to me, I sit in for the remainder of the race. We trade pulls, avoid being lapped/pulled, paceline to an one-lap early finish. I take second in our bunch sprint.

Result: DFL + 8 or 9. No camera, they only picked the top 10 riders. Kind of lame but understandable.

Schedule and Goals

Races

• Chariot (heat/final)
• Win and Out (6 to go)
• Tempo (12 laps)
• Miss and Out (15 riders)

First Wednesday as a B.

Goals: learn, not get my ass totally kicked.

Chariot

1st heat – started low down toward the pole. Got a good throw but was cut off as riders did not stay in their lanes. Narrowly grabbed 4th with a throw at the line.

Final – got a better start up track, able to drop in third wheel after the finish line. Held it to the 200m mark when two riders jumped hard. The leader and I reacted fast and I narrowly missed 3rd against Morgan of Montano-Velo.

Lesson learned: start is super important, don’t save anything. A good throw can make a different (both from the holder and a sprint throw)

Win and Out

Fast from the start, a lot of jockeying for position in the first 5 laps. I was 2nd wheel going into the bell lap when everyone gunned it. I didn’t have the jump to follow or contest the first sprint, just burning the matches to stay with the pack cost me the rest of the race.

Lesson learned: need to figure out placing expectations and strategy then go for that. Sit in. Improvements will be week to week.

Tempo – 12 laps

Had trouble getting a good position in the pole at first. Got in 4th wheel at turn 3 then went up around to take the first sprint by about a wheel. Big mistake. The pack attacked and I narrowly caught on to the tail end of the second group of a split pack. We caught the three guys at the third sprint, but I was still recovering and couldn’t cover the surge well. Got dropped at the 4th sprint. Sat a lap out and hopped back into the chase group for the next 5 laps as three guys off the front scooped up the rest of the point.

Lesson learned: don’t go for the first sprint if it means burning a match.

Miss and Out

Despite the big group (16?) I decided to try the tested strategy of being greedy with the pole. Grabbed the pole halfway in to the first lap and kept it for another 5 laps until a Webcor guy came around. I let him have a little room so as to not be boxed in. Big attack at lap 6, managed to stay in but lost immediate access to the pole. Not enough time or gas to come up an around. Sat after at lap 8. No placing but a midpack finish.

Lesson learned: pick a spot, pole or rail and get to one or the other quickly if I lose my spot.

Reflection

Overall lesson: learned that being competitive in the Bs is going to be a minor fitness improvement and a major mental improvement. Certainly Bs are faster, but starting to place and then win on Wednesdays is just going to require smarter racing and being more aggressive. Tuesdays are another story.

Omnium result: 4-way tie for 6th with 2 points (placed at 8th, other races break ties), of 15 riders.

Summary

May 19 through May 25, 2008. After Monday first week of Summer, woohoo! Huge weekend of racing coming up.

Monday

Final, hung out with James, no ride.

Tuesday

Headlands with Ashley then two laps of the park ride followed by a cool down and team meeting.

Wednesday

Track racing!

Thursday

Easy day, commute.

Friday

Another easy day to rest up for the weekend, commute.

Saturday

Golden State Criterium.

Sunday

Mt. Hamilton.

Monday (three-day weekend)

Memorial Day Criterium.

Snowball – 10 laps

Pack together for the first lap, let someone take it. Pack together on the second lap, took the sprint, sat back in. Let someone take the third lap, then I gunned it at the 200m line for the fourth lap, expecting to sit back in rest then get 8-10. However I had a quarter lap gap or more and I just kept going to take laps 4,5,6. I sat up after the finish on each lap to check where the pack was – I didn’t want to seem like I was sandbagging the Cs since this was the first race and I was the only one off the front. I drifted back to the pack, but didn’t have the guns for laps 7 through 10. Same guy took those and edged me out for first (Penvelo guy on a pista with Zipp disc).

Result: 2nd

Lesson learned: should have either kept my gap for the next two laps or drifted back and then gone for the last two.

Scratch Race – 10 laps

Spent most of the race up front, either in the wind or second wheel to Jay. Jay took off at the 200m line after two to go, I followed, thought we were solo until I heard the distinctive rattle of the Penvelo guy’s disc coming through turn three. He sprinted and I jumped a fraction of a second too late. He took the sprint by a bike length or so.

Result: 2nd

Lesson learned: be aware of who I need to outsprint in the end, maybe spend a little less time in the wind.

Miss and Out

Jay and I took a second to discuss strategy on this one, since it had gone mostly unspoken until now. Following Gio’s advice we knew we had two places to cover: the pole and the rail on the back.

Two possible strategies with two racers. Either double team the pole, or someone take the pole and someone play the devil.

I took the pole immediately with Jay to my four o-clock. We spent the whole race two-up on the pole preventing anyone from taking the longer line up around us. I was in the pole the whole time though (took Jay’s draft once as he got up front). We should have been rotating our positions because I realize now that Jay was working harder taking a longer line.

The outcome of this was that he couldn’t give me as long of a pull once we were down to three and the Penvelo guy had been sucking our wheels the whole race. He gunned it at the bell and Jay and I were a little too worked to follow effectively. I rolled in several bike lengths afterward.

Result: 2nd

Lesson learned: similar to the scratch race, keep better tabs on the people in contention. I need to keep count of the riders and laps to better recover toward the end and set up for the sprint.

Points Race – 20 laps, sprints every 5

They combined the Cs with the Bs who hadn’t scored in their omnium. Notably, two Bs, myself, and the Penvelo guy took off at two laps in easily putting half a lap on the field for the first sprint. I couldn’t keep the pace after five in, but Jay had caught up and then towed me back to the two Bs and Penvelo. We caught them, but just in time for the second sprint, which opened the gap again. Jay and I worked the next ten laps to get back on and for better than 4th place, but we couldn’t do it. They had three guys, more time to recover. Jay gave me 4th on every sprint though, giving me 4th overall.

Result: 4th

Lesson learned: don’t lose the leaders! This one came down to fitness. I didn’t have the speed here.

Omnium result: 2nd

Summary

May 12th through May 18th, 2008. Finals week. Gotta study, but also have some more flexible ride time. No race at the end of the week, but Mt. Hamilton (and two crits) looms the weekend after. Time to test the climbing legs.

Monday

Staying home to study this week, no commute. Evening Headlands loop, feeling pretty good on the climbs, but my time is still about the same up Conzleman (10:30).

Tuesday

No ride.

Wednesday

Track racing.

Thursday

Presidio circuits (5x) preceded by half an hour riding around in the dirt for fun. Super hot today.

Friday.

Studied all day for a Saturday final.

Saturday

Morning final.

Sunday

Studied all day for a Monday final.

The Skinny

Flat, fast crit, lots of team mates. Spent some time on the front. Sat back in. Sam and I kept it stretched out on the front again. Sat back in. Regroup with 5 to go to set Nole up with a leadout starting at the second corner. I get a little anxious, hit the front too early, drop back too far, get back up to the front, take Nole around the second corner, then I ran out of gas. Nole takes 11th. Not a total success, but a plan somewhat well executed.

Photo by Larry Rosa

The gory details…

Original Goals

After giving Seth a little help at the Wente crit, I was looking for a minor personal victory, top 10, top 15 something along those lines. However, the week was spent writing a final paper rather than riding so I couldn’t tell how I felt until race day.

Revised Goals

Come race day, feeling good after a warm up, liking the conditions, course, teammates (Nole, Sam, Jake, 2pies) but not feeling very ambitious. We have a loose idea of regrouping at five to go and then giving Nole some kind of lead out.

Course

Flat, fast, nice corners, beautiful new asphalt, the course everyone thinks they can win on. Start finish on a short straightway going into a sweeping turn, then a 90 degree turn, another sweeper, and the final 90 degree corner into a really short sprint with a slight kink.

The Race

Jumped up to the front right away and after a few laps in I pulled on the front for a lap before a prime lap and sat in for the prime (which Nole took with Sam’s help). A few laps later, repeated this time with Sam on my wheel. We traded laps and then both sank back in to sit in the top 10-25 for the next half of the race.

Photo by Larry Rosa

Nole finds me after the last prime and gives me the heads up to make a jump around the second corner on the bell lap and dig until he passes.

Five to go I’m up front with Nole, no one wants to work, eventually over the next two laps the few guys ahead of us part ways and I’m on the front itching to go. Nole yells to hold back and I sit back in but lose about 10 spots after scrubbing too much speed in a corner. Two to go I make my way back up to Nole, we sit top 10-15 with a handful of Team Oakland riders.

At the bell a Team Oakland rider guns it, the rest block. No chase, no need, it wasn’t much of a jump. We catch him before the next corner and I jump up the inside, take it a little hot inside and couldn’t pedal through without striking. Jump hard out of the corner, pass the Team Oakland guy with Nole in tow, but about 20 pedal strokes later I’m totally gassed.

Goals (Sorta) Accomplished

Not much of a leadout for Nole but enough to get him in the mix at the end. Riders start passing me right and left around the last two corners (including Sam) I sit up, rolling in 47th out of 77 starters, 74 finishers.

No personal glory, but good teamwork here and there and some time spent on the front to get the Larry Rosa photo-op (thanks Larry!). Gave Nole what help I could, just sorry I couldn’t go much longer.