Wanted to do well (ie: podium), felt great going into it, if a bit hesitant about the course that appeared harder the longer I looked at it. Started off well, sat in the top 10 for many laps as was my goal/strategy, but struggled to stay there for very long and about 15 minutes in lost 10-15 spots per lap just trying to recover on the backside until I got gapped and the field was a long way off. Still I was surprised at the number of riders coming up from behind me after I sat up. Also surprised that the field basically held the vicious pace for the rest of the race. Sam and Jake did a hell of a job in one hell of a race.

In retrospect, worked way too hard during the past couple of weeks and underestimated the course/field. I’m not powerful enough at the moment and was not rested enough to do well on a course like this.

Summary

Monday, August 4th through Sunday, August 10th, 2008.

Monday

Off.

Tuesday

Track racing:

Poor night for me. I tried to work on being patient, sitting out the first two sprints entirely and work on winning later sprints. Didn’t work out at all. I still seem to be only good for 18 laps or so at a time, regardless of whether I take the early points or not. Sat out a lap in the first race, but otherwise just ended up watching the action from the mid or back of the pack taking a few pulls and launching one attack off the front with Tim after the 2nd sprint.

My head wasn’t in the 2nd race at all, felt kind of out of it, not safe, so I pulled out completely after dangling around the back again after the 3rd sprint.

Wednesday

Track racing:

The Bs also brought some speed tonight. I’d been hoping to make a comeback after a horrible showing Tuesday. I was aiming to place in the first points race, win the scratch, and place in the miss and out. I didn’t even come close to my mark, didn’t have the legs, save for a moderately well raced miss and out (5th, despite a heroic save when a doofus from Synergy came underneath me on the apron in the sprint and gave my front wheel and left leg a hefty lovetap with his cranks and rear wheel – it threw off my mojo and put me out of position for the 4th place sprint, boxed in though I had the speed).

Thursday

Second M2 class. I hit my numbers dead on and felt good. Put in a hard workout despite two consecutive days of intensity.

Friday

Day off.

Saturday

Carrera de San Rafael.

Sunday

Day off.

Points (6×6)

Goal: Place.

Stuck to my usual impatient strategy hoping to work on recovery after the sprints and won the first sprint easily from 150m. Stuck it out for the next sprint and grabbed another point without working too hard. Shin got away immediately after the second sprint, only Tim chased after he scooped up the third sprint. A group of four held a gap for the next two sprints and I just hung on with the remaining 5 for the rest of the race. We caught up for the last sprint but I had nothing left.

My early points got me 4th since the points were fairly concentrated, goal accomplished. I definitely have some work to do in order to stay competitive for the later sprints. Next week I need to stay away from the first sprints entirely and win the last few outright.

Points (7×6)

Goal/purpose: win a sprint or two, try a two lap breakaway to gauge my solo strength off the front.

Resolved to sit in and start sprinting after a few racers in our small field had worked themselves in the early sprints. Couldn’t help myself from grabbing a point in the first sprint, but didn’t work very hard for it. Found myself 4th wheel for the second sprint when the two leaders went at turn two. I didn’t feel like working to either bridge the gap or drag the other riders up, so I didn’t chase immediately. I followed a wheel from over the top at 200m, easily passing him at 150m, finding myself back at the two leaders coming toward the line. Got the hole shot to win the sprint. Rode it through the next lap and slotted back. Feeling rested enough at 32 laps to go, I kicked hard in turn 1 after Allen from Webcor pulled up.

Held the gap for the rest of the lap, but riders eventually bridged up and I died in the sprint. 5th in the sprint, no points for a taxing effort, but a valuable lesson learned. Had I got in turn 3 a lap out I could have won the sprint with a solo effort, but probably also could have won it by just sitting in. Kept things interesting.

Started to fizzle at this point, hung on the back for another dozen laps or so, eventually sat it out and lost points as the remnants of the filled drilled it in the last few laps. Finished 1 lap down.

Goals accomplished, came down to a trade off between trying the solo break and finishing the race with the lead group: glad I tried something new.

Somewhat Disappointing

First crit I ever finished, mostly flat (though the backstretch pitches a little bit more than I remember). I wanted to do really well, but I wasn’t feeling the magic going in or coming out.

This was still a struggle. Started off fine, and rode in the top 5-10 for the first half of the race. Eased up for the mid-race lull but cornerswarm and some hard attacks on the backstretch kept the race hard throughout.

They ended us almost 10 minutes early which really threw off my timing, and 5 laps was not enough time for me to get far enough up front and recover for a sprint.

Narrowly avoided some bell lap carnage that split the top 10 from the rest of the group. I sat up and rolled in at 23rd after the main sprint. Only improved by one spot from last year, didn’t really have a lot of fun in this race though I expected to and wanted to do well: kind of disappointing.

Disappointment

This was my first race. I wanted to do well, but considering my time off for injury I had toned down my ambitions from podium to top-ten. I got a horrible start: junior in front of my couldn’t clip in and I bobbled over his rear wheel and had to unclip. By the time I got going I had to make up a quarter lap gap.

Got on and dangled on the back for another 6-7 laps when a rider spontaneously combusted in toward the end of the pack gapping me with another few riders. I worked with DBC junior Cody and we got back on briefly but I couldn’t handle the accordian on the hairpin after another couple laps. Worked together with a Metromint in the same spot until we got pulled with 9 laps to go.

Expectations

From the course description and Jake’s recon I expected another Brisbane Circuit Race where I surprised myself and was able to hang and even stay up front for all the climbs except the final lap.

Reality

The CCCR hill is quite a bit longer and pitches up steeper at the finish. This was fine for the first 5 laps until some harder attacks went off and I started running out of pack to drift back through. The reality is by July the Elite 4 field is a lot more fit than in April and I didn’t have the climbing shape for the faster laps.

Closing Gaps

I managed to get back on after getting dropped at 5 to go, similarly at 4 to, again getting slightly gapped just before the finish. I’d make my way back toward the front on the backstretch, but with 3 to go I ran out of gas to move up and got shot off the back early into the climb. Rode a solo lap and then traded pulls with a BBC master who was racing later. He gave me the win when we got close to the finish.

Result, DFL+whoever got dropped+1.

Goals

Top ten, realistic podium shot, pick up any easy primes if I happen to be in position.

Race

Crappy starting position behind a Cal rider who rode like a cracked out chipmunk the whole race, but made an effort and got into the top 10 within half a lap. Bounced back and forth between the top 5 and the top 15. I kept a close eye on my potential rides to the finish line, Maurice, Milroy, and a couple of other strong riders like the more wily 3rd pillar guys who came out in force for this race.

Crash

All was good going into the bell lap, had a decent top 15 position that I improved by taking good lines in the first couple of corners. Going into the soft library turns I was 7th or 8th wheel when I saw something somewhat surreal.

To the side of me I see Milroy take the first corner but continue through the apex shouldering a rider straight through the gutter and over the curb, like a hockey player body checking an opponent. Then he jumped back in without losing a position like nothing happened. This looked deliberate to me, but was so strange that I couldn’t believe it at the moment, and in retrospect it could have been a bar tangle or something like that.

When he jumped back in, it may have been coincidence but all hell seemed to break lose as some chain reaction took out three riders to the side and front of me as riders began attacking for the sprint.

I dodged all three riders, the first on the inside, the second outside, and the third inside as they skated to the curb. I was clear and didn’t seem to have lost any ground and little speed, but dodging the last rider inside sent me straight through a grate in the gutter and I caught my pedal on the curb. From there it was a hop, skip, and a jump headfirst into a “No Parking” sign post.

My Kingdom for a Hay Bail

A $3 hay bail would have saved me a trip to the hospital and probably a $100 helmet and $300 bike computer, but no such luck. As Ben said, “We have a pretty strange hobby, don’t we?”

Going into the last corners I had a fantastic position, and was primed and fresh for the sprint, whereas some of the other riders up front had more recently attacked to get there and seemed to be flagging. Seth, who took 4th, was behind me going into that as far as I could tell at that point. I had a podium spot pegged. No dice though. Pretty bummed, but I guess I should be lucky to have come out of it in one piece. As DP said, it wasn’t by luck I was in the position I was in going into the last corners, so I’ll be there next time.

Scratch (10 laps)

Marked Milroy, followed him around for 7 laps, but lost his wheel in the attack and got caught out in the wind for the last three laps pulling the rest of the riders up to the attack. Died in the sprint, got 8th.

Tempo (10 laps)

Took the first sprint easily as one guy attacked at the 200m and I followed overtaking him with little effort at the line. Recovered in the next sprint, and looked for my opportunities. Milroy took the 3 sprint easily, then a White brother and the junior Nick took off scooping up the middle points before Milroy attacked and finally caught them. Since so few earned points my first sprint win got me 4th.

Win & Out

I followed Milroy around the entire race until 3 to go, when at 2.5 I drifted slightly up track from behind his draft to come around a couple of dieing riders and boom, off he went. I picked the worst time to stop following him. Even though he took off like a freight train I could have easily sucked wheel enough to get dragged with a gap for another lap to take 2nd. Instead Jake launched with 1.5. I used a couple chasers to bridge up for 5th, only passing on man of the initial chase group.

A/B Points (4×8)

This race was fast. Held my own but didn’t contest anything for 16 laps when I lost contact in the second sprint. Sat a lap out, sat back in, lost it again in the 3rd sprint and bailed. Fast race, not an unmanageable pace but certainly difficult to cover attacks from the As.

Course

Crazy fast and technical course with reasonable to great pavement.

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Crew

Solid crit crew: Jake, Sam, Seth and myself. However given the course this would have to be everyone for themselves until the final few laps. “Teamwork starts with guarding your own position.”

Race

Got a funky start from the official – she walked back to the end of the course and then from the back of the field blew the whistle without any warning (and almost 10 minutes late).

Fortunately I was at the front and ready to go. I jumped to 5th wheel and stayed there, fighting for my position around the Crazy P every lap, for the next 10 minutes or so. Apparently I don’t have the top end power for jumping around such tight turns (160s, 180s, etc…) and I started to get fatigued and dehydrated in the heat (even at 8:30am and while drinking constantly).

Lost a position here and there and gained back less positions than I lost as I covered gaps that opened in front riders directly ahead of me. As I lost more positions I had to work harder. My race was effectively over once I hit -20 or so and hesitated to burn the matches necessary to get back into the top ten (didn’t have many matches left to burn after jumping hard out of that Crazy P ever 60 seconds for 20-25 minutes).

Reflection

Finally a super technical course with a 180-degree type turn and good conditions (no wind, no rain, but hot) to show that I’m not quite there in terms of power to put in such a huge jump every minute. The only way I could have stayed in the race was to stay top 5-10 the entire race, and even 10th wheel would have been pushing it. Kudos to Sam for getting to the front and staying there, to Seth to making it all the way to the front from the back by the end of the race, and to Jake for hanging in there until the finish.

Toughest crit yet, even harder than Brisbane in the wind.

Goals

• Place in the points race.
• Win the Scratch race.
• Do better in the Miss & Out.
• Improve in Omnium.

Perhaps a slightly softer B field than I’ve raced against yet, but still some good competition. I planned to race this week very conservatively since working too hard has worked against me in weeks past. I knew to keep my eye on the SBCU/Specialized guys (Wyatt, Rob, Sam), a fairly fast ICCC master, and Sean and Dan of Stanley Morgan.

Points (5×3)

Learning from previous weeks, I planned to pick up easy points in the first sprint, sit the second sprint out, take what I could in the 3rd sprint and win the 4th sprint. The race began at a fairly good clip with a little bit of a chase after Sean who took an immediate flyer. Dan started blocking for Sean, which helped keep him away for that sprint. I gave chase, but too late, didn’t quite catch him at the sprint but still picked up a couple of points. Sat in the second sprint. Got in position for the third sprint and covered an attack at turn 2. Spun out before I could come around, picked up 3 more points. At this point I figured anything better than 1 more point would put me in the top 3. Gave it my all in the last sprint passing one rider in the sprint, but didn’t pass Dan early enough for 4th to pick up that last point. Ended up 7th in a 3 way tie for 5th.

Scratch (12 laps)

I always work way too hard in this race, so I resolved to stay top 5 the whole race, but always pull off with the leader and sit right back in. I knew I could do well in a late attack with a handful of riders. This ended up being an unusual race, the whole pack sat up at the rail for the first few laps reluctant to make any attacks. I attacked at 9 to go and Wyatt (SBCU) countered, with the pace set I played out my plan of sitting in the first few and always pulling off with the leaders to avoid any wind. I waited for either Sean or a SBCU guy to take off in turn 2, and it came, I hopped on and pulled in for 2nd. Again, I spun out before I could jump to pass.

Miss & Out (13 riders)

Haven’t had much luck in the Bs Miss & Out so far, due to three factors: field size, pace, and strategy. So far both field size and pace have been high, and my strategy has been low. I raced this one fairly well. I mostly played the devil after it thinned down a bit, I marked my riders and edged them out either by boxing them in at the stairs or the rail and moving where they moved. I must have seemed like a huge pain in the ass. Found myself with the final five, but didn’t have the legs and ended up 5th.

Overall Lessons

• I thought I was racing smart before, but I burned my matches much more conservatively this time while still racing fairly aggressively.
• 86” isn’t cutting it anymore. Guys are getting faster and I can only add so many RPMs, time to gear up.

Accomlishments

• Place in the points race: almost, I was competitive but tying blew it, very close to a tie for 3rd though.
• Win the Scratch race: 2nd, not a very close 2nd but much better than last time.
• Do better in the Miss & Out: check.
• Improve in Omnium: check, earned 1 upgrade point, only 14 to go!