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What Brian J. saw:
Category: 5
Result: Mid-pack
WHOO-HOO.......!
What a day! Brian Ziegler (aka.Ziggy) Smile! and myself did the cat. 5 race. What a blast! Ziggy almost didn't get to race. He forgot his helmet. Ouch!, but we where able to get someone to loan there helmet to him. I didn't get his last name, but I had seen him before, his name is Darryl. He rides for the wheels of thunder. Nice guy! I know Ziggy appreciate it.
Race went great, except on the last lap when we started to sprint and climb, which by the way was too cool! My right shifter screwed up it either jammed or broke. I was still able to pull of 15th place. Next time Ziggy and I will go for the points.
I stayed to watch Santiago and Paul do the cat. 4 race. It look like they where really moving out there. I saw both of them up front in the top ten. Come to find out later there was some kind of a crash at the top of the climb. Santiago and/or Paul can give more detail. I had to leave, but before I did I saw Tim out there lining up for the cat 3 race. Wanted to stay, but had to go. How did you do Tim?
Wasn't the weather fantastic? Well talk to you all soon! Remember SNELLING ROAD RACE!!!! Smile! If the weather is good. This would be a great road race for all.
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What Tim saw:
Category: 3
Result: 5th
Brian, yeah you're right, Santiago and Paul got caught up in a crash. What a drag! Great weather though! My race went real well. I placed there for the first time out of at least 5 previous attempts! I got 5th! I was shocked. Honestly I couldn't even decide on whether I was going or not, even after I woke up this morning. Robin said we could use a road trip, so I loaded up faster than you could say Go!.
Here's the details if you want'em. Got an OK start amongst the 40 who were soon wittled down to 30. I looked around and saw Glen Winkle, Mark Caldwell, John Bartmateller (sp), Bob Parker and knew it would be tough to place. The race went by pretty smoothly with me maximizing the draft and momentum to make it up that nasty hill, oh yeah and my light wheels helped a lot (yuk, yuk!). Anyway, Bart and Winkle took off on a break and that was that.
Coming into the last attack at the hill I knew I was in business. It broke up into a single fast pace line at the bottom, I was like eight or so. I knew if I could just hang on I would get a top ten which was my goal. As we charged up the hill the single pace line started to bunch up and I went around on the right and went right by. I couldn't get the last two guys to win the field sprint, but I was still estatic! It was really great having Paul, Santiago, Patrica and Robin cheering for me. No I didn't win a pie, but I won some money!
P.S.: I almost forgot to tell you guys, I ran into another FFBC'r at the race. He's an old buddy from a Japanese class he and I took together. He isn't on the race team, but he did race in the recumbent class. His name is Bill Webster. He's even older than me! I wished him good luck. I don't know how he did.
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What Santiago saw:
Category: 4
Result: Back of pack
Fun race, but bad luck for PP and my self. We were doing pretty good in the race, staying pretty close most of the time. We started moving up with 5 to go, well actually I was moving up on every lap on the hill, but this time we were going to stay there, so we were on the top 10-15, going up the hill with 2 laps to go, and CRASHHHHH... right in front of me, I had to hit my breaks hard, my rear wheel came off the ground, almost got the nice adventure of flying over the handle bar, but was able to release the front break on time, in any case, my feet were on the ground and had to step off the bike, ran around the crash and hit the end of the hill of course, zero momentum and wrong gear, by the time I went over the 180 turn, they were gone, I saw Paul also chasing, so worked hard to get to Paulo's wheel and we made it back to the field of the last lap, but they were already going hard on the last turn to hit the last climb, so no chance.
Overall I think we were doing pretty good, both of us were pretty relax during the race, so guys, if we get together one of this days, Richard, Paul Brian J (move to 4's) and myself, I think we can do some damage out there.
Advice for the 4's, pre-reg, the fields are getting huge. Yesterday we had 81 in the race, and they are going to get serious on limiting the field size.
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What Ziggy saw:
Category: 5
Result: Mid-pack
Cherry Pie was fun stuff. The helmet thing was almost a bummer, but hey, the dude in the car next to me saved the day! Brian J. was awesome (makin' us 5'ers look bad), too bad for the shifter thing because he looked to have some legs on the last climb.
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