|
What Carl saw:
Category: Masters 4/5
Result: Top ten
"I survived the MVV Crit." could be the mantra from Sunday. The course was in bad shape with chewed up pavement, construction equipemnt and a nice trench to deal with. The Masters 4/5 race was a race of 2 paces, fast on the the front side of the course and a moderate pace on the backside of the course where the chewed up pavement, trench and equipment were. The race was pretty tame with the occasional failed breakaway (I tried one for a couple of laps) and there was a crash on the back straight with a couple of laps to go (hope your friend is OK Santiago) and then there was a sprint for the finish. I placed 10th and Santiago placed 9th.
Enclosed are a couple of pics I took: Garry B. out in front during the Cat. 3 race and Ziggy in the Cat 4/5 race with Mike Z. in the background.
I believe the new skin suits look great (thanks Brian!!) and can't wait to have matching jerseys (next year?).
Back to top
|
|
What Santiago saw:
Category: Masters 4/5
Result: Top ten
We were looking great on those skin suits. There was Mike, Carl, Brian and myself on the master's race. It was all going great, I stayed in the top 15 or so for the whole race, there was to much yelling and rubbing on the back, so I didn't want to ruin my new suit :-)), Carl came to the front and tried to stay away, so I sat on the wheel of two guys from a team that were chasing him, they brought him back, but it kept the pace up.
With 3 laps to go Mike came to the front and pulled for a complete lap, great job Mike!!, keeping the pace up, then with two to go bang!!!! a crash, so we speeded up at the front to take advantage of the incident. I was on and excellent place starting the last lap, on third place and the pace was great, but this two guys started to slow down with half a lap, and I thought: if we slow down everybody is going to move up.... no way.... So I went to the front and kept the pace going, and right coming of the last turn I started my sprint...... what a long way, I was head to head with another guy with a half wheel advantage and with around 20 mts to go, the smart guys came around us and I couldn't accelerate anymore, finishing in 9th place.
My friend Paul from MVV that went down, ended up with lots of road rash, 7 stitches on his face and a destroyed front wheel. Quit a few prices for a Sunday crit.....
Back to top
|
|
What Garry saw:
Category: Cat. 3 and Masters 35+ 1/2/3
Result: Mid-pack both races.
Lots of FFBC team out to play on Sunday.
The course had added excitement. The City of Fremont had decided to resurface Fremont Blvd, so there was a 6 foot wide strip from the concrete curb that had been scarified in preparation for the new top course. The MVV organizer must have been having kittens when he saw that. The did a great job though, placing a bitumen ramp on and off the bad surface at turns 2 and 3 and placing hay bales at the lumps in the road. The transition at turn 2 was in my opinion the worst, with a wash board to cross at the apex and just at the location where a gear change was needed. Still, I don't think anyone crashed here or at the next turn where the road construction equipment was parked. It was just a little interesting feeling the rear wheel skip out every lap.
M 35+ 4/5 had MM, CA, BJ and SB mixing it. MM put in the big effort with two to go to keep the pace high, SB entered the last turn in 1st to lead out but he was suffering from Pescadero Legs and slid back badly with 50m to go. Carl all this time was making amends for getting squeezed and was storming forward. SB finished 9th, CA was 10th and MM rolled in at the back, happy in a job well done.
Next up was the Senior 3. I was the only FFBC in this race. A big field for this small course, about 60 riders made the peloton a bumpy place to be. I hit the front several times, I was feeling good but as usual I was moved to the back so the proper sprinters could get on with the business. We did about 26.5 for one hour. The same fella that won at the Wente Crit won again, he must be sand bagging.
The Senior 4 race had major FFBC participation. RB, Ziggy, MM (again) PP and MZ signed on and all rode well. RB was suffering at the back, not fully recovered from a bad cold and over training. MZ was still basking in the previous day's glory and was thus excused duty except for his 3 lap attack that stirred a major reaction from the pack. Mike, your officially a marked man. Ziggy was always at the front or near it, Riding a smart race that was not properly rewarded. I'm not sure what happened to MM but I saw PP sprinting really hard at the finish. Paul, If you ever learn to sprint more fluidly you will go even faster. You reminded me of the Tashkent Terror. I think PP finished 6th or 7th.
Finally was the M35+ 1/2/3 which had 3 postals and a smattering of local semi pro's and good talent. It was a very fast first 30 minutes, we were doing an average of 27.5 and a break still went away. They were reeled in, only for another gruppetto to sneak off the front. It was like this for the whole race but none succeeded and I think a Postal boy won it, maybe even our own Lar Nolan. I was in the middle of the pack. I had a few moments of excitement, de-cleeting over the bot dots and then several laps later a guy lost concentration and decided to not turn at turn 4 and rammed his handlebars into my thigh. Nothing to do but keep turning around the bend and hope he sorted his life out, which he did with abuse ringing in his ears.
Anyway's a good day out, we all stayed up, rode hard and DAMN, WE LOOK GOOD IN THE NEW SKINSUITS!
Back to top
|
|
What Mike Z. saw:
Category: 4
Result: Mid-pack
Not much to tell on this one from my part. I rode down to the course to get experience in crits. Saw a couple of crashes, managed to have a 3 or 4 lap break ending on a prime lap (without winning the prime) and then stayed at the back until the end where I moved up to the middle of the back of the pack. I rode home on very sore legs at a M-B pace. Sorry guys, I didn't help with the plan at all. That track was too messed up for me to feel comfortable mixing it up in the front. Carl gave more info on the crummy course conditions. Corner number 2 was rediculous.
To Brian: Excellent shorts and excellent skin suit man.
Back to top
|
|
What Richard saw:
Category: 4/5
Result: Back of pack
It was good to stretch the legs at the MVV crit (cat 4/5), though I wasn't feeling anywhere near race fit (as witnessed by Garry's post-race question: "Where the hell were you?"). I started off mid pack, and through the course of the first 10 or so laps, slipped to the back. At that point, it was all I could do to hang on, though the pace did ease up a little and I was a little more comfortable. I saw Ziggy off the front for a while, and not too long after that, Mike Z. had a go. Suddenly, there were 3 FFBC riders (Ziggy, PP and myself) in the top 20, trying to slow the chase. It was fun gently moving over on people forcing them off the wheel of the leader of an advancing train.
Mike got caught after a good effort and suddenly my legs were telling me it was time to go to the back of the race again. I hung on till the end and rolled in at the back of the field showing an average speed of 25.2 mph for the race. Most importantly, I managed to avoid the crashes. There was a rather large one after about 5 laps on the exit of turn 1 which looked rather spectacular. On the last lap, at turn 2 a single rider went down, those at the back heard a blowout and knew to look for trouble as we came round the corner. It seems as though there was basically a crash a race, not all of them caused by the poor paving...
Back to top
|
|
Pictures
- Garry Birch tearing the legs off the bunch in the cat 3 race.
- Ziggy in the thick of things in the cat 4/5 race.
Back to top
|
