|
What Ziggy saw:
Category: 4/5
Result: Mid-pack
I would like to announce that I no longer like doing 4/5 races. The Davis 4's only race was a treat, and made me realize that these 4/5 races are a bit dangerous. I'm not bashing on 5's or anything, (heck, I was one about a month ago!), but the nature of cat 5 with its less experienced and sometimes less practiced (fitness) riders does not seem lend itself to a successful combination of 4's and 5's.
Today's race was about as dangerous as I've ever experienced. Luckily there was only one crash, occuring at the bell lap somewhere near the back of the pack. There was much swarming at the front of the race for most of the day as the pack seemed unwilling or perhaps too timid to keep the speed up on the back side of the course and around the 180 degree turn. I wanted to see just how fast we could have gone, so I took a turn at the front and with very little effort (and perhaps a little blocking by Santi ?), I was away from the pack at only 26mph, hitting all the turns very comfortably.
The slowness of the race led to, in my opinion, a bunch of riders being up front that would otherwise not have been there. I say this because on several occasions, after a short pickup in pace, a rider or two would just run out of steam in the middle of the pack and cause dangerous slowing and swerving by the riders around and behind him just trying to get by. I had two near misses/crashes and one catastrophic loss of position due to this. I say the loss of position was catastrophic because it happened with only a few laps left to go. I think I lost 20 or so positions when one rider decided he was done for the day and stopped pedaling just as the pack was speeding up. This caused a big jam on the left side of the road, and since I was right on his wheel, I had nowhere to go.
With all the turns, it was difficult to make up lost positions. I managed to make up most of my losses and finished somewhere near 12th. I couldn't say for sure as VeloPromo seems to never have a functional camera when the finish comes around. I probably could have done two better had I continued my attack throught the corner, but I didn't and my legs didn't have as much steam left as I thought and the two riders I planned to beat at the line coming out of the last corner finished in the same position they were in when exiting the corner.
This could just be me venting because I didn't get a top ten at the line, but I think Santiago will second me here on the health risk that this course poses. Oh BTW, my two near misses were a wheel touch, my front to someone's rear (scary!), and some serious braking on my part that actually caused my rear wheel to lift off the ground. The braking was done to avoid a rider that was about to take out my wheel in an evasive maneuver the whole right side of the pack pulled as they attempted to avoid a lapped rider that was taking up a considerable portion of the right side of the road. The guy behind me didn't like my little endo, but it was either that or me hit the deck because the pack was too tight for me to move over.
The field size was 79 with only 4 non-pre-reg'ed riders being admitted to the race. One more thing. I think I'm going to take eggs with me to my next race so I can chuck them at the geniuses that like to dive into the inside of turns at a rate of speed which is much faster than that of the pack. IMHO, this is the cheapest, crapppiest, and most dangerous way of gaining positions.
Back to top
|
|
What Santiago saw:
Category: 4/5
Result: Mid-pack
Oakland crit, I don't know if I'll do it again... that 180 deg turn coming from a three lane road to a half a lane kind of road... is not very fun specially on the last few laps. As Ziggi pointed out, every time I saw a bunch coming into that turn I was trying to accelerate and get in front so I didn't get in trouble, well with two laps to go, I do the same and this idiot came screaming on the inside of the turn, and of course, no way he can turn at that speed and coming in to the turn with that steep angle, so he just went straight into the sidewalk, what was that??????.
There was also a really dangerous incident, where actually the skills of a few riders saved the life of an old lady that decided to cross the road at the second right turn right when we were coming by, I was on 5th place when we saw this slow moving woman stepping in the road, a couple of guys had to jump on the sidewalk to avoid her and most of the field came around the outside, I'm sure it was more scary for her than us..... BTW, where was the marshal with the fu...... flag?????
Now, back to results, I was in second position coming into the last lap, and again the field bunched up in that 180 turn, my mistake, I should had jump again and lead into the turn, but I guess I was playing save or so I thought, since I still can see all the scars from Burlingame in my legs.... , came out of the turn in around 15 place, and a couple of riders up the pace line, a gap opened... a made some place on the final turn and climb to the finish getting to Ziggi who was ahead of me, finishing right behind him, so if he placed 11 I did 12.
Anyway, I'll finish this month as a Cat 4 and I'll upgrade to race august and September as a 3 to get the feeling (and my a.. kicked) for next year.
Back to top
|
