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What Ziggy saw:
Category: 4/5
Result: A prime and a crash!
For putting on most of our races, Velo Promo always comes across as if it is their first race promotion ever. They were late to set up and their directions were bad. 'Nuff said.
My morning started off good as I got my own directions from Yahoo instead of following the ones provided (I almost never follow the ones provided). Registration didn't open until about 20 minutes before the scheduled start, so the race was about 20 minutes late. We had about 29 riders in the 4/5 race.
Things were pretty calm for about the first 5 laps, then the attacks started happening. I covered most of them, and was included in one or two of them. At around lap 16 (of 25) I covered a jump that actually got some space on the pack. As soon as I reached the other rider, he mumbled something, let off and I was away. I believe Santiago was blocking immediately so I was sorta stuck in a solo break-away that I didn't really want to be in. I held on for about five or six laps, took a prime and was eventually chased down with about ten to go.
At first I thought my race was done, but after about one lap of recovery, I was good to go. I stayed in the first ten wheels for the remainder of the race and with one to go, I made my way up to the first five wheels. The plan was for Santiago to lead me out on the last half of the last lap, but a couple of riders prevented this from really happening, so with about 1/4 of a lap to go, I made my way to the first wheel just in time to take the last corner. This was perfect as I had charged really hard into the corner and according to Carl, had plenty of space between me and the guy in second wheel.
Well, the win wasn't to be. Either I forgot to stop pedaling or I pedaled too soon out of the corner and I hit my pedal HARD! Several witnesses said I was several feet in the air, and my bike was even higher. I guess I endoed big time and landed on my right hip. As I laid on the ground, I noticed a nice trail of blue lycra dust. I also noticed that I wasn't more than 50 yards from the finish. I squirmed on the ground for a bit, checked my collar bone and my hip, found that nothing was broken, and popped up in an adrenalin rush and headed devastated and pissed (not drunk) over to the medical tent to get cleaned up. Adrenalin is a great thing as it allowed the EMT to really give my wounds a good first scrubbing. For those of you who don't wear undershirts when racing, seriously reconsider. My undershirt saved me from having bad RR on my back.
My take for the day: $10 for the prime, a bent wheel, trashed morale, a bunch of new pavement tattoos, and a well ventilated skinsuit and undershirt.
The SF Giro will be the one. This no winning bit is getting frustrating. Don't take that the wrong way. It just seems that every time I get so close to my first win, something happens to stop me from standing on the top spot.
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What Santiago saw:
Category: 4/5
Result: 4th
Sunday's crit: my legs were really tired from Saturday (Corral Hollow), so I told Ziggi, that I would work for him and lead him out on the final lap. Well everything was going ok, no major efforts for most of the race. Ziggi went on a solo break and I did my best to block in front, when ever I saw the pace coming up I would jump to the front and slow the field down, them they will go again and so did I.
So finally Ziggi started to come back slowly, we didn't go any faster but it was hard to stay out there for so long. Coming into the final lap I placed my self second on the field and was waiting to make my move with half a lap to go, but a couple of riders went before me on my left side, so I went to cover the move and so did Ziggi coming around me on the right. When I saw that I went to the outside to of the turn to cover this guys a let Ziggi clear on the inside, then I saw him flying in the air and landing on his back next to me, auucchhh!!!, that distracted me a little and sprinted late to get 4th in the race.
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What Iwan saw:
Category: 4/5
Result: Did not finish
I was feeling tired this weekend and wanted to sleep in on Sunday but my wife insisted that I race (believe it or not!). So in the early light of dawn I hastily threw everything I thought I would need into the car and we sped off to Livermore. The directions on the flyer were plainly wrong, mentioning roads and turns that were only a figment of someone's imagination. Nevertheless, after making some good guesses, we got there at around 7:40, twenty minutes before the race, with just enough time to register and reconnoiter the course.
I got on the course trying my best to warm up in the cool morning breeze. The first thing I noticed was that the course, as described, had a very slight almost imperceptible yet fiendish rise to it on two adjacent sides. For the majority of superfit racers typically found in August this would not present much of a problem but I thought immediately that it would spell my demise. This was further confirmed when the race official mentioned something about how races were basically intervals... one after another. Gee, I hadn't done too many of those lately. He also went on to mention how he would let us stay on if we were lapped to provide additional interval training. Just what I needed.
There was no hiding the fact that I wasn't in such great shape on this course. The top contenders smelled blood and I was just so much bloody chum. Happily, these included some FFBC sharks. By lap five or so I was suffering quite badly just trying to hold on to last place. Then the prime bell rang and there was an acceleration. I was instantly dangling off the back. Hoping for a reprieve after the prime, I got out of the saddle and chased as well as I could. They slowed a little on the rise but I couldn't quite close the gap and on the downhill side I sat up a bit to recover and the race was gone.
There was another rider (maybe more?) off the back and one of them caught up to me and powered past. I wondered how he could carry so much speed and yet get dropped. Anyway, I circled the course on my own waiting for the pack to lap me. What I didn't expect, a few laps later, was Ziggy passing me way out in front looking like he was on an easy Sunday ride. He was looking for a tow, but I advised him that he might get DQ'd if it even looked like he was on my wheel.
When the field went by, I half-heartedly tried to latch on, but they were at full steam determined to catch up to Ziggy and not inclined to invite stragglers back on. So there I was circling on my own again. Mercifully, I was pulled off the course a few laps later. This gave me the chance to watch the finish from the sidelines. On the last lap, I stood at the finish and saw Ziggy's spectacular crash as he came around the last corner. The bicycle looked like it was performing some well practiced judo maneuver as it caught its front wheel and threw Ziggy in a sweeping arc high in the air. The landing looked horrific but amazingly Ziggy got up on his own and only suffered some road rash.
My legs felt wobbly for hours after the race. I can see that I'll need more training before I can race well again, which may or may not include a few more humbling experiences like this one. More likely, it'll be next season before that happens and it looks like both Santiago and Ziggy will upgrade before the end of this season to the 3's. Good for them, they certainly have the speed for it.
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What Carl saw:
Category: Masters 35+ 3/4/5
Result: Top ten
As mentioned in the previous posts the only good directions were "on the north side of 580" - I felt sorry for those folks that did not know the area.
I entered the +35 3/4/5 race on Sunday and was the only FFBC rider present for this race. I had considered changing to the 4/5 race with Ziggy and all but that would have blown my warm-up plan. The field for this race was small (about 30) and there were some 3's (masters) in the field and I got the feeling from the start that it would have a bit higher pace than other races.
The race was fairly uneventful (no crashes and good pack riding), there were some failed breaks and the usual accelerations, but in the end it came down to the last lap and where you were positioned on the climb/rise 2 corners from the finish. I tried to move up as best as I could knowing where the race determined and lost a bit of monetum on the turn at the top of the rise and had to chase for the wheel in front and by the time I covered it was into the last corner and the run into the line. I was able to pull out a 9th place.
I was at the line watching the end of the 4/5's race and saw Ziggy come flying up to the last corner and said to myself that his and Santiago's stratagy had worked and next thing I know Ziggy is doing this wild endo thing with his bike and it looked scary. I rode up to him after the field passed and after a few moments it was nice to see that he was not seriously hurt (exept for his ego).
I thought the course was quite good for being found at the last moment and look forward to racing there again in the future.
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