|
Timpany Criterium
Sunday 11th August, 2002
|
|
Reports by:
Pictures from this event.
|
|
What Ziggy saw:
Category: 4
Result: 3rd
Well, we didn't win, and I must say I think it's Garry's fault for sending that oh so optimistic email last night. Most of the race was fairly uneventful. I wanted to see what would happen if I tried the "pedal first, clip later" approach to starting, and it actually turned out pretty well. Seemed as if most of the riders were occupied with the business of clipping in and I ended up first wheel with a small gap which was closed as soon as the others finished their business.
I managed to stay up front for most of the race, finding myself midpack only a couple of times. Coming into the first prime lap, I was first wheel, and stayed that way as the only other person to sorta contest it was Paul. I was second wheel coming into the second prime lap, but didn't feel like putting in a full effort so the guy in front took that one. Some guy took advantage of the gap we had created with the prime acceleration and tried to set up a breakaway. I was a bit winded from my effort and tried my best, but there were some aggressive riders that brought us back pretty quick. The rest of the race was at a mixed pace, which allowed scary swarms of riders to occasionally make their way up to the front.
The last lap was a mess. Coming out of the third corner, our modest pace allowed the pack to catch us on both the inside and outside in a pretty aggressive acceleration. I was looking for a way out and saw Paul come out of nowhere up my right side, so I grabbed his wheel, anticipating a nice pull into the finish. This was not to be as the rider on the front of the right side of the road wasn't pulling through so there was quite a scary traffic jam right before the final turn. Well, I realized that the inside line wasn't going to get anywhere so i decided to try my luck at weeding my way to the outside. This worked almost to perfection. I had to slow some to allow a group of advancing riders pass, and just as they did, we hit the last turn. I came around the outside and was left with precisely the one option I was hoping I wouldn't have to use. I had to sprint all the way from the last turn into the finish.
This almost worked. Turns out that Paul unintentionally led out Paul from MVV and another rider who, not more than 30 or 40 meters from the finish rode away from me to take first and second. I guess I should have stuck to Paul's wheel. Oh well. The win went to Paul from MVV, a great guy who really needed a morale boost like this to recover from multiple crashes. Paul S. ended up fourth. Mike M. ended up somewhere near where Garry was so kind as to predict yesterday. He lost some skin, but no where near as much as the young guy from Los Gatos.
My take for the day was $20 for the prime, $5 and a box of berry GU for third. Oh and another credit towards upgrading! BTW, Garry was an absolute monster today, towing around the entire 3's field for several laps in pursuit of a badass breakaway. I thought it very gentlemanly of him to give the win to the UCLA guy.
Back to top
|
|
What Mike M. saw:
Category: 4
Result: Crash - minor injuries.
Yeah, it was a pretty uneventful race until I left some skin as an offering to the God of Bicycle Racing. :-)
It seemed like most of the race was at a relatively slow pace (23-24 MPH?), so I tried a few attacks. I would only ever get 20 or 30 meters and the pack was right on my wheel. I was hoping that I could get a breakaway started and make other people chase while the rest of my mates could suck wheel, but it seems that the peloton would not let any breakaways go. We would be finishing with a field sprint.
With 8 laps left to go I stopped attacking to conserve for the finish. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough left to help out. With one lap left to go, I ended up on the right side of the course too tired to advance. Then down the final straightaway, a rider comes up fast on my left-hand side almost sweeping my wheel. A few seconds later, two riders went down right in front of me and that's all she wrote; road rash on the LHS, but nothing really serious.
We had also talked about trying to get together and setting up a sprint for Santiago. That never materialized as the team was spread out a little bit and we were unable to communicate and coordinate. The pace of the last lap was "modest" as Ziggy put it, which led to a lot of bunching up in the last 2 corners. Maybe that's something we can work on someday.
Final results? We got at least 3 people in the top ten with 2 people placing! Way to go, team!
Back to top
|
|
What Jeff saw:
Category: 5
Result: Back of pack
Timpani was my first race since getting out of the cast and it was pretty crappy.
First things first, don't go out to dinner with someone the night before if it means you have to drive home at 10 from the North Bay.
I woke up this morning generally feeling like crap. That only added to my nervousness. By the time I got to warmup, my legs and my arms were feeling weak. I think I was just really afraid of something going wrong. I didn't upgrade to 4 because I want to the upcoming road races as a 5 and today was my first day wearing contacts and riding. I decided to wear contacts to reduce my risk of breaking my glasses. I think though, that it also made it easier to pay attention without worrying about heavy glasses slipping off.
So, my warmup was stopped by racers massing at the line so I had already started in the back. I think that waiting in the front is far better than trying to warmup to the very end. There were no FFBC in this race so I stuck with this guy named Mike Lee. He's the only other person I've seen on the racing scene with a Fuji bike. He's taken some top ten places and has never crashed on his road bike (2 years old).
For most of the race, we were trapped at the back and hanging on to dear life. There was a lot of rubber-banding. The pack was at 26-27 MPH and would some times slow down to 20. I made a few attempts to jump up places but lost a lot of ground being on the outside of turns.
By the 2nd to last lap, I was getting really worn through. The banana and English muffin I had for breakfast were already burnt through so I started to fall off the back. I was getting really tired and all I could concern myself with was not crashing. The pack started to disappear around the corners and I was pretty much alone for the last two. I had already realized that I would probably be last. I rode as fast as I could. On the final sprint, I sprinted anyways just for the hell of it when I suddenly came into contact with a straggler. I didn't know if he was in the race or not, but I caught him and passed him anyways. I got 41 out of 42. At least I wasn't last!
Yay, no more 7 AM physical therapy this week. I think that will help a lot with Corral Hollow.
Oh, I should mention for those who weren't there. There was a fork failure in our race. I was lucky to be off to the side for the hapless victim behind that rider his collar bone today.
Back to top
|
|
What Santiago saw:
Category: 4
Result: Mid-pack
After yesterday's Districts, I tested my legs a couple of times a realize they were tired but fresh enough for a Sr 4 crit. I managed to stay up from in the top ten for the whole race, pulling a few times, chasing guys some other, jumping on Mike wheel every time he decided to go hard, and coming into the last turn, I was perfectly placed in second wheel, but the guys in front of me started to run out of steam right before the turn and the whole field started to bunch up around me... not good, here we go again...
Anyway, I stayed there waiting a little bit to get closer to line before going but suddenly the guy on my right got hit on his side lost control and went down right in front of me. I was just pushing with my mind the guy and his bike away from me and getting ready to jump over his bike or his head what ever gets in front of me, I didn't want to move to the sides because it was going to be even worse, but then the guy from LGBRC came by and stop the bike that was coming right at me but there he went flying up in the air and landing on his back with his feet still cleated... auucchhh!!!, when I saw my self out of danger I looked back up and the field was sprinting for the line already... upppsss, did I forget something, well what about pedaling... anyway, I missed the sprint but I stayed up.
Great job team on that crit. We just need to get a little more organized, but we are doing great.
Back to top
|
|
What Carl saw:
Category: 4
Result: Top ten
It was nice to see such a good turn out of 6 FFBC riders for the Cat 4 race.
This was my first race in about 2 months and I didn't do myself any favors the night before by going out to dinner and drinking a half bottle of wine. I could feel that I was not going to be in top form and that I would do best by sitting back and than seeing what I could do on the last lap and sprint. Riding in the pack for this race had its own share of excitement in that I only had about 3 different riders touch and lean on me and there was this San Jose rider who was yelling at everyone for their lines or for not pedaling thru or for whatever else and he almost caused 2 crashes himself on the last 2 laps.
During the race I determined that I could do best by making my moves on the outside of the field and that would be my plan for the last lap/sprint. With about 2 to go I started making my way up towards the front and then on the last lap the field slowed at the end of the back straight so there was a bunch up into the corner that caused me to slalom the cones on the way to the final corner that I took on the outside as planned and made a go for the finish where I ended up in 7 place.
As I crossed the line it was great to see a couple of other FFBC riders there also.
A couple of side notes: Mike M. hope your injuries are minor and you can get riding soon (you looked pretty good out there today) and THANKS Ziggy for picking up my trainer.
Back to top
|
|
What Iwan saw:
Category: 4
Result: Mid-pack
It has now become abundantly clear to me how this race got its name: there's a guy that likes to practice on his kettle drums by the side of the road during the race. Was this something new? By the sound of it, he was either playing parts from Also Sprach Zarathusthra (yes, the theme from 2001 A Space Odyssey when the hominid goes nuts with the soup bone) or maybe it was some tribal war dance rhythm. Then again, I don't remember him being there in previous years.
This was my first race in almost exactly two years and I decided it would make a nice low-key and safe race to start with. We set off as soon as the fire truck and ambulance had left the course (from the cat V race, of course). I guess there's something about the presence of emergency vehicles that puts everyone on their best behavior. The first few laps seemed very leisurely. (No, you first through the corner, I insist). Before long, however, the congeniality was all but lost and the usual shouts of "hold your line!", "that's dangerous!", and the classic, "inside, inside!" were heard. Even then, the race seemed pretty mild mannered, which I was glad for because my legs were out of practice jumping out of corners.
I spent a lot of the race in mid-pack waiting for the pace to pick up. It never got very fast and by around lap 15 it got tiresome and I was wishing for it to end sooner. I played around trying different lines through the corners until at one point I cut through the apex of the first corner too closely winding up with a helmet full of hedge and nearly clipping the wheel in front of me. The highlight of the day was moving up briefly to the front to say hi to Mike before getting swarmed by an acceleration caused by one of our guys attacking. In fact, it was nice to see so many efforts by Ziggy, Mike et al. to stay up front.
With around five to go I made a concerted effort to get to the front. It was prompted by the Los Gatos coach standing near the last corner giving his team some handy advice: "you've got to move up NOW!". Unfortunately, it also reminded everyone else move up so the net effect was null. With just a couple laps I was offered some beautiful opportunities to shoot through mid-field gaps carelessly left open, but my jump just wasn't there so I had to decline.
The bell lap came quickly, and before I knew it, we were sprinting out of the final corner. It was difficult to say which was the fastest line so I stayed in the middle trying to stay on the wheel in front of me but even that was difficult. Then, I heard the sound of a crash off to the right and saw quite a few riders tumbling on the ground including an FFBC jersey. The crash pretty much shut down the sprint for the backmarkers, so I cruised the rest of the way in then turned around to check on the crash. I was pleased that I finished without incident, but not pleased that I had such meager acceleration when needed. I think that with a bit practice, though, I can get my rhythm back.
Back to top
|
|
What Garry saw:
Category: 3
Result: Mid-pack
It was most excellent to see the FFBC out in force. Shame about Mike chewing the asphalt but getting 3 in the top 10 is outstanding. It's just the damn win that eludes us. More planning is required me thinks. Also very good to see the team hovering around Mike at the first aid station making sure he got good treatment. The guys from the other teams were left on their own, which sucks for them, and is not a very good advertisement for their teams.
The Senior 3 was an average sort of race in most ways except one. The winner went away in a two up breakaway with about 15 laps to go and although there was combined and solo efforts to bridge the gap or chase them down they stayed away for a deserved win and second. You would think the 43 riders in the pack could get it together and chase them down. Just goes to show that racing is dynamic and no race is the same.
I made a few efforts to bridge the gap but I lacked the horsepower to complete the task. However my plan had been to more aggressive and get into a break and one part of the plan was successful, which probably was the reason why I had no legs for a good sprint at the end.
Back to top
|
|
Pictures
Back to top
|
|
