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What Brad saw:
Category: 4/5+
Result: Back of pack
We had a great turnout for the Cat 4/5 race: Carl, Richard, Scott, Iwan, Mike Z, Brian Z, and me -- so seven all together! We were able to secure a top 5 finish from among one of the crew, and I'll let that person tell the tale.
Fourth EB for me this season. My only excitement came about during the crash. About 8 or so laps into the race, near the start/finish line, someone got stupid by the bot-dots and took down a bunch of riders, including Iwan and me. Had time to react to the domino-like wave of falling bikes moving to the right -- into my path -- but there was still no escape, but I managed to scrub away speed before landing (relatively softly) on someone in front of me (he was ok), and then was rolled into from behind, lightly.
A "pending crash" tip: When fully surrounded by cyclists and preparing to crash, I hold fast to my line, do not panic-brake, so as to not make things worse. If I veered right, for example, I would have been broad-sided and knocked down uncontrollably onto my left -- but by keeping my line, I can then control my own "crash destiny" in picking out a point where to land, how to land, without cyclists behind making that decision for me.
In a stroke of great fortune, neither Iwan or I were hurt (the worse victim had a broken collar bone, i hear -- no ambulance roll this time), and the refs allowed us to re-start, but first i needed to go back to my car for some tools to do some quick repairs to my derailleur. But the race for me was pretty much over, and I just hung in the back of the pack and stayed out of trouble for the rest of the race. So, on one hand a disappointing close to the EB's, but on the other, very happy to have survived, flesh and bones intact during this brutal EB season.
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What Carl saw:
Category: 4/5+
Result: 5th
Wow, what a group we put together for EB #5 in the 4/5 race, I believe that we had 7 members of the team come to the start. Upon rolling up to the line in to the space saved by Richard we heard some comments from the other racers about our numbers (were getting noticed, that's great!). I arrived with my legs feeling so-so after a friendly ride go crazy uphill sprint on Friday and our team 70 mi. ride on Sat.. Our plan was to block for Ziggy on his early move and then work to set up Mike for the sprint, this was fine with me since I was planning on sucking wheel as much as possible anyway.
A few laps into the race there was a stupid crash right in front of me and I was able to brake/skid around it just nicking a downed riders front wheel with my front wheel and my right foot, which knocked my foot loose from my pedal. I was able to re-clip in to my peddle and continue on OK, except that after the race I discovered that my buckle on my shoe had been smashed and made it difficult to get my shoe off and requires a trip to the bike shop.
With about five laps to go I started working my way up towards the front for our hoped for set-up of Mike, then with 2 to go I hear Richard yell out "were behind you" and so I start working my way more towards the front hoping the others are able to follow. On the last lap on the back side I'm pushing along and then I see Scott pull by with the rest of the FFRT train and I rode along just hoping to follow the main group to the finish and get a top 20 placing. Upon coming up on the end of the last corner I see some daylight and keep upping my speed and about 100 ft from the finish a bunch of the front group begins to slow (I think they went to early and were blowing up) and saw a nice lane up the middle and started pushing harder to the line never getting out of my saddle. As it turned out Mike got a 4th and I came away with a 5th place.
Great job FFRT, I'm looking forward to the Cat 4 race at Cherry Pie.
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What Mike Z. saw:
Category: 4/5+
Result: 4th
I said that I would write something fairly long about EB#5 since we really
did a good job working together. There were 2 plans, Ziggy was going to
make a break on lap 3 and I was the fortunate one to be led out for the
sprint.
Almost everyone from FFBC lined up right at the front of the race so we had
6 up there (Brad, Richard, Ziggy, Iwan, Scott, and Carl) and I (the
seventh) was farther back at the start line. Right from the start, another
rider made a break so Ziggy chased and caught him and the guy immediately
shut it down. Ziggy kept it going and so he had some distance midway
through the first lap. I couldn't see where everyone was, but I moved up
to about 20th back on the outside so I could keep an eye on any groups
trying to bridge the gap starting from the outside. I saw Richard right up
front helping to control the pace and I saw Iwan suck right onto the wheel
of somebody trying to catch Ziggy. That guy was unsuccessful. Soon after,
Richard stayed with a group of about 4, but they didn't seem to do much
either. By the middle of the second lap, I think Ziggy was back with the
group so I slowly drifted to the back to wait it out.
As is usual, a crash happened midway through the race. We ended up with a
few people caught in it (Brad and Iwan most significantly, but Carl and
Richard were affected as well), but nobody was hurt. The race settled down
as it usually does, especially when the crash involves as many riders as it
did (10 - 20?). With about 3 1/2 laps to go, I looked for Richard and got
on his wheel mid-pack. I was on either his wheel or Scott's wheel for the
next 3 and 1/4 laps. I followed Richard up to Scott who got in between
Richard and I. With 2 laps to go, we had 5 FFBC riders in a line on the
outside. Things got tricky here. As Iwan and Carl worked there way up to
the front, they lost Richard, Scott and I. It is hard to keep a long line
of riders like that going. Basically, it seems we would have had to stay
on the far outside to continue like that. I managed to stay on either
Richard or Scott's wheel, but I should have communicated with them more.
As they passed people on the left, sometimes they would move back right so
I would be left in the wind and the rider that was just passed would be
blocked from the wind. I should have told them to move left so I could be
better protected. Coming out of the second turn, Scott revved it up and it
was Scott, Richard and I in positions 1,2 and 3. Scott probably went a
little too early and he said that in hindsight he could have held back a
little since Richard and I lost his wheel for a short time on the
backstretch. He would have been able to hold on a little longer to get us
into the final corner. As it was, we were still 1,2,3 as we approached the
final corner, but Richard was fairly cooked as we went through it. A guy
from Cal passed me and so I grabbed his wheel for a little while and
decided I would make it a long sprint. It was longer than I planned since
my target was the blue sign that we practice our finishes at rather than
the real finish line which was a bit farther down the road. I managed to
hang on to fourth, with Carl right behind as the field faded (at least the
long sprint worked against some of the racers).
All in all, it was a great effort by everyone. I'm convinced that with our
team, if we can agree on certain races to attend, we will have some great
placings. I had not done much work by the time I started my sprint and at
that point was virtually assured of a top ten finish. Scott and Richard
had stretched the field so that I didn't have to worry about crashes and
anybody that was more than 9 places back would need a massive effort to
catch.
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What Richard saw:
Category: 4/5+
Result: Back of pack
Mike covered most of what happened at the Early Bird. Before the race,
most of us made a point of gathering for a quick discussion of tactics.
We specifically talked about blocking as Ziggy was planning to launch an
early attack and we wanted to help him out. We also agreed that Mike Z.
would be our designated sprinter and if Ziggy was unable to hold out to
the finish, we would lead Mike out.
It was a lot of fun being up there doing as little work as possible
blocking for Ziggy while he was away. My preferred method for blocking
is to place myself into a string of riders going forward, maybe 2 or 3
riders from the front of the string so it is not too obvious and then
soft pedal when I get to the front. If there are 3 or 4 blocking riders
doing this, it breaks up any cohesion attempts to chase the break down
might have. I think that it is important not to slow things down too
much or it becomes obvious and the blocking riders will then get swamped
by a field acceleration.
The crsh was a bummer. Heading up the main straight, there was a tangle
of people on the left of the bunch. I initially thought that I would be
OK as I was on the right, but no! There was the domino effect, and a
whole row of riders went down, left to right. Unfortunately, this
toppling toppled into me. Riders were quite neturally piling from behind
into the pile of riders which spanned the width of the course.
I didn't go down, but had someone fall on my left leg and someone ran
into me from behind. Afterwards I realised that I had a graze on my
right heel from the contact from behind.
I was stopped by the crash and then I did something silly. I waited for
the rider in front of me to pick himself up an then chased after the
pack. Idiot! I was probably entitled to a free lap due to the mishap and
wasted a lot of effort getting back on the bunch which was being strung
out be Ziggy.
The race was unsettled after the crash, and I have to say that I was
too. But this was forgotten when we got into 5 laps to go and I started
to organise the leadout for Mike. For about a lap, we had 5 riders in a
line, Carl, Iwan, Scott, myself and Mike Z. We must have looked good! We
communicated reasonably well, but things could certainly be improved.
Going into the last lap, we were a bit too far back, so I dicided that
we should move forwards. To do this, Scott and I led Mike forward on the
left side. However, we had to disengage from Carl and Iwan who were
towards the middle of the pack. There was simply no place to advance up
the middle, so we had to go wide.
Of course, our eagerness to move Mike up took us too close to the front
and we started the leadout way too early. We got to the front
approaching turn 2 with Scott in the lead. I was acutely aware that
there would be a surge down the back straight, so asked Scott to hammer
on the exit of the corner, and hammer he did. So much so that he was
dropping me. Scott's effort was not in vain however, as we did stave off
the surge. Scott was spent by the end of the back straight, and so was
I, which was rather bad planning. However, another rider took up the
pace-making and Mike was on his wheel like a shot, well-placed in
second. Our job done, Scott and I sat up and coasted home.
The team regrouped for a chat about the race after cooing down, and we
were rather excited. We were in a group beside the mentoring session and
we were twice asked to move away as we were drowning out the mentors! A
group of us went for a proper warm-down in the Coyote Hills after the
post-mortem which was also most enjoyable.
It was great actually working as a team and trying to lead someone out
for a sprint sure beats hanging in there for the sprint at the end. We
do need to do some specific lead-out practise to be able to better judge
our efforts in a final lap.
Tim replied with sagely advice:
In a real race trying to chase may have been the right call. If you don't
actually hit the ground some officials won't give you the benefit of the
doubt. Two years back the fastest 45 of that year, Jon Sek, was taken out
at the start in the Master's districts and they wouldn't give him a free
lap, so the guy who should have won or at least would have been a major
contender was a lap down.
Moral of the story, you may need some blood or an obvious mechanical issue to get a free lap.
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