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What Richard saw:
Category: 4
Result: Mid-pack
Brian J, Ziggy and I rode the Mather Field Crit today. Our plan was to
try to give Ziggy a leadout, but as you will read below, that didn't
happen for a variety of reasons.
That was a long drive for a shortened criterium!
We were scheduled to have 40 minutes in the Senior 4 race, but at the
end I had a little over 33 minutes as our total race time. Still, it was
a fun race with one crash. Unfortunately, the crash took out Ziggy so he
didn't compete the bunch sprint for second place. The race was won by a
rider who soloed off the front. I think this happened over the top of a
prime sprint - he just kept going, and no one at the front wanted to get
organised to chase effectively.
The course is a fairly technical, fairly narrow L-shaped, 6 corner (not
7 as advertised in the race flyer), 0.9 mile loop. For a large part of
the race, we were basically in line astern and hitting the high 20's on
the straights. Moving up on this course was not easy, though I have to
confess that I didn't have the legs to attempt to do that often.
I found it hard to see the lap cards given that I was sheltering on the
lee-ward side of the bunch on the finishing straight. I did however keep
my eye on the elapsed time. I had one opportunity to make up a lot of
ground on the finishing straight and I took it, slotting into about 5th
place behind Nate Shaw. Turns out that this was at about 3 laps to go,
though I didn't know it at the time.
One time over the finish and the bell is ringing for what I thought must
have been a prime lap. However, I do manage to spot that the lap cards
are showing 1 lap to go. I think that a lot of people were caught out,
as there was a mad dash to the first corner and it was going through
here that Nate Shaw lost it and went down (I think his rear wheel
slipped out for some reason). He looked OK-ish until, BAM!, a following
rider hit him straight on and bicycles started cartwheeling everywhere...
I was on the other side of the bunch so was able to avoid the crash and
suddenly found myself in what turned out to be 14th, rather than
30-something place. I overtook one rider and was overtaken by another,
so I remained 14th at the end. Brian J. was a couple of places behind me
for 16th.
We finished and stopped in turn 1 to see how everyone was. Ziggy wasn't
too bad, just a couple of minor bruises and another scratch on the new
paint job on the stealth machine. Nate Shaw was worse off, with lots of
road rash on his right leg from sliding and many other impact points
from people hitting him. His bike also has a crumpled top tube.
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What Tim saw:
Category: Masters 45+
Result: Top ten
Yeow, that wreck sounds ugly. Hope Ziggy is OK!
I saw Brian Jensen right after my race on my way to my motorcycle races. I concur with Richard it was a tight technical course. Since we had such a small field (24) it was actually pretty fun. Too bad it had Harvery Nitz, Mark Caldwell, Peter from UPS, Elgardt, etc etc. Anyway I had a pretty good time, but got caught napping.
A big break got away, I and others tried to chase it down to know avail. Fortunately they had a prime for the rest of us, which I won. Unfortunately, I was in such a hurry to go to the motorcycle races that I didn't hang around to pick it up. Anyway, the fast guys lapped us with two to go, after some discussion we were told we could compete in the sprint, so I did.
I got 8th, but I have no idea how I really finished, hopefully it the top ten. Also, I really think I could have made the break, but I know it would have totally fried me, which would've been bad for my motorcycle races, which tired me out way too much already. Bring on Maclane.
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What Bob saw:
Category: 3
Result: Top ten
Hello all, Biker Bob here. Sorry I missed all the fun this morning. I
finally got to the race at 1:45 race starts at 2:15. plenty of time, if you
don't want to warm up. Who needs a warm up when you have 55 minutes to warm
up in the race. Enough info.
68 riders in the cat 3 race. I won the first
prime, A bottle of the finest extra extra VIRGIN olive oil, Whoo Hoo. Went
for a late prime and missed it by an inch, darn only one VIRGIN, olive oil.
They were paying 8 places and like Tim I pulled of 8th. Yeah in the money!!!
Felt great but had the usual cluster f*&%# at the end. Pulled it out though! See you all soon.
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What Ziggy saw:
Category: 4
Result: Did not finish - crash!
I rode up to this race with Brian J. Because we arrived early enough for Brian to race in the masters 35+, I had time for a good warm-up. The race was started with a neutral lap because it turns out they were behind schedule and didn't have time to let us pre-ride the course. It was slow going at first, but once the SGW team got organized, the front of the race became a mess.
Almost all 12 of the SGW's in the 4's race were participating in attacking the race, one after the other. It took me a few chases to realize what they were doing, but once I figured it out, I let most of them go because they never got really far.
I Won a prime lap at some point during the race, which also allowed me to see how the race would be won if it came down to a sprint. Lining up for the prime, I was about fourth wheel halfway around the course. I was betting on one of two things happening: 1. I would be one of the last guys in line going into the final straight, or 2. someone would attack the front of the race and try to take it. Well, # 2 happened and I jumped on his wheel until we had maybe 50-75 meters to the line and I just gave a little jump and came around him for the prime.
After that sprint, I looked down at my HRM and saw 210, the highest yet. Also, the organizers rang for another prime right after I won mine, so I decided to sit in while the next one was contested. This turned out to be the biggest mistake of my day. I slid back into the front quarter of the pack after a couple of turns and almost simultaneously watched as some guy lept out of the pack, only to have the field watch as he rode away. I figured someone would chase him so I sat in for a couple of laps.
Well, turns out nobody chased the guy and as I was making my way up to the front to see about chasing him down, I see that we have only one lap to go. Then I thought, "what the eff...I just saw that we still had maybe ten minutes of racing left!" I manage to make my way to the first five wheels before turn one, then BAM! rider down. I scrub almost all of my speed before hitting the pile then get pushed from behind and forced into the pile.
This was the second accident in turn one (I nearly wrecked the first time). Total damage for the day: dented top tube, minor road rash, gash in the breaking surface of my front wheel, various scratches in my new paint job! Poor Nate Shaw lost about two sqare feet of skin and got his custom, lugged steel frame crumpled. Winnings for the day: $10 gift certificate to City Bicycle Works in Sacracrappo. Good thing I go to see family in Sac quite often, or I'd never spend the thing.
Overall, the race was well put together, but poorly timed. The day was good except for the part about the crash and not finishing the race.
Does anybody have a buffing wheel I could use to buff out the gash on my wheel? It's not big, maybe twice as thick as a pen line and extending the full heigth of the breaking surface. I may try a Dremmel tool to do this.
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What Brian J. saw:
Category: Masters 35+ 4/5 and Senoir 4.
Result: Mid-pack
As you know already Ziggy and I rode up together. We met Richard in the
parking lot, in the future we most definitely need to plan car pooling. Saw
Tim working hard on the course, but he didn't see us at the time. He was to
busy holding on. Look like they where moving pretty fast. Tim what was your
average speed? Bob what was your average speed? I did talk to Tim for a
moment after his race. He was giving me tips as he was in the port-o-pottie.
He was in a hurry. Smile!
I raced the master 35+ 4/5 race and the senior 4 race. You all already know
the out come of the senior 4 race. As for the master 4/5 race, this was the
one I was giving it my all. With about 5 laps to go a racer did a break away
and I jumped on his wheel along with one other racer. We started working
together and I felt at the time we had a chance to stay away we picked up
the lone break away racer, who had broken away earlier, now there was four
of us and I felt that if we all worked hard we could pull it off. No such
luck! We stopped working together with less than two laps to go and we got
caught.
Now it was down to the final lap. I still had alittle something
left. Two corners to go before the final sprint I got cut off by a racer. He
saw me coming and in tentionally cut me off, forcing me to ride up the curb.
I got back in, but to far out to finish well. Got 14th. O-Well! Next time!,
But I did have fun while it lasted! WHOO-HOO..............!!
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