|
What Richard saw:
Category: 4/5
Result: 3rd
The moral of today's race could be, "be careful of what you wish for,
you might just get it," but I think "shit happens" captures what
happened in the race more appropriately.
The first saying first: Last Sunday, I glibly commented to Mike Z.
during our rainy ride that I wouldn't mind rain at McLane as I actually
quite enjoy riding in wet conditions. As you probably spotted this
morning, the weather obliged.
I got up at 5am and discovered that it was raining. Ah... I packed my
wet-weather gear, made sure I had a complete change of clothes and
packed my blue bike which tends to be the one I ride in the rain. Off to
meet Ziggy in Fremont - Brian J. was also meant to be riding, but
couldn't confirm his registration so didn't want to chance not racing.
As it turns out, the fields were allowed to overflow, so Brian would
probably have been allowed to race.
Ziggy and I squeezed everything into his car and we were off, debating
whether the weather was in Merced or not. From the satellite picture I
looked at at 5:45am, Merced looked like it was going to get wet and
indeed it did.
We got there with 50+ minutes to the start of our race, only to wait for
about 30 minutes to get our numbers from registration. Our umbrellas
made us popular in the queue.
Back to the car to suit up and decide what to wear. Whilst in the queue,
the rain was tipping down, but by the time we got to the car, it had
eased off somewhat and I was beginning to think that a rain cape would
be overkill. I ended up with 2 undershirts and 2 jerseys, bib shorts,
arm-warmers and my new matching blue knee-warmers. Time was now getting
tight, so our warm-up consisted of riding to the start and I took the
opportunity to eat a banana on the way.
We got to the start in time to watch the Women 1/2/3 race depart meaning
that we had got there with 6 minutes to spare. Ziggy and I slotted into
the front of the bunch on the start and this was probably an excellent
thing to do given the conditions. Mike Hardaway gave us our instructions
and indicated that he thought that the bunch was over the field limit
(100). Very soon we were off and running, Ziggy and I sitting in the top 10.
The course (24 miles) is essentially flat with a few rollers around
halfway to break up the monotony, mainly on the leg of the course which
is shared with the Snelling RR. There is nothing which could be
described as challenging, though we did climb them at a fair clip. The
wind, as is usual here, was from the north-west and was noticeable
mostly on the crosswind legs.
In the wet, the corners were tricky and at least one rider lost their
back wheel and went down. Not far into the race we passed the remains of
a pile-up in the women's race with some riders looking in distress.
For the first half of the first lap (2 laps for the Cat. 4/5 race),
Ziggy and I were up near the front stretching our legs and jumping onto
a few attempted breaks. The pace was high, so no one got away. When we
got to the rollers I had slipped back a bit in the field and was feeling
rather boxed in. Garry's instructions to me played through my head: "I
want you riding near the front". Yes boss, and I began to work my way
towards the front using the left side to advance.
As I neared the front, a pair of riders from a team attacked, and as I
was right behind them, I went with them. We got a small gap and then
riders came across to us. It looked good for a moment then we were
caught, just before the turn for home. I slipped too far back at this
point, as we turned to a following wind and a slight downhill which sped
everything up. We were stretched out in essentially single file for the
run-in to the finish which includes a right-left dog-leg which was
interesting in the rain.
After the finish, everyone calmed down and took the opportunity to eat
and drink as we rolled fairly quickly through the feed. After this, the
pace picked up for quite a while. I think those at the front thought
that some riders had escaped as the speed shut down when we caught a
couple of riders from another race! I slipped a little back during the
chase. We turned onto the outward crosswind leg and as we approached the
first rollers, I decided that I had better get myself back to the front
and used the climbs of the rollers to do this. Ziggy was also there
looking strong.
Heading upwind we caught and passed the Women 1/2/3 group, though as
they were doing 4 laps to our 2, this is nothing to brag about. Along
here a couple of riders went clear. They didn't gain ground too quickly
so they were left to tire themselves out. I decided that for the
downwind run-in to the finish, I really wanted to be in the first 10
riders at the tricky turns and to escape the concertina effect during
the accelerations out of them. I led the bunch onto the downwind leg
with the two breakaway riders a little way ahead.
There were several surges on the run-in to the finish and I did my best
not to be swamped by them. The breakaway was caught shortly after the
turn onto the downwind leg. I came alongside Ziggy at one point and gave
him my assessment of the finish. The final 150 metres are slightly
uphill: people will go too early and fade.
We crest the final rise before the finish and I am maybe 3 ranks back,
feeling slightly boxed in, in the middle of the right lane (closed road,
we could use both lanes). Patience - when the sprint starts, there will
be space to move forward. It will be there, you just have to wait... and
wait... and wait.
I was getting impatient, but there was no way for me to advance. And
then, there is a space for me and I move forward. Shit happens: the
rider to my right moves left and hits my bars with his hip. My bars are
turned a little left by the impact so I move left. My rear wheel
contacts the front wheel of the rider behind me. He goes down. Ouch!
I am still upright and sprinting. As predicted, the guys who went too
soon are tiring. I am surging forward and cross the line in a close
tussle for second. I was gaining, but I didn't know exactly where the
line was, so I am not sure where I finished - probably third. A very
strange feeling, I am pleased with my finish, yet really pissed off that
my wheel took someone down, yet there was nothing I could have down to
prevent it.
I met up with Ziggy and he informed me that the crash was rather
spectacular - oh great - I feel even better. Still, looking down the
finish I see that the road is cleared of the crash, so any injuries
sustained were not that major. We head back to the car to change and
return to the finish to wait for the results to be posted. No one seems
to know where they will be posted. In the meantime, the cat 3 race
finishes and at almost the exact same location as in our race, there is
an almighty pile-up. It takes rather a long time for everyone to be
scraped off the road. One rider had time to walk his bike from the crash
to the finish and there were still people down - not good.
The results are posted, and it is confirmed that I got third, with 133
riders in the race! Not bad for the first road race where I have
actually finished with the bunch. Until now, I have usually been blown
out the back or had a flat tyre. We had to wait a while while someone
protested the posted results, but this didn't take too long to resolve
before I collected $35 for third.
At the finish, there were a whole host of riders from all categories
with injuries, indicating that there were lots of crashes today and not
just in the 4/5 race. We met Santiago Bolon (ex-FFBC, now Sycip) who was
taken down when climbing one of the rises in the Cat. 3 race. Apparently
8 riders crashed in that pile-up alone.
McLean is a great course which really suits me. I was hoping I might do
well, but am rather surprised and pleased with getting 3rd.
Back to top
|
|
What Ziggy saw:
Category: 4/5
Result: Mid-pack
This was my first road race with a proper finish. As Richard mentioned, we
arrived to the start line just in time to see the women off and to line up
for our own race thanks in no small part to the delays in distributing race
numbers. The race started off very calmly perhaps due to other riders not
getting in any sort of warm-up either. We were reminded very early on that
racing in the wet was indeed dangerous as we passed by the remnants of a
very large pile-up in the womens pro race (bloody heads and broken bikes).
Because the course is fairly flat with some small rollers, the pack stayed
together throughout the race and I was sorta stuck in crit mode, not knowing
how to behave myself in a road race. I think this was a bad mistake because
I spent a good deal of time chasing breaks just as I do when I race crits.
My fitness level shone through as I found myself in difficulty chasing
breaks near the end of the first lap, so I decided to sit in for a bit.
During my sit-in somehow about half of the field managed to sneak past me
and I was suddenly near mid pack, surrounded by riders I hadn't seen all
race long. After realizing what crappy position I was in, I worked my way
back up to the front to chase some more riders. This time, my lungs weren't
in difficulty but my legs were. Cramps started to set in at my calves and
by the end of the race had found their way into every muscle group in my
legs (calves, hamstrings, quads). We had about 15 miles to go at this
point, so qutting was not an option. With careful metering of power output,
I managed to make it to the home straight without any catastrophic cramps.
As the pace of the group started to pick up in preparation for the finish,
my legs started protesting, but I was determined to finish strong. Having
met up with Richard, I intended to follow him into the finish, but was
unfortunately blocked by riders on all three sides that had nothing left in
the leggies and were therefore not accelerating anymore. I was not lucky
enough to get the gap that Richard was blessed with and due to crampy legs
and unlucky positioning I ended up with 18th place.
As Tim mentioned, it is up to the riders to protect their wheels and be
mindful of the riders around them. I was cursed out by two (old, and
grumpy) riders that didn't get this. Pack riding is a skill I found that
many of the riders out there need practice with, myself including.
I thoroughly enjoyed this race despite its bad weather and grumpy riders and
plan to do it again next year.
Back to top
|
