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What Richard saw:
Category: 4/5
Result: Did not finish
Not much to report from the 4's.
On the first lap, my front tyre decided that it would creep over my rim
causing a flat. Thankfully it happened before, and not during, the left
turn onto Turlock Road. I was able to go straight and come to a safe stop.
This was a new tyre on the rim, though I had ridden it the day before to
make sure everything was OK, and there wasn't a problem. I think that the
bead of the tyre must be slighly out of shape and unable to secure itself
to the rim, as the tyre popped off again yesterday evening before I went
out again.
It was lovely, sun-burning day.
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What German saw:
Category: Masters 35+ 4/5
Result: Off the back
Well, it was a beautiful sunny day with temperatures in between the 70-85 degrees, about 100+ riders for this CAT, beautiful ladies around, food, etc, etc. The race was 48 miles long with two laps of 24 miles even. I couldn't get into the Elite CAT 4/5 so they told me that my age was close enough for the 35+ 4/5 CAT so I got in it at the last minute. I couldn’t get a chance to warm up so that was bad.
Anyway, it was 9:30 AM and I started at the front line and the pace was very quick, between 28 – 31 mph. By mile 17 we noticed that we cough the ladies race and there was a huge accident where about 20 riders were on the side of the road due to an accident. The lot slowed down to about 25 mph and continued.
The first lap was very quick and many riders were touching a lot, so that made me aware of a possible crash, so I decided to move to the side of the front lot. By the Snelling side of the race, where the pavement was not really good, many riders started to lose their water bottles due to the high vibration on the bikes. A couple of bottles were the consequence of a crash where about 6-10 riders crashed. I almost dropped one of my water bottles too, but I was able to catch it and keep it safe. I was lucky to be at the front lot and on the sides because if I were to be in the middle of the lot I could have been involved in this accident. Stayed there most of the time between the first 20 riders for lap 1.
Lap 2 continues and I moved up to the front for about 3 miles (mile 27 or so). At about mile 29, several teams started to attack so I backed up to the middle of the lot. At mile 31, there was a huge crash again at about about 28 mph. One rider felt and the ones behind him crashed with him and so on. Again, I was in the middle of the pack, but on the side, so I felt lucky again. At that moment, there was another huge attack, the single lot broke into two lots; I resisted and maintained my position in the front lot. My legs were still strong by then. However, by mile 45 again, several attacks came and German’s chances were over because those guys were really attacking like crazy. I didn’t have a team mate in this CAT so I fought all the way on my own. Got dropped with 15 more riders and started do work together in a pace line to keep a good speed after all those attacks. I felt crisis at the moment of the attacks but after a couple of minutes of being dropped with the other 15 riders I recovered and managed to catch several riders who also got dropped at the end of the race.
I believe that I made a mistake at the beginning of lap 2 by putting myself at the front for about 3 miles and wasting a lot of my energies. But overall, I believe that I raced just fine especially after recovering from a two weeks cold. My average speed was great in comparison with prior races, so I feel extremely happy of being involved in this race even though I got dropped remaining 3 miles. Certainly, it was a great training race which should prepare me for futures ones. I finish the race in less than two hours. Hopefully, I will race smarter next time and I am hoping to have several team mates in order to work together as a team, just like the others.
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What Ziggy saw:
Category: 3
Result: Back of pack
Though I did manage to keep my ti(y)res on my wheels, there was not much to report from the Sr. 3 race.
I rode with Garry and Biker Bob. Throughout the entire race, the three of us were for the most part within earshot of eachother at the front of the race. As far as I know, there were only two breaks, one solo and one two man effort, none of which worked for any more than one lap. The race was pretty much controlled by NIKO. Countless accelerations, but none hard enough or long enough to break the field. I felt OK through most of the race, though by the last lap I was doubting my ability to get the legs going for the sprint.
Halfway through the last lap, what I had suspected was coming true. The leggies were roasted. Garry asked if I had enough to help Bob out, and I did, so I went looking for him to offer my one hard pull for whenever he needed it. I found Bob about halfway back in need of a ride to the front. I think we were a bit less than 8 miles out from the finish at this point, so as soon as we got a good opening, I told Bob "let's go!" and I gave him about 150% of what I actually had left in my body to get him about 15 wheels from the front. Just far enough back to potentially win the race. I'll leave the rest of the story up to Bob.
Needless to say, I was wasted after my pull and I quickly drifted backwards. Garry was kind enough to wait for me to get me back onto the rear of the pack, but though it was just 50 yards, I couldn't get up the legs to do it even as the bunch slowed. I rolled in with a real nice guy named Chris from NIKO. I think he pipped me for last.
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