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What Ziggy saw:
Category: 3
Result: 1st
So my pursuit of the title of SuperChampion of the Cat 3's (an officially sanctioned title by the NCNCA, BTW), continued this weekend at the Clover-Stornetta CloTerium. Coach McMatt had me try a longer than usual tune-up ride on Saturday, so I was a little nervous as to how that was going to affect my performance.
As with last weekend, I had a good warm-up and all indications were that the previous day's tune-up had no ill effects on the legs and that good things might happen. The crit course was a short one, 6 turns, one narrow right hander due to a retarded Red Bull archway, and smooth, yet bumpy (concrete joints), pavement with lots of bots dots. I think the race started out slow but I can't be too sure as I think I'm in the early stages of Alzheimers. What were we talking about again? Oh right, racing.
So the field was lazy on Sunday. Half-hearted attacks would go up the road and equally half-hearted chases by fewer racers than would typically be appropriate in such a situation would bring them back. After watching about 6 of these go up the road and chasing down one or two, I sorta got an indication of how the field was going to race for the day. As the field was being quite lazy, I managed to maintain My Spot fairly easily (for those that don't remember, My Spot is 5-7 wheels back, close enough to look like I'm working and keep an eye on all the suckas, but far enough back to not do too much).
I had my eye on two guys, Doran from Solano, and another dude in grey/black that always goes fast. Both had tried some moves early on that were as I had mentioned, half hearted and not really worth talking about. With about 25 to 30 minutes to go, Doran put in a big attack that looked promising. Nobody chased or looked like they were going to respond. I think Garry was up front with me at the time so I decided to give it a go and follow Doran up the road, hoping that Garry would block for me. I caught Doran right away and just as quick, a huge gap had formed. The British Brick Wall had worked his magic.
So Doran and I were away and we did as you might expect two breakaway companions might do, sharing pulls and prime laps. After a while, I started doing longer pulls because homeboy was getting slower and I still had some gas. Eventually, I was doing full lap pulls with Doran coming to the front for just a bit so I could take a breather. This lasted for about two laps until I decide I couldn't slow for him anymore and I moved on. This was too bad because I like the dude and he's typically really strong. So anyhow, I was flying the FFBC kit solo like a true Playa for probably 5 laps until some Los Gatos dude caught me at 5 to go.
We worked together for two or three laps, but the whole time it was apparent that he had no more gas. So I took as much rest from him as I could without slowing too much, but with about two laps to go, I saw that for the first time since I went away, the pack and I were sharing the same straightaway. I said a big "OH SHIT!" and poured on the gas like a crackhead runnin from the cops. The LG guy went Buh Bye.
At this point I started talking to myself, calling the pack a "Bunch of Punks tryint to steal my race," and making all kinds of ugly faces as I laid it down as hard as I could. With one lap to go, it became obvious that if I didn't fade, they wouldn't catch me. I counted down every last corner and pushed harder and harder on the exit of each apex until I came round the last turn. After one last hard effort down the first half of the finishing straight, I sat up and gave a proper two handed salute down the last half and crossed the line a second or two before getting swallowed up by the sprinting pack.
So this was just about the last thing I could have imagined happening. Lemme give you some numbers to explain why I still can't believe that I did what I did on Sunday. Our breakaway was about 25 minutes long and for almost the entire break my HR didn't drop below 208. The last two laps were spent at my typical max of 213. Ridiculous. This was always the type of move that I could only ever just watch people pull off. Again, unbelieveable.
It was cool to have Garry, German, Tim, and the Garden City boys around to celebrate with. The other cool part was being a rock star for about 15 minutes. Dudes were taking my picture during my cooldown lap, congrats and "nice ride" was coming from everybody. It was also funny to be on the winning side of the "Winning Move" stories. If you don't know what I'm talking about, these are the personal recounts of the race from those that chose to sit-in and at the end of it all say "...right when I saw you go up the road, I knew it was the winning move and I hesitated for just a second and that was just enough for you to make too big of a gap, and blah blah blah..." We've all told that story and it was just strange to hear the story being told in which I was the one that got away.
And finally, here's the requisite rundown of winnings for the day: $150 cash and a bottle of champagne for the win (Angie is really starting to like this racing business with all the wine and champagne she's gotten), a $25 gift certificate to Cloverstornetta.com, and a 5x7 tent from Marmot. Not a bad take for the day, but I still don't understand why the Masters 35+ 4/5 field payed more than the Cat 3's. Backwards, if you ask me.
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What Garry saw:
Category: 3
Result: Mid-pack
Oh happy days!
Did not see Brian until I got to the line, I had a pathetic 15 minute warm up, but was on my race tyres for the first time this year. I very short discussion at the line with Brian, I told him that he could take this one. I was already imagining Ziggy blasting out of the pack in a big field sprint to take the win. Little did I know.
Race started off, it was not very fast, which suited me well. Some abortive solo breaks go up the road in the first few laps, but nothing is really aggressive enough to get the pack worried. We have 8 primes in our allotted 45 minutes, a very generous amount, and I am tempted to go for the first one, but my legs are still not ready for a sprint. I am yo-yoing from the back to the front to the back of the pack, the bot dots are a real pain in the handlebars.
About one third into the race a solo rider goes up the road and I am near the front with Zig. I ask if he wants me to chase him down, he declines my offer, but I am on the front and do a 28 mph lap, just for shit's an giggles. The guy comes back between T1 and T2 and immediately one of the strong guys in the race, Doran of Solano makes a very positive move off the front. Ziggy gives him a few seconds, maybe enough for him to get 40-50 yards away and then easily jumps the gap. They are moving well and pulling away.
I muscle my way into second wheel and the leader does a lap, swings off and I keep him company, Third wheel moves up and I slot in behind him. Big grins from ear to ear. And so it continued for about 4-5 laps, just enough to dampen the field impetus and allow the dynamic duo to get a really decent gap and more importantly, out of sight.
Suddenly I am worried, I see Doran in no-mans land, so either a) He is toast, or b) Zig has a mechanical and will be back in the pack soon. Fortunately for us, Doran is out of gas and Ziggy is still up the road. As he re-joins there is a big effort by a LGBRC dude and he is flying down the left hand gutter and away from the field. The pack starts to warm up the chase and now I can't control it on my own so all I can do is ride in the middle and see how the remaining 6-7 laps go. The counter attacks slow a little, so I assume my policing role on the front again, but with only 4 to go, the boys are getting anxious again and swarming my efforts. At the bell, I can't see Brian, but in my mind it's just a certainty that he will get the win. The last lap is the usual fast affair and out of turn six I attempt to sprint but I am feeling the affects of my continual jumping and roll in mid pack.
Brian is out of breath, but pleased as punch. What a fabulous win, the boy done well.
And thanks to Tim and German for the shouts, mucho appreciated. Also saw Bike Bob and Lynda out, Bob was racing the M35+ 1/2/3, which had a high quality field, with Caldwell, Bubba Melcher (2004 Nat champ), the 2004 district champ dude, also on Team spine, Billy Clark of Morgan Stanley, Dean Lebarge of Lombardi, plus a few other handy riders. The first few laps were really, really quick. I left when they had about 10 to go. Oh and Bobby Julich was out as well, distributing prizes to the children's race and probably kicking butt in the Pro 1/2.
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What German saw:
Category: 4/5
Result: Mid-pack
It was a combined race between the 4 &5’s categories. Nice day and nice race. These people looks like they invested a god amount of money organizing the event. I was very happy being there.
There was lots of food, drinks, vendors, etc, etc. Started the race with Tim at the front of the peloton. The pace was very quick form the beginning, but I was able to position well in the first 10 for most the race. I was positioned in the left outer side of the front most of the time in order to avoid crashing, it worked out very well even though I had to face some side wind most of the time.
With 5 laps remaining I ended up in the front pulling for a while but then decided to stay in the first 5 riders. At the final lap I kept my position until the last turn, but a guy ahead of me almost falls out of his bike because his left foot went out of his pedal and almost lost control, so that move made me open my self drastically to left, losing momentum, so at that point, several riders passed me.
Still I recovered and sprinted hard to end up in 19th place overall. It could have been a better result if this guy did block me, but the important aspect is that I felt very competitive knowing that it was a combined race with the 4’s.
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