Cal Poly Pomona Race Weekend

Since the last race report was so late, I’ll write this one now while the details are still fresh in my memory (and I am trying to avoid writing my candidacy report). The hill climb time trial yesterday was supposed to be a 5.5 mile climb up the “backside” of Glemdora Mountain Road (from where GMR intersects East Fork up to Glendora Ridge Road) but was shortened to 3.5 miles because of the weather. I was one of the first to register so I went of at 11:05 after a good warm up in the rain. I got my heart rate up right away and held it between 184-189 for the duration of the climb. I caught the rider in front of me at mile 1.5, and finished 10 seconds behind the rider in front of him. The climb was painful, but lots of fun. I didn’t even notice the weather on the way up. It was snowing at the top and I felt like I should be skiing instead of cycling. On the way down, a rider from UC Santa Cruz was nice enough to give some newspaper they had stashed. The descent was far and away the coldest and wettest I have ever been on a bike. We descended through the snow, then the sleet, and finally the rain. I was completely soaked by the bottom and couldn’t feel my fingers, toes, lips, etc. I took my shoes off and there was standing water in the soles. I clocked myself at just under 15 minutes, although the official results say I did it in 13:53, which I don’t buy as that would have been the second fastest time of the day. I talked to the officials, so we’ll see if they check the results. They told me that they had adjusted the times because a couple riders were assigned the same start time, and I’m curious how that affected who’s results.

The crit today was uneventful. The course was in a parking lot on the Cal Poly Pomona campus and had two long straight aways with two 180 degree semi-sweeping turns. One turn wasn’t bad but the other required significant slowing. Fortunately, only one rider slid out and quickly got back up. There was a three man break on the first lap, which ultimately ended up staying away. I got out front with 17 laps to go and pulled hard for 4 or 5 laps to try to motivate a chase, but everyone else just let me pull until a prime lap when I got passed by a few riders. Another rider broke of the front around 8 laps to go. A couple laps later I got out front and reeled back in the lone UCSB rider. I was still out With one and a half to go, I was still out front and slowed to catch my breath. I had told a UC Irvine rider I would lead out for him, as I didn’t really care about the results of today’s race. (I needed the race to move out of cat V by Sea Otter.) Going into the back stretch I started pulling hard with the Irvine rider right on my wheel. I didn’t control the turn leading into the home stretch very well and riders started to line up for the sprint. Five riders sprinted by me and the guy from Irvine finished somewhere with them. I could have done a better job at leading out as I didn’t get out of his way fast enough, but I had a good time and finished around 9th or so, with one of the riders in the early break winning.

Next weekend is the San Dimas Stage Race (my first USCF race, and my first Stage Race.) Friday is a hill climb up GMR (the front side); Saturday is a road race around Bonelli Park; and Sunday is a Crit in downtown San Dimas. I would highly encourage all who are interested to come and watch. There will be some pro teams, including Healthnet, Navigators, Kodak, and Toyota-United Pro, not to mention many other local riders and some other racers from Caltech including Peter Meinhold and Ben Deverman.

I hope to see some of you there! Check out www.scvelo.com for details and results.