UCSB Race Weekend
I realize that this report is a little late, and I apologize for that. It took a while for them to post the official results. The UCSB race weekend was both exciting and somewhat tragic, so let me get the tragic part out of the way. During the Men's A crit on saturday, Will Sladek (who had just upgraded to Cat 2) went down on the last lap. He broke his collar bone, ended up with stitches above his right eye, and had some serious road rash. But, he took the whole incident in style, and never let a frown cross his face; even while the paramedics where cleaning the dirt out of his wounds. So, please send your support to Will and wish him quick healing.
And now for the races. The mens B crit on saturday was unefentful for me, although it was the largest field I have ridden to date (69 riders). There were continuous attacks off the front and the pace was quick. Not being a great crit ridder, I sat in the main group for most of the race. With four laps to go, there was a big crash in front of me that took out around 20 ridders. I nearly missed it and had to chase hard for a little over a lap to catch the main field. At that point, I really didn't feel like going out for the sprint and finished in some position greater than 23rd (which is as high as the results go). My guess is 35th or so.
The road race was much more fun. We did six 11 mile laps. The course was mostly flat with one short steep climb near the beginning and one ~.5 mile climb before the final 2 miles descent into the finish. The worst part of the whole things was the feed zone. Ari had agreed to feed Morgan and I on the first 3 laps. No one took anything on the first lap, and I missed the handoff on the second lap after the rider in front of me braked a little hard and I almost hit him. I got the feed on the the third lap, and made it the rest of the race with what I had. The past road races have started slowly with no one to anxious to work on the first lap. This time, however, the pace was quick from the get-go, and there was a small break on the first lap. I spent the three laps moving around in the peloton and the break dangled a couple hundred yards in front. Halfway through the fourth lap a number of riders had bridged to the break, which was not at around 8 riders. I decided that it was becoming a threat and quickly made the bridge. Apparently, the peloton became interested at this point, and caught us about 2 minutes after I caught the break. All together now, we rode the fifth lap without any attacks. The sixth lap was quiet as well, until the final climb. I had earlier decided that this was where I was going to attack, but a Stanford rider had the same idea and attacked hard. I wasn't quite up fron, but when he went, I charged with him. Suprisingly, no one else went with us! We climbed the hill at a fast pace (my hear rate spent the rest of the race between 183 and 193) and by the time I looked back I couldn't see any other riders. We worked together to put as much distance between us and anyone who was chasing and never got caught. There was a chase group of about 15 riders, but they weren't much of a threat by the time the got organized. Coming up on the 1K mark, the Stanford rider was behind me and quit working with me. I should have thought more about tactics at this point and started swerving (which occured to me after the race) but I was more concearned with not getting caught (which in retrospect wasn't going to happen at this point) I pulled hard to the line and got out sprinted by a couple bike lengths. So, I had a great race and finished second. Morgan had a great race as well and finished right behind the chase group around 25th place. I'll let Ari comment on the Men's C race, so that's all for now.
And now for the races. The mens B crit on saturday was unefentful for me, although it was the largest field I have ridden to date (69 riders). There were continuous attacks off the front and the pace was quick. Not being a great crit ridder, I sat in the main group for most of the race. With four laps to go, there was a big crash in front of me that took out around 20 ridders. I nearly missed it and had to chase hard for a little over a lap to catch the main field. At that point, I really didn't feel like going out for the sprint and finished in some position greater than 23rd (which is as high as the results go). My guess is 35th or so.
The road race was much more fun. We did six 11 mile laps. The course was mostly flat with one short steep climb near the beginning and one ~.5 mile climb before the final 2 miles descent into the finish. The worst part of the whole things was the feed zone. Ari had agreed to feed Morgan and I on the first 3 laps. No one took anything on the first lap, and I missed the handoff on the second lap after the rider in front of me braked a little hard and I almost hit him. I got the feed on the the third lap, and made it the rest of the race with what I had. The past road races have started slowly with no one to anxious to work on the first lap. This time, however, the pace was quick from the get-go, and there was a small break on the first lap. I spent the three laps moving around in the peloton and the break dangled a couple hundred yards in front. Halfway through the fourth lap a number of riders had bridged to the break, which was not at around 8 riders. I decided that it was becoming a threat and quickly made the bridge. Apparently, the peloton became interested at this point, and caught us about 2 minutes after I caught the break. All together now, we rode the fifth lap without any attacks. The sixth lap was quiet as well, until the final climb. I had earlier decided that this was where I was going to attack, but a Stanford rider had the same idea and attacked hard. I wasn't quite up fron, but when he went, I charged with him. Suprisingly, no one else went with us! We climbed the hill at a fast pace (my hear rate spent the rest of the race between 183 and 193) and by the time I looked back I couldn't see any other riders. We worked together to put as much distance between us and anyone who was chasing and never got caught. There was a chase group of about 15 riders, but they weren't much of a threat by the time the got organized. Coming up on the 1K mark, the Stanford rider was behind me and quit working with me. I should have thought more about tactics at this point and started swerving (which occured to me after the race) but I was more concearned with not getting caught (which in retrospect wasn't going to happen at this point) I pulled hard to the line and got out sprinted by a couple bike lengths. So, I had a great race and finished second. Morgan had a great race as well and finished right behind the chase group around 25th place. I'll let Ari comment on the Men's C race, so that's all for now.
posted by John McKeen at
7:00 PM
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