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What Mike Z. saw:
Category: 4/5
Result: Mid-pack
There isn't a lot for me to report with this race. I rode from home once again and had a good warmup. I started out in the front at the start line next to Matt. After finding a good place in the front 5, I was swarmed half a lap into the race and found myself about 30 riders back. I moved up near the front a couple of laps later and stayed somewhere from 1st to 10th until the first prime.
The pace seemed pretty high most of the time. When I did take my one turn at the front, it wasn't very far and it wasn't very fast. I made a pretty hard effort for the first prime, but I didn't think I had gone that hard. Regardless, my legs wouldn't turn over at all. After that effort, I even had a hard time catching my breath, which for me is quite abnormal. I obviously wasn't going to be doing much in this race so I moved to the back and hung on to basically finish with the pack.
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What Garry saw:
Category: 1/2/3
Result: Did not finish
First race of the year, and I was curious to see how I would perform.
Coach had requested that us FFBC should stay out of the wind as much as possible and only see the front with 5 to go. This went wrong from before the gun, with Ziggy, Biker Bob and myself on the front row rubbing shoulders with a whole mess of Lombardi pro's and some Colivata riders. At the go, I made my normal start, which normally would have me in around 10th at turn 1. This time, by turn 1 I had 50 yards on the field!, more due to their dawdling than my blistering start speed. Ziggy gave me a yell and I slipped back into the field, which of course was the signal for the first attack of the day.
Anyway, that breakaway stayed away for 2-3 laps and after some steady chasing they came back, followed by further attacks. I was trying to concentrate on staying away from the rear of the field rather than stay close to the front, which was working out quite well. It was good to get in to the groove again quickly, some close but not scary close riding and a good pace. I think the lack of any real hard wind was helpful, it prevented the real strong guys from decimating the field with gutter riding. What wind there was came from the east, so I tried as best I could to move from side to side of the peloton on alternate sides of the course. In this I was quite successful.
On a few occasions I hit the front, not really intentionally, but I got there anyway and did some turns, making sure that minor breaks came back. This was a BIG mistake, because although they where not real hard turns, it definitely drained some resources.
The race developed with a hard working break of at least 4 up the road, Steve Wu, ex-FFBC was there and one of the Lombardi dudes, which meant that his team mates were blocking like demons. With 5 to go the break was at 20 seconds and Gen Kogure was doing massive efforts in the chase. I was 4 form the front and got caught on the wrong side of the pack, in the wind, and I popped, speed falling off from 28 to 20 mph so fast. Apparently the break riders were attacking each other and the Lombardi rider was dropped, which signaled the remaining Lombardi's to put the hammer down and the remaining two in the break were caught with 500 yards to go.
So, disappointed that I cracked with 5 to go, heartened to see many cat 2's standing beside the road who had already called it a day and the mentoring was a lot of fun as well.
The big downer on the day was our FFBC casualties, gentlemen I wish you a speedy recovery. Congratulations to Chris on his 3rd place and well done to all of us that made the whole training camp and meet the teams day a success.
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What Matt I. saw:
Category: 4/5
Result: Mid-pack
I was glad to be out there with the team on my first race back since
being at the deaf olympics.
The early birds also mark my one year of racing. Last year's EB #1 was
my first race ever (2004) so I was glad to come out and get back into
it for 2005.
I was happy to see a lot of the race team out there and it was also very
nice to have some in the 4/5 race as well. Mike, German, and Frank were
the others doing this race. At the start line Mike lined up next to me, and shortly after, the whistle blew.
I was just planning to stay near the front to stay out of trouble and to
see if anything was going to develop. Mike was at the front early on and
took a pull or two at the front. I also took a few pulls. There were
some attacks but they were pretty weak and short lived. One of the
mistakes I think I made is that I chased too much. I guess I am still in
that mode from Australia where the euro dudes would attack and it would
be a successful attack. When I chased a rider down, the whole time they
would let up by the time I got to their wheel. Grrr.
Halfway through the
race I decided I was just going to sit in rather than chase down stuff
that wasn't going anywhere. Staying at the front, nothing interesting
happened. I almost forgot to look at the lap cards. Coming around to the
final stretch I glanced at the cards, and It was showing 2 to go. Wow.
Time flies.
I sat in and just went with the surges. I wanted to be on
the outside for the final turn. At the last lap, there were surges as
expected and the pace was high so there wasn't any monster attacks. At
the final turn I found myself in the middle and a bit boxed in. I was
trying to find a way out to the outside so I can get some extra speed.
With about 200m to go I saw a bit of an opening and sprinted but it
wasn't much. I think my leggies were a bit tired from chasing. I cruised
to the finish mid pack.
It was a good race, and I think everyone stayed upright. I am happy to
be back and looking forward to a great season this year. I am excited to
see new faces and look forward to the success of the raceteam as a
whole!
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What Mike N. saw:
Category: 5
Result: 1st
After doing the L.T. test on Friday and the Calaveras Ride the day
before, I knew I had some fatigue going on when I woke up. On my way
to the race, I was pedaling very easily to get a nice long warm-up.
When I arrived at the race, I was feeling moderately good, especially
when the sun started to warm things up.
After the mentoring, nature called for quite a bunch of riders, so by
the time I got to the s/f line, I was in the back of the group, with
Chris, Fernando, Luis, and possibly Jason up closer to the front. I
could tell that there were a lot more riders than there were in the
E.B. #2 when the ground was wet.
When the whistle blew, I got clipped in decently and managed to catch
up to the team. After a while we all started to scatter out among the
pack.
I stayed in mid-pack, or at least what I thought was mid-pack since I
never looked far behind me. For the first half, I always stayed on or
near the outside of the pack and on the turns. Being on the outside
was largely safe since there weren't that many riders (thanks to
German for the tip), but the accelerations really taxed my legs
without a wheel to suck on.
As the race was getting closer to the end, I was feeling fatigued
because my heart rate was only 186 and I knew that the race two weeks
ago brought my heart rate higher than that. I decided to go in the
front-center of the pack where there would be less accleration and a
better draft to recover on. When there were 4 laps to go, I felt
really good. From what I remember, before turn 1, I went on the
outside of the pack and started to accelerate while the pack was
decelerating for the turn. Once at the turn I had a very wide turn
but with a huge speed difference so I managed to pass a couple of
riders before reintegrating into the pack. From there I stayed near
the front and tried to conserve whatever energy I had left.
I suppose the lap after, I was still in the front center of the pack,
inbetween two rear wheels. At turn 3, I was still inbetween them, and
after the apex, rather than braking to get off of the two wheels, I
kept accelerating with them, and my line ended up crossing over to
the outside rider's line, and stuff happened. I ended up knocking
myself out.
Lesson learned: Be the assertive rider; not the aggressive or passive
type.
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