Reports by:

• Mike Z
• Oscar
• Tim
• Keith J
• German

Category: Various
Result: Various

The course at Sierra Point makes for a difficult race. There is a 180 followed by a tight left-hander that cause a lot of problems for people and their pedals. There is one other tight corner, leaving 4 corners fairly wide open and easy. I raced two races today, the E4s and the M35+ 4-5s. These are the first two mass start races I have done in 2 years so the main thing I wanted to accomplish was to feel comfortable in the pack.

Cat: E-4
Teammates: Keith, German, Tim, Oscar

Today was a lot of suffering for me. The first 30 minutes were really hard. I was in the back 1/3 of it for the most part with little room to move up. The one long straight was usually ridden at 28 - 29 mph making it hard to advance there. I was able to usually move up a few places on the 180, left combination and the final right hand turn.

With 4 laps to go, I found Keith and asked how he was doing. He said he felt good, but kept losing places in the corners. I told him to get on my wheel and I would move him up to the front with one or less to go. With 2 laps to go, on the front stretch we were probably in 12th place and in good position. The first two right turns and the 180 were without incident. Keith was still on my wheel and I was actually feeling pretty good, and then it happened. The guy right in front of me bit it on the left turn.

I slammed on the brakes and braced myself for someone to rear end me. The fallen rider slid quite a ways with my front wheel about 2 feet from him. That ended the race for me as I had unclipped to brace myself for impact. I noodled the last lap and a half and crossed the finish line. Disappointed to say the least.

Cat: M35+, 4-5
No teammates

This race was very hard from the beginning also. The morning race had a little wind, but by this race's 1:00 pm start it was really blowing.

This turned out to be a race of attrition as riders continued to go off the back. At the 25 mintue mark, I found myself behind a couple of guys with a pretty good gap to the pack. Those two were gone and I thought about stopping, but figured I might catch on at the 180 since I was alone and the pack slowed there a lot. Unfortunatley, it took a huge effort and almost 2 full laps to finally close the gap.

The effort took its toll and 10 minutes later, I found myself off the back again due to lack of leg strength and a brutal cross to head wind on the finishing straight and the first right turn. I think there were about 10 - 12 laps to go at this point, but I decided that they were going to have to pull me to get me off the course.

A lot of pain ensued for close to an eternity. Around 4 laps to go, they mercifully pulled me. The solo laps turned out to be a lot of fun since I could take the line I wanted on the 180 and the tight left. I also gained a lot of fans on those laps and had some seriously good Zone 5 work. All in all, I actually had a good race. I had figured out the course and for the first time ever could really notice that I was coming out of many of the corners with a higher speed than the guys around me.

Summary:
I had fun, which doesn't usually happen for me in a crit.
I suffered.
I didn't crash.
Great day for racing.

Thanks for the support of German, Oscar, and Keith who stayed to watch my second race. It was greatly appreciated.

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Category: 4
Result: Did not finish

Well, I'm running out of reasons for not finishing but, what the heck. I'm in a new category with some really hard races for the first series. Man, the pace was blistering and at least I lasted 4 more laps than yesterday. We had a really good turn-out for our squad. Maybe next time fellas, I'll be able to help out some more. The course was really technical and not much wind in the AM. By the time Mike started his second race, the wind was harsh. Cuddos to Mike for hangin' in there. You're my hero!!!

Second, it was amazing that I didn't die out there. My new wheels had this little hump or at least I thought they were my wheels. I take it over to Keith Williams(the owner who was supplying neutral support) and he realizes after a few turns on his truing station that a bit of tire was not in place. He fixes it and all is well in my world. By the way, whoever is doing promotions...shoot an email to him and he might be able to do neutral support for our race in June.

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Category: 4
Result: Did not finish

My goal for the race was to block for Mike and Keith if they went on a break. That didn't quite pan out.

I started the race mid-pack. The first couple of laps were really fast but I still tried to move up a couple of positions. After 6-7 laps the pace was still high and I started to go backward through the field. Eventually I found myself off the back on a prime lap.

For another 4-5 laps I worked with a another shelled rider to delay getting pulled. After 30 minutes of racing I got the whistle.

Mike and Keith: sorry for not being there at the end to help you guys out.

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Category: 4
Result: Mid-pack

Weather was nice - sun peeking out with little to no winds. Unloaded gear, registered and started to warm up.. With 5min to go we line up & right off the bat I ended up in the back, and being this was my first Cat4 mass start race I was blown away at how FAAAAR back I seemed. Road was narrow so moving up was slow and technic al. Each lap came and went in a blur while I focused on finding the best spots to take these multiple nasty corners. The 180 was killing me as cornering is not my strong suit so I was slow around the corner and for half the race in the wrong gear in the hole-shot while everyone was sprinting out.

After the 90 degree right turn and then the 180, and then the left 90 I was able to excel. The turns were long and sweeping and I consistently advanced on my competitors at this part of the course. I could see Tim up front and I was methodically working my way up to him. Finally caught up to Tim and he looked strained as he was de-accelerating quickly. I offered my wheel but di dn’t dare drop the pace for fear of getting gapped. Didn’t see Tim again... Sorry Tim!

With 7 laps to go I somehow got it into my head that this was a 40 min race and my clock was showing 37min! I kicked it in gear and found myself in the top 5 with one guy just off the front... of course I ended up right out front and pulled the group for a lap or so. No one else wanted to work and all were perfectly happy with me hammering off the front. Couple laps (prob 1.5 laps) of that and I was hurting. I sat up and was overtaken fast... fell back to about 20th and was worried about being able to catch back on. I finally grabbed a wheel and got some recovery in... also realized my time was off. Oops.

Suddenly I was asked "how I felt" and there was Mike to my left. We exchanged words and he told me to grab his wheel which I had no objections. We started to work our way up the field with precision, couple of spots here, couple more there.

Heres comes the 180 (I was really starting to hate the 180) and now the left 90 that I had scraped my pedal on earlier in the race. We were cooking along in about 10-12 place and CRASH! - guy immediately in front of Mike went down hard. Mike and myself hit the brakes... I was off to the right a bit so was able to get around a bit easier. Ouch that left a GAP!

Only thing left to do at this point was try to climb past whoever I could before the race ended - was able to get ahead of a few more people and it was over.

Great race and I felt strong, the technical side of the race was my biggest weakness - 180 turns are the devil.

Then had a great time chillin with the team-mates and watching Mike suffer! This is what cyclings all about!!! Thanks to everyone that came out.

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Category: 4
Result: Did not finish

For this race I had to make sure I warm up very nice in order to get rid of the accumulated lactic acid I still had on my legs from the Saturday's 64 miles hilly ride with Carl A. Certainly my legs were still really worn-out, but I spent a good amount of time on the rollers trying to get rid of such problem, but unfortunately, it didn't go away and I paid the big price in the race.

I usually don't have problems accelerating in the races, but in this one, my legs didn't respond from the beginning. I started in the middle pack right next to Tim, but the nasty 180 degree turn and the very high pace were definitely my executers. In a few words, I was in the middle of the pack behind Tim until lap 4, where my legs quitted on me and had to abandon the race with great disappointment.

Mike encouraged me to continue, but I just couldn't because I started to develop a cramp in my legs, so he just didn't know what was going on with my legs(Mike: Thanks for the encouragement) Sorry for the disappointment, but I will try harder next time and I will save my energies for the upcoming races.

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