urbanknight

I did the Mothballs Crit (Men's Cat 4) near Santa Barbara yesterday, which was my first race since I stopped at age 16 to go to college and start a career. My goal was simple: to still be with the pack at the finish. I immediately situated myself mid pack (about 50 riders) and spent most of my time watching the others and trying to decide who to follow and who to stay away from. One rider kept getting yelled at by a more experienced rider for stupid moves but seemed to take the comments well. I stayed on wheels during prime sprints since I knew they would slow and I should stay in the draft. Coming into the last lap, I was still feeling pretty good but was in no position to contend for the sprint, so I rolled in with the rest of the pack. Next race, I will work on positioning a lot more. Most importantly, I had a blast and can't wait to do it again!

I'll be posting pics of the Cat 3, Juniors, and 35+ categories in the race report thread in the So Cal forum. Hopefully someone got a shot of me as well. We'll see.

umd

My wife took lots of pictures of the cat 4 race (I was in it). If you tell me your number I will dig up some pics of you.

bitingduck

Congrats! That's pretty good for your first time back after so long off.

Cleave

Hi urbanknight,

Nice!

So since Mothballs went well are we going to see you at the Roger Millikan Memorial Crit next weekend? My plan is 45+ and 50+. the 45+ race will just be a warmup.

botto 

congrats on getting back into the fold.

now, as to your actual written race report... .

wfrogge

My first race.. Hell my first 6 races back from a 10+ year layoff and I was pretty much DFL in all of them.... Good work.

umd

First, I am glad that you enjoyed Mothballs. A lot of people in my club put in a lot of hard work to run this race. I personally was there for about 12 hours, and everything was very hectic for me until midway through the 55+/65+ race preceeding my 4s race.

I came into this race with two goals: Win a prime, and a top 10 finish. The first prime I went after was for $25 but I started too far back and wasn't even close. For the wine, one guy attacked on the backside, but I was not able to counter until after the final corner, and was not quite able to close his considerable lead. That formed a sizeable gap on the field coming into the first corner, but neither of us wanted to try to use it to make a break stick with more than 5 laps to go, much to the disappointment of another guy that had just bridged up to us. He spent that whole lap dangling ahead of us, staring back to get us to make a move with him. I considered it but knew that it would destroy me, so I backed off and got swallowed back into the pack. For the rest of the race, I stayed near the front to help Tom (won the 4s race last year) if needed, but I ended up stuck again and was not able to do anything when he tried to counter an attack. When I was finally able to get clear I shot up the inside and recovered many places but it was only good for 14th. After the race, someone came up to me and said "I quickly realized that you guys had a plan".

Me diving into a corner


Tom a.k.a TnA drilling it on the front


My teammate Chester did the last of his 10 cat 5s races, hammering the field with the father-and-son-cyclocross Langins, putting the hurt on the pack and keeping the pace high all race, but in the end they were all swarmed at the finish. By some stroke of luck, he convinced the official to upgrade him, despite having already told Langin Jr. that he wouldn't give race-day upgrades. So newly upgraded, he jumped into the 4s race with me and Tom. He took a much more conservative approach than the 5s race, except for a few attacks.

Langin Jr., leading out Sr. and Chester


Chesta' on the attack in the 4s

botto 

does TnA realize that he's wearing a TT helmet in a crit?

umd

He does. He calls it his crit helmet.

botto 

Fredelcious!

LT Intolerant

Steve, when I saw Tom line up for the 45+ race in that helmet I thought to myself that he was kinda tipping his hand. I had a good laugh.

Congrats to UK for getting back into it. Congrats to you for having the guts to animate your race. I'm still pissed that I did nothing in my race. When I race again I'm attacking over and over again, even if it means I die halfway into the race. I rode like a pathetic loser yesterday.

gene r

umd

I had two people (including Frazer who is going to be my coach) tell me later that I should have gone with that guy that came up after my prime attempt and try to stay away with him. Even if it destroyed me I still could have gotten a pack finish.

LT Intolerant

As a second year racer Steve you gotta cut yourself some slack. You'll see it next time and go. Frazer is a great choice as a coach. The guy is a world class athlete and a great guy who's willing to help out anyone who seeks his advice wt the ego that comes with the success he's had.

mkadam68

[QUOTE=LT Intolerant;6102277]Steve, when I saw Tom line up for the 45+ race in that helmet I thought to myself that he was kinda tipping his hand. I had a good laugh.

Congrats to UK for getting back into it. Congrats to you for having the guts to animate your race. I'm still pissed that I did nothing in my race. When I race again I'm attacking over and over again, even if it means I die halfway into the race. I rode like a pathetic loser yesterday.

gene r[/QUOTE]

I have to admit, not having seen/met Tom before, I was wondering if he got into a break if he'd be dangerous or not. I still don't have that answered.

urbanknight

#405 (white helmet, plain blue jersey). I saw my head and one shoulder in one of your pics already, but if you have any clear shots of me that would be awesome. Considering how I spent most of my time mid pack, it's not likely. I spent quite a bit of time on the outside, though, so it's possible (before any of you go knocking me for that, the pack movement was such that I could carry more speed around the outside without any extra pedal strokes).

I really want to, but I want to do Anger Management the next week even more, and since I want to spend the following weekend watching the Tour of California, I decided to take next weekend off to keep the wife happy. I don't qualify for 45+ or 50+ (or 35+) anyway, though

They'll get better when I actually start playing a part in tactics. I tried to portray "hung on for dear life" in as exciting a manner as I could!

cngillmore

TnA is always to be considered dangerous. At all times. The old bugger can hammer with the best of 'em

umd

PM me tomorrow and I'll try to crop in to get clearer pics.

urbanknight

Thanks, you're awesome!

btw your hectic efforts were successful as your event was run right on schedule and smoothly. The only hitch was trying to get the juniors off the course when they were lining up to roll out, but that was because they weren't paying attention to the announcer's pleas to go around into the parking lot. lol

urbanknight

2nd Race: Anger Management Criterium, Cat 4


Start: For some reason, my teammate took off on the first lap. I don't know if he meant to do it or if he thought the pack was still on his wheel, but he went with it and rode solo for a few laps before sliding back in. Meanwhile, I was holding my position in the top 5-15 spots to conserve energy. Many of my teammates were hanging out behind me, probably recovering since they were fresh off the 30+ race.

Mid: I realized there was a timer so we could tell how much time was left in the race. How nice of them. Now I can tell if I'm suffering enough or not. Quite a few twitchy riders have me nervous and I realize that I am letting people squeeze me back because of it. I man up and start defending my position. One rider starts coming in on me and I rub shoulders with him. He tells me to be careful and I just point to the wheel I'm following. I think he got the point. Still, I'm only able to keep myself at about mid pack at this point.

5 to go: 4 of us teammates managed to regroup and I was happily sucking the wheel of my largest teammate. We start moving up and keep it together despite getting broken up a couple of times. The pack surges and we start to lose ground and get seperated. At 3 to go, I make an effort to move up only to see the pack surge and move up again. On the last lap, I make another effort and the pack starts accelerating. I knew I was spent, so I sat up and followed the pack in. I'm glad I sat up because 2 riders mid pack crashed just across the finish line.

So just another pack finish for me. Not bad, though, considering I'm still fighting a cold and haven't been on the bike since Tuesday. Still having fun, still looking to improve myself.

Is this a better report, Botto?

cmh

It also looks like he is bolt upright for drilling it at the front. Use your drops TnA!

urbanknight

He holds his own. Until I can pass him, he can race however he wants!

deadly downtube

that pic is of cat 5 guys??? their legs look sculpted of granite.. wtf?

cmh

Congrats on your return to racing urbanknight. I started a couple years ago after 20 yrs off and it sure feels good.

waterrockets 

Congrats on hitting your goal. Looks like you're ready to take some risks next time.

urbanknight

Cat 4, as mentioned in the OP. USAC reinstated my license with the same categories I was 12 years ago. I'm still a Cat 3 on the track!