Road Bike Racing - My Turn on the First Race Report

THE CEDARS-SINAI GRAND PRIX

CATEGORY - CAT 5 B (first time racers)

Pre-race - I could not sleep last night fromt he excitement. Nothiong I could do about it but at least I have been rested these last few days.

The CAT 5 A group was filled up so we ended getting quite a few "real A" racers moved to our first timer group. I saw a ride buddy (one of the A racers who ended up in our group) and we scouted the area and he was good about telling me, where to draft and what to watch out for. We were told by the officials that we could not draft off the CAT 5 As (race numbernumber 200s) and vice versa (we were 300s)

RACE TIME
So the race starts. I'm conservative on the first turns as our 25 + group of riders were all together. There's a guy who's off the front immediately and everyone just lets him go (he ends up staying away and winning easily). We hit the 400 meter hill and our group splits up. I'm up front of the gunning for second place front group with maybe 10 riders now. Next few laps are a blur but our second place group of 6 (all of whom seemed experienced) is pretty much even. I feel the pain of the ride but keep to the game plan, stay in the draft and try not too burn too many matches and hope to do well at the final 200 meters. By this time we're passing the slower CAT 5As left and right, we may have even lapped some of our own group. On the 3rd to the last lap I make a bad mistake of letting up just a little on the end of the hill. They make the turn and I realize I have missed the draft. I stay calm and keep them pegged in the distance. Trying not to work to hard but also trying not to lose too much ground. I make some headway by the next hill but I realize that I'll get lost again on the downhill so I look back to see if there's anyone else I can work with (or work off to be more precise) couple of cat 5 As pass then as luck would have it a big guy from the our Bs passes me. I'm relishing his strong pull and draft and he pushes it on the flats. We're at the hill heading towards the finish and I see my ride buddy in the distance wavering. My unknowing lead out was slowing on the hill so at 300 meters I pull ahead, my second mistake is that while I pushed, I didn't seem to have the intent sprinting all out in the end either and I end just behind my buddy.

When all was said and done I had 7TH PLACE!!!! Much more room for improvement but definitely a lot of experience learned and fun was had.

Thanks for all the tips guys and it looks like you'll be getting more reports from me in the future.

Hi jj. Where was your race? What was the distance? Was Jaycee with you?

West LA College.

Jaycee was not there (he's doing a San Diego century this weekend) and I had to do this race with no familiar faces by my side. It's a very strange transition from all these KOM centuries we've been doing vs this much shorter (40 mins) but intense race. HAd 2 weeks to work on above LT work and sprints and despite my miscue I'm quite happy.

I was there to bear witness. jslopez, I knew you'd be strong enough to do well! Congratulations. I tried to take a pic of you at the finish line, but my camera's weak batteries weren't cooperating. I was pretty impressed by the amount of sponsors and primes/ giveaways (for racers/ spectators) they had there. Watching the races, drinking iced coffee and free smoothies while reading the paper was a great way to enjoy my Sunday.

I hung around long enough to watch the women, the masters 45+ and the pros. In the pros there was a guy (last name Dominguez) from Toyota United that lapped the entire field, except for a small chase group of about 5 or 6 riders -- but even they were almost 2 mins off the winning pace.

FYI -- the last .35 mile to the finish of the 1.3 mile loop is at about 7.5%, so this wasn't the type of crit that someone could just suck wheel and sprint the last 200m or so and place well. To place well, you had to work each and every lap ---- good job jslopez.

Ivan Dominguez is fast as hell, he is a Cuban who defected to the US during the Pan Am Games

This race was my first as a Cat 4... and the first time I've dropped out of a race :( I got my ass handed to me. There's always next weekend.. Congrats on your placing.

good job! top ten's no slouch. looking forward to your race reports. here's to your next one.

It was probably a good thing you couldn't take my pic as I was probably a picture of pain. This effort was defintiely different from our previous planet ultra century rides. With only 2 weeks of race type training to turn things around, all I could think about was how many matches I thought I was burning up before we were even halfway thru. The crazy part is ater looking at my computer, we only travelled 13+ miles.

Thanks for the props guys.

Celtic, we need to organize more training and races. Email me - jslopez93@yahoo.com

Dude, for your first race with about a year's training, you did AWESOME!!! Seems like you were definitely strong enoug physically, so you just gotta get the strategy and tactics down. Good job! :) (and do those intervals!)

On the 3rd to the last lap I make a bad mistake of letting up just a little on the end of the hill. They make the turn and I realize I have missed the draft. I stay calm and keep them pegged in the distance. Trying not to work to hard but also trying not to lose too much ground.

Great job! One small suggestion for the future. When this happens, if you have any hope of catching back on, its often better to work really hard and bury yourself to catch back on. You'll end up spending less energy, than just hanging back by yourself. Of course if you blow, trying to bridge you'll end up worse off, so its a judgement call. But from your description its sounds like you might have been able to catch back on if you would have sold out. Often times, the worse thing you can do is hang by yourself between groups.

Great job! One small suggestion for the future. When this happens, if you have any hope of catching back on, its often better to work really hard and bury yourself to catch back on. You'll end up spending less energy, than just hanging back by yourself. Of course if you blow, trying to bridge you'll end up worse off, so its a judgement call. But from your description its sounds like you might have been able to catch back on if you would have sold out. Often times, the worse thing you can do is hang by yourself between groups.


Thanks, for a second or two I had my century mentality (I'll catch them on the next hill) then snapped out of it too late. From there it was a half attempt to bridge half attempt to save myself. Like you said, judgement call, and I made the wrong one but who's to say when you're in the moment eh?

Dude, for your first race with about a year's training, you did AWESOME!!! Seems like you were definitely strong enoug physically, so you just gotta get the strategy and tactics down. Good job! :) (and do those intervals!)


I'm back to sprint training tomorrow sir :)

:beer: Feels gread don't it. Congrats

Hey! I was in that race! My chain fell mid way through, and I lost the lead pack.

Celtic, why didn't I see you there?

Were you in a black jersey? If so I saw you drop the chain jsut as we were going for that hill. I thought you caught up again cause I can't seem to figure out some of the people who were ahead of me.

I was in a red/black jersey, and yeah, it was right at the bottom of the hill. For a second, I thought of trying to put the chain back on while on the saddle, but then I had a horrible image of my fingers getting sliced by the chainrings.

Nope, I never caught the group again.

I liked the circuit a lot, it was challenging and the roads were nice.

Hey! I was in that race! My chain fell mid way through, and I lost the lead pack.

Celtic, why didn't I see you there?

You didn't see me because you weren't looking hard enough! :)

I didn't race, because in my 1st race (the week prior) I got dropped after 6 miles and figured another week of riding wasn't going to help much, so I decided to save the $25 entry fee for another time. I was on the sidelines though. I got there about half way through your race and rooted you and jslopez on. Sorry about your chain droppage -- I saw you behind the lead pack and was wondering what happened.

Check out: http://scnca.org/2006calendar.asp

I think I'm going to try the North Park Classic Stage Race in September.