Road Bike Racing - Race Report: Early Bird Crit 2, Fremont, CA

I raced Cat 5, under 35 men's division. Pace seemed quick-ish, but didn't have any problems staying in the pack. Went off the front a few times (like the first lap). Turns out on a flat, slightly windy course that DOESN'T work, but I knew that, I was just having fun or something.

Then the proverbial **** hit the fan. HUGE pileup. I think I got run over a few times or something, ripped my shorts pretty badly, scraped skin off my arms, all the good things that can happen. When I got up, my front wheel was certainly not in line with the handlebars, and my brifters were pointed in odd directions. Thought for a second, yanked 'em back into place and got with the group who was getting back in a lap later. Felt good, stayed with the pack, was leading going into the final turn and ran out of gas. I missed the 2nd crash on the final straightaway and got smoked. Badly. Hey, at least I finished.

Crash 5s. NOT a joke. 2 weeks in a row (fortunately I didn't go down the first week).


ps -- by reading my race report it doesn't really come across that I finished like 20th or something, it sounds like I did well. :D

I raced Cat 5, under 35 men's division. Pace seemed quick-ish, but didn't have any problems staying in the pack. Went off the front a few times (like the first lap). Turns out on a flat, slightly windy course that DOESN'T work, but I knew that, I was just having fun or something.

Then the proverbial **** hit the fan. HUGE pileup. I think I got run over a few times or something, ripped my shorts pretty badly, scraped skin off my arms, all the good things that can happen. When I got up, my front wheel was certainly not in line with the handlebars, and my brifters were pointed in odd directions. Thought for a second, yanked 'em back into place and got with the group who was getting back in a lap later. Felt good, stayed with the pack, was leading going into the final turn and ran out of gas. I missed the 2nd crash on the final straightaway and got smoked. Badly. Hey, at least I finished.

Crash 5s. NOT a joke. 2 weeks in a row (fortunately I didn't go down the first week).


ps -- by reading my race report it doesn't really come across that I finished like 20th or something, it sounds like I did well. :D

Don't do that :)

Good on ya for getting back into the fray after going down though, I'd have to say I might have just bagged it at that point. Mostly out of fear I'd broken a part that would come back and bite me in the ass...

I think there were 3 crashes in the cat 5 elite newb training race. One of the crashes was on the last lap about 3 bike lengths in front of me and I almost ran over the crashed bike but luckily didn't. I'm scared now.

I think there were 3 crashes in the cat 5 elite newb training race. One of the crashes was on the last lap about 3 bike lengths in front of me and I almost ran over the crashed bike but luckily didn't. I'm scared now.

Thank God Illinois doesn't have this sort of thing.

While we might have sh1t for weather right now, we're all nice and safe riding indoors or by ourselves outside. The new guys who just got bikes with their Christmas cash will have a couple of months to learn how to ride them, both on their own and with groups, before subjecting others to their Cat5 fury in races.

Good job fighting back in. Peer pressure helps there.

And you learned something about when (not) to attack :)

you forgot to mention the best part... fast freddie was out there today, I don't think he raced though.

I'm pretty sure there were 3 wrecks, but two of them only involved a couple of people.

Didn't know Freddie was there, that's pretty cool.

Geoff326 -- actually wrecking seems not to be as bad as being afraid of it. It happens so fast, there's no time to really think. Doesn't feel great, but in most cases you find out that you're mostly ok, and have a little less fear of it.

Also, I can tell you all day that I should sit in and wait for the final sprint, but damn it if my adrenaline doesn't fire away and I turn into some testosterone idiot for awhile until my muscles give out. Guess I'm on my way to learning that the hard way......

I think there were 3 crashes in the cat 5 elite newb training race. One of the crashes was on the last lap about 3 bike lengths in front of me and I almost ran over the crashed bike but luckily didn't. I'm scared now.

dude, was that the crash towards the finish with the loud tube blow out? that was crazy. one of the riders said the guy landed face first!

I raced Cat 5, under 35 men's division. Pace seemed quick-ish, but didn't have any problems staying in the pack. Went off the front a few times (like the first lap). Turns out on a flat, slightly windy course that DOESN'T work, but I knew that, I was just having fun or something.

Then the proverbial **** hit the fan. HUGE pileup. I think I got run over a few times or something, ripped my shorts pretty badly, scraped skin off my arms, all the good things that can happen. When I got up, my front wheel was certainly not in line with the handlebars, and my brifters were pointed in odd directions. Thought for a second, yanked 'em back into place and got with the group who was getting back in a lap later. Felt good, stayed with the pack, was leading going into the final turn and ran out of gas. I missed the 2nd crash on the final straightaway and got smoked. Badly. Hey, at least I finished.

Crash 5s. NOT a joke. 2 weeks in a row (fortunately I didn't go down the first week).


ps -- by reading my race report it doesn't really come across that I finished like 20th or something, it sounds like I did well. :D

dang man you're my hero. i only wish i could've finished with the pack and not get shot out the back like a fat guy with diarrhea after the 3rd lap. i'm going to try again next week.

i'm going to try again next week.

thats the important part.

dude, was that the crash towards the finish with the loud tube blow out? that was crazy. one of the riders said the guy landed face first!

Yeah, dude on the Cal tri team blew out his REAR tire and went down. No one in front of him, and I think he did more or less land face first. A teammate of mine was two wheels behind him and skidded to a stop so as not to run over him. My guy didn't go down, but sucks to have your race basically ended 100 yards from the finish.

REAR TIRE, no one to your left, right or in front. At least they don't allow aerobars in mass start events.......

I finished 7th (by my very hypoxic count) in that crash-fest of a race. I also am proud to report that I think I tried the only break of the race. It was a complete disaster. I cruised up to the front, and the group lulled. I saw two guys on the outside making a break so I accelerated and caught the lead guy's wheel. He blew it on the turn big time, so I took the lead and was motioning desperately for the two guys who broke with me to catch my wheel. They're trying like crazy but I didn't want to slow down too much (tactical mistake?) because I wanted to maintain the gap we had. I think we stayed off for about half a lap.

All in all I had a helluva time. I'm definitely going back next week. I've been telling everyone I know about how great it was all day. They're sick of me. So at least you guys understand. For those of you who will be there next week: I'll be the dude in the Oscar the Grouch jersey on a red Trek 1500. Come say hi, and maybe we can work out a strategy to make a break.

no no! Someone had overlapped his rear wheel. He stood up to sprint and caught the guy's front. The overlapper went over the bars. The other guy had his rear blow out when he contacted the guy behind him but stayed upright.

no no! Someone had overlapped his rear wheel. He stood up to sprint and caught the guy's front. The overlapper went over the bars. The other guy had his rear blow out when he contacted the guy behind him but stayed upright.

fair enough, I rescind my prior statements. This was coming from talking to a teammate, but what you said makes more sense relative to what I saw.

no no! Someone had overlapped his rear wheel. He stood up to sprint and caught the guy's front. The overlapper went over the bars. The other guy had his rear blow out when he contacted the guy behind him but stayed upright.

sond right. some of the cat 5 masters who were getting ready for the race and watching said the overlapper turned his front wheel and endo-ed. landing on his face.

dude, was that the crash towards the finish with the loud tube blow out? that was crazy. one of the riders said the guy landed face first!

I was referring to another crash, the crash I was right behind was the one between turn 3 and turn 4 on the last lap. I'm guessing most of you guys didn't even know there was another crash since it wasn't near any of the spectator areas.

even though I was behind the crash I wasn't sure what caused it. according to other riders, a junior slammed on the brakes so hard that he lifted up his rear wheel causing the rider behind him to go down having run into the junior.

I was referring to another crash, the crash I was right behind was the one between turn 3 and turn 4 on the last lap. I'm guessing most of you guys didn't even know there was another crash since it wasn't near any of the spectator areas.

even though I was behind the crash I wasn't sure what caused it. according to other riders, a junior slammed on the brakes so hard that he lifted up his rear wheel causing the rider behind him to go down having run into the junior.

i know there was another crash on the other side by the Amgen building. The fire truck went over there after the first crash and i saw a wrecked bike being put into a car.

Good god, you guys are racing already! I won't be psyched up for another four months or so. Good on ya, sorry to hear about the crashes.

i know there was another crash on the other side by the Amgen building. The fire truck went over there after the first crash and i saw a wrecked bike being put into a car.

I hope those guys are alright. It's a shame if they totaled their bikes. Some people bring some pricey rides to these crits. One of the cat 5 newbs was riding a Look 595 :D. I'd cry if I wrecked that.

so were there 4 wrecks? JEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESUS.

1) The big pileup on the 4th-ish lap near the start/finish. I went down hard on that one.

2) One on the back stretch between turns 2 and 3 (there were paramedics there after the race). The guy on the ground I had met earlier that day when we all got stranded on the BART. He seemed pretty cool, I was sorry to see that it looked like he hurt his ankle.

3) apparently one after turn 3 (there wasn't *really* a turn 4) with one of those little guys

4) on the finishing stretch, overlapped wheel, faceplant and I think a separated shoulder for one of the guys.

Also, there could have been more. I was 3rd or 4th wheel near the start with about 2 to go, and we damn near ran over a junior. The lead guy didn't see him (!?!?), my teammate yelled and he swerved. We were probably rolling at 25+, and he was maybe doing 15. The pack split, I did about 20 yards on the bott dots and no one plowed the kid.

SHEEEYITE.

Also, I was in the first group of about 40-50 during the mentoring and guys were slamming on their brakes randomly (or so it seemed) when we were just cruising around warming up. In retrospect, it does sound like a fairly ugly day.

If I'm not in Tahoe, I'll be there next week.

Darwin based a lot of his work on Earlybirds.