Hermes

Cleave, You have a great blog and I liked the pictures and write up.

Cleave

One (big) difference between me starting at the back of the crit and Racer Ex starting at the back is that one of us stayed in until the end.

It would have been one thing if the Sierra Nevada guy had done some work. I felt bad about jumping and was going to apologize to the other two guys but I couldn't find them after the finish. This was partly because I ended up talking for a while with Bill Watkins who won the 55-59 crit last year.

Bill was at West Point while I was at RPI and we raced against each other in intercollegiate races. Also he raced a lot on the east coast. Of course he was a Cat 1 who was on the national team in the 1970s and I was , well, a Cat 3. He claims he remembers me (which might be true since there weren't many other Asian-Americans racing back then) but I think he was being nice. What was funny about that conversation was he said something like, "I saw that Tom Officer [another former national team member] is here." Two minutes later Tom Officer walks up.

I'm telling this bit of a story because it relates to the genetics thread in the 33. Here I am, at my best, a slightly above average Cat3, racing against guys who were some of the best in the US when we were young. Back then, doping wasn't really an issue because the available drugs had about as much of a chance at killing you as they did helping you. These guys were good because they are genetically predisposed to be good. I, on the other hand...

Good thing I like this sport for a lot of reasons other than winning.

Racer Ex 

Amen.

I'm glad I stumbled into the sport. I'm happy I've had some success. But I'm grateful for the friends I've made and that I've chopped down a bit of the family medical tree.

shovelhd

+1. My family tree does not have good genetics.

Cleave, I race with Tom a lot. He's an animal in crits. Attacks like a rabid dog. He was going to be my coach for Nats until some other guy came along and offered. Tom is great. He coaches some of the best guys in my field, but I made the right choice. No doubt.

Keep your chin up, Cleave. You are a good strong rider.

AzTallRider

Great write up Cleave. Between all the racing you do, the volunteering, writing, and, I assume, work, when do you ever sleep?

Cleave

AzTR, sleep is highly over-rated. However, I'd probably be faster if I slept more. For now, I am fully employed. We'll see how long it lasts.

Thanks to everyone for the encouragement and kind words about my report.

Cleave

Hi, started my season with a pretty standard CBR (California Bicycle Racing) Sunday. Even though I've ridden hundreds of races on this course I wasn't overly confident going into the race because: (1) I hadn't raced in over 4 months and my last race was a DNF at the natz crit; (2) My training has been sporadic in January with some very good days and some disappointingly missed days; (3) I had a small cold on Tuesday and Wednesday; (4) I barely managed to finish building my race bike yesterday. BTW, my annual first race goals are stay upright and don't get dropped.

Masters 55+/60+
40 minutes, 7:30a start! No respect for us older racers. Our race was wedged between the Cat 5A and Cat 5B races. I am not a morning person and even though I thought I got up early enough, by the time I got through registration I only had about 10 minutes to warm up on a relatively cold, SoCal morning.

One other thing that has been an issue this year is getting clipped in to my pedals. Two years ago I switched from "classic" Look Delta pedals to Look Kéo pedals. I initially had a lot of trouble with them but managed to figure them out. At the beginning of the year I switch to Kéo 2 Max pedals and I have been having a terrible time with them.

I had three teammates on the line and I was supposed to chase down dangerous looking breaks for our sprinter. We got the usual pre-race instructions and then the whistle. Fortunately I got my foot into the pedal without any drama -- good omen. The pace seemed pretty mellow and the accelerations at the front did not seem too long-lived. I got on the wheel of a big guy who has won a bunch of races and hung out there since he was close enough to the front that I could see what was happening. After about halfway, I moved up further and with 6 to go a good guy from a good team took off. His team was blocking and no one else was doing anything, so based on my role I went to the front and just started dragging the pack up to him. I closed the gap a bit and then pulled off. Of course, no one else wanted to pull and his teammates were happy to watch. So after a short breather, I went to the front again and closed the gap enough that finally some other guys felt like they could close the rest. Job done.

That effort was over the course of 1-1/2 laps and after that I started to drift back and I saw our sprinter moving up. I tried to stay near the front half of the pack but of course, a bunch of people figured they were great field sprinters and it was getting a little dicey up there with a people wanting to be near the front but not at the front. I rolled through the finish near the back. Our sprinter took 6th in the 55+. He thinks he was 7th overall. I was 19th out of 24 50+ guys and there were 19 60+ guys listed as finishers.

Masters 50+ 1/2/3/4
Now that I was awake and warmed up, I felt better for another 40 minute crit. The was about 30 minutes between races. Once again, I had three teammates on the line but with a bigger field and faster people, we had no plan other than staying upright.

This time I had a little trouble getting clipped in but I was still about halfway up the 66 rider field. The race was faster than the 55+/60+ race but not exceedingly so. I kept trying to get to the front but with some of the newly-minted 50+ guys being pretty fast and my general lack of confidence and aggression, I never got there. However, for some reason, during the last three laps I got somewhere near the top 20 and was able to hold my position heading into the sprint. Somehow though I still have trouble sprinting hard for a place out of the money and I faded badly to finish 36th out of 62 finishers.

Masters 45+ 1/2/3/4
This time there were 67 guys on the line for this 45 minute race. I had one teammate (both of us were starting our third race of the day). I assumed I would spend the 45 minutes tailgunning the field but I think I was generally in the top 2/3rds of the pack. About halfway through my fastest race of the day, my legs started talking to me and I was generally starting to feel tired. This is where I start setting little milestones like, just make it to lap cards, just hang in until two to go, try taking bell lap with the field.

Amazingly(?), I finished with the pack. Didn't look at results but I don't think I was DFL.

Three races for a total of 55 miles in 2 hours, 8 minutes.

BTW, do as I say, not as I do. I finished building my new bike yesterday and rode it a total of 2.5 miles before racing it today. Fortunately nothing fell off of it.

Next week: Poor College Kids Road Race near Santa Maria, CA.

shovelhd

That's great work, Cleave.

sarals 

Three races and 55 miles? I'd say you're feeling pretty good, and that you're in pretty decent form for this time of year. Congrats, Cleave!

Hermes

Great racing Cleave for the first time out. I think the track sessions helped a lot.

AzTallRider

Nice way to start the season, Cleave!

Cleave

Hermes, the track sessions always help, especially this time of year. I hate trainers and rollers and can only get effective workouts or warmups when I'm VERY motivated. This velodrome and Roger Young have really helped my race fitness as the start of the racing season kept moving earlier and earlier in the year. I train at the track less when the daylight hours are longer but I've been averaging 45 sessions each year for the last several years (including one or two race days) -- almost once per week.

I have almost 6,800 miles on my (cracked) track bike and all of those miles are at VSC. That's a lot of laps on a 250m velodrome.

AzTallRider

That's for sure...

VanceMac

Good video of that one:

Racer Ex 

Sorry I missed that one.

shovelhd

Nice shot of the winner skipping pulls.

sarals 

I noticed that, too.

AzTallRider

Wheel-sucking pond-scum SOB...

shovelhd

It looked like he had a teammate in the break.

Cleave

Yes, I spoke with one of them and it was planned. Breakaway guy tries to make it stick. If not other guy wins. Other guy won.

Cleave

Here's the video for the 55+/60+ race:
At about 6:10 you see the solo break and then you see me leading the pack the 2nd time trying to make sure he doesn't get too far away.

At times I was further back than I thought.

Allegheny Jet

That can sometimes be a good race tatic,...

AzTallRider

Spoken like a true sprinter..

revchuck 

Cleave - Just out of curiosity, around what speed was the pack holding? It looked somewhat...stately...but that could well have been due to foreshortening caused by the telephoto lens.

VanceMac

According to Stalker, I mean Strava, his average speeds for the three races were 24.8, 26.0, and 26.7, respectively.