Blastinbob

Oct 3-6 at the Home Depot Center. https://homedepotcenter.com/festival_...festival_id=10

No need to buy advance tickets, there has always been plenty of empty seats. Parking has been free in the past, they usually have other events going on at the same time that they charge for parking, so ask before you pay to park.

spingineer

or you could ride to the event. I didn't see any bike valet parking the last time I was there, but did see quite a few ride there.

Dubbayoo

I'll be there a few days.

Go_Fast

saw some team riders training on the roads in hermosa beach today.

Cleave

Hi Bob,

Thanks for posting this as I hadn't gotten around to it.

I'll be there Friday and Saturday nights working the video camera for the officials. Stop by and say hi in between events.

bitingduck

I'll be there all four days.

spingineer

Take some pics

Happytime

I'll ride over there Saturday.

Cleave

Yeah, but you'll be racing.

bitingduck

Maybe not wednesday (5th rider on a TP team), and definitely not saturday.

spingineer

Did anyone go? Pics?

bbp

Phinney FTW!

bitingduck

Went - no pics.


Wednesday: I was the extra (5th) guy on a team pursuit team. TP is 4 riders, 4 km, but you can register up to 6 and decide at the line who is riding. I was originally a placeholder, because I don't like time trials and we hadn't practiced much together anyway, but then they had a hard time getting a 4th. They finally rounded up 4, but one of them had to work and there was some question about whether he'd make it on time, especially since things ran about an hour ahead of schedule. I got warmed up, and as soon as I had glued my number, the 4th rider showed up (about 30-40 minutes before the ride). Spared.

Thursday: Scratch race for me, IP was the show of the day, with Friedman coming in 3rd (a bit of a surprise) and Taylor Phinney beating Brad Huff in a pretty exciting pursuit. Phinney came out fast, and developed a big lead. Brad was strong and steady though, and took most of it back. Phinney managed to edge him out by about 2.5 seconds. It was his 3rd or so time riding an individual pursuit, where his second time was in the qualifying heats in the morning. Scratch race heat I missed the move that broke things up-- I had just pulled off the front and was looking for a good wheel, when the two I wanted (Lea and Creed) came through together at full speed. I was totally out of position, ended up in a chase group near the back and spent what felt like forever getting back to the main group while 5 guys managed to lap, leaving 3 spots to advance in the sprint. Came from pretty far back in the sprint for 7th at the line, 12th overall, not good enough to advance.

The final was pretty exciting, with nobody managing to gain a lap, but also no crashes like last year. Rahsaan got a warning (for passing on the blue band I think) and was pretty visible in the front during the race. At one point Austin Carroll was off the front with Colby Pearce in what should have been the winning break-- Austin had teammates from Rock and Colby had teammates from Cody, and they should have been able to shut things down enough for the two of them to lap. They got as far as a half lap up. One of the rock guys decided to chase them down though, and close about a third of the gap, leaving the pack to finish it off and bring things together for a sprint finish. A little after that happened I decided Cody O'Reilly was probably the favorite to win-- he hadn't seen the front at all during the race, reads a race really well, and has a wicked sprint. He got second last year, and I figured he had probably improved enough to win. No such luck-- at the line it was Bahati, McCook, and O'Reilly, but Rahsaan was DQ'd for passing underneath again, leaving 1/2 the same as last year: McCook and O'Reilly.

Women's individual pursuit was about as exciting as the men's, with both of the final heats close. Christen King rode about the same time as in the morning in the gold medal round, but it wasn't quite enough and Dotsie Bausch beat her by about a second.

In the women's scratch the favorite was probably Becky Quinn, riding for South Bay along with 2 teammates (Neva Day and Christen King). Christen and Neva had to get their bikes switched over fast from pursuit bars/gears to mass start-- they didn't get much rest between the pursuit final and the scratch final. Nobody managed to get away for a lap, but with about 6 laps to go Christen attacked hard (after looking pretty cooked for most of the beginning) and got a nice gap. She then held a pretty hard tempo, about like her pursuit pace, to take the win. This is after riding two of her best times ever in the pursuit qualifying and final. Becky Quinn won the field sprint for 2nd.

Friday: Points races and sprints. I didn't spend much time watching the sprints... Points race heats were *fast*. I managed to be in the right spot at the right time in mine, and was on Creed's wheel when he made the move that broke things up. I couldn't hold it though, and ended up back in the main pack while a group of 10 took a lap and we chased. I should have just sat in and waited for the lapping group to roll through (only 8 would advance, so a bunch of them were sure to roll), but in my oxygen debt didn't think about that and worked too hard in the chase. About 5 of them took a second lap, and all the points went to the guys who were in the break. I came through with the back of the field sprint and ended up 12th again.

The final was blistering fast-- strung out almost the whole race. At one point Creed dropped onto the front and his teammate Friedman took off for a lap. They were strung out with Creed on the front, so it wasn't going slow, but Mike F. took the lap in four laps. He picked up another 12 points in sprints. Austin Carroll and Bobby Lea were the big sprinters for points-- Austin managed to pull out second place ahead of Bobby, with the old guys Curtis Gunn and Colby Pearce right behind.

Women's points race was even more exciting-- Quinny really needed the win, so teammates Day and King were helping her out a bunch. About midway through the race, Heather Albert and Katharine Lundby rolled off the front and took a lap, making a win for Quinn look unlikely. Heather only took 8 more points, and Katharine 3, so Quinn's sprinting skills plus some nice leadouts from Christen King kept her in the race for the medals. With only 2 sprints remaining, Becky had 19 points to Heather's 28. If (and a big if!) Becky could win both of the last two sprints (5 pts each) without Heather getting *any* more points, she could win. Second to last sprint was from a compact field and Becky took it pretty easily. With a few laps to go though, one of the girls (Theresa Cliff-Ryan?) who was farther down took a flyer and got a nice gap-- maybe 40 or so meters. Heather Albert seemed to lead the chase-- she should have sat on the front and slowed things down to let the girl off the front take the 5 points, but instead she ended up pulling Becky into striking distance. When final bell rang all the sprinter girls took off, closing the gap in the homestretch, leaving Heather Albert in 5th or 6th at the line, and Becky 1st by a couple of inches. One of the tensest points races I've ever watched.

Saturday: Madison. There were apparently a lot of teams registered, but a bunch withdrew, so there were no heats, just a final with 14 teams. Favorites were Huff/Friedman, Pearce/Lea, and Bahati/Carroll. Huff and Friedman are just plain two of the fastest guys out there, but don't have the madison experience of Colby Pearce. Lea is on par with Huff and Friedman for strength, and having a partner with as much experience as Pearce is a big advantage. Bahati and Carroll were on the 2nd and 3rd place madison teams last year, and are now teammates on Rock. Carroll has done a few 3 and 6 day events since last year, and is great at points race sprinting-- he doesn't have the acceleration and high end of Bahati, but can sprint from far out and has fast recovery.

One of the teams slid off the track in the first couple laps while riding relief, taking Friedman with them. Everyone got back up and in, but Mike looked a little scuffed. The race started out *really* fast. I think 3 teams were pulled before the first sprint (20 laps in out of 160). About a third of the way into the race,Team Rubicon got off the front and looked like a sure thing for taking a lap-- they had the pack in their sights on the same straightaway, but couldn't hold it when the bell rang and the pack sped up. They eventually got reabsorbed, and were probably pretty spent at that point. Bobby Lea and Colby managed to collect a small lead on points, but at the end the Rock team was in a spot similar Quinn in the women's points race-- they had 16 points to Lea/Pearce's 19, so they had to win the sprint with Lea/Pearce getting no better than 3rd, and preferably 4th. With 9 laps to go, Rahsaan threw Austin in, and then skipped the exchange that would have happened at 6 to go. He came back in with about 3 to go, but didn't have enough gas to take the sprint, so they ended up second overall behind Lea/Pearce, and with Huff and Friedman right behind them.

thomson

Nice recap Biting. Quite a field out there, you keep some good company (understatement).

bitingduck

I watch some good company ride away...