Nor Cal Racing this weekend
It was pretty warm here in Nor-Cal this weekend with temps in the mid to high 80's for the 2 races I did this weekend.
First was the Cat's Hill Crit on Saturday, my first race in the 35+ 1/2/3.
I had a great w/u but was still unprepared for how fast this group would start. I was hanging on for dear life in dead last for the first 2 laps, which must have been close to 30 MPH (we're not in the 4/5's anymore!). I'm a good climber, but it didn't do me any good since the hill on this course is just 1 block at a 23% grade, so the power sprinters would just blow by me each time up the hill. We settled down a bit and I was able to work my way up through the field (on the flat parts), and eventually got to the front after 14 of 20 laps, and stayed near the front until the bell lap. I was actually leading with a lap to go , which means absolutely nothing since I can't sprint. I got passed by 24 guys in the final lap to finish 25th out of 70+ starters. The lap is claimed to be 1 mile, so if that's correct we did 20 miles in 43 minutes. Tough race.
On to Sunday. A 3.7 lap 71 mile RR on rolling terrain with 2 good sized climbs on each lap, the second one (to the finish) being about 1 mile with a 9% grade. We were pretty relaxed for about 25 miles before guys started attacking. With some help from my teammates, I managed to get into a break with 10 other guys. We were working fairly well together, but not well enough to avoid being caught 20 miles later by another group of about 10 riders. After that there was attack, after attack, after attack by one strong team, which served it's purpose of tiring most of us in the break. As I mentioned earlier, it was a hot day. I started with 2 bottles, and got a bottle of H2O at the neutral feed on the 2nd lap. I was dry and ready for another bottle on the 3rd lap, but they were out. Nooo! I had about 2 swigs left to last me the final 19 miles.
By the top of the hill with 1 lap to go, we were down to about 15 or so. There seemed to be less cooperation on the final lap, and a lot of solo attacks. With about 5 miles to go, 2 guys went off the front and the rest of us were too drained to chase (maybe I shouldn't have done that crit yesterday). I tried to pull away on the first hill, but our group of 12 or so stayed together, so it would be this group sprinting up the final hill for 3rd. On the final climb, 3 of us separated ourselves from the pack. I held on as long as I could, but ran out of gas in the final 200 to finish 5th.
I was very pleased with my results overall, and very glad to have cold beer by my side right now.
Congratulations to Vinokurtoff who raced 3 times this weekend with a win and a 5th in 2 crits on Saturday! I look forward to reading your race reports.
Anyone else race this weekend?