mille.ed

I will further add to the race report for this awesome race in the Cat 4.

I was feeling great that morning so I decided to force a selection on the first climb. I pulled hard and was up front for most of the big climb. (I was in the shoair kit on the black addict).

On the flat section on the way back to the start/finish before lap 2 it started getting really windy, so I attacked and started a break with a guy from Lagrange that looked really strong. We traded pulls and got a nice gap going. We got back to the main climb together and before we got to the top my legs cramped and locked up. I tried to massage the knots out while the chasing peloton caught up to me, but that was the end of my race as I had run out of water. I was bummed because the engine was still feeling great. After a few miles of slowly pedaling and trying to force the knots out, a Lagrange rider took pity on me and gave me his spare bottle. If you are reading this #850 send me a PM and I'll send you a six pack of your choice.

What a great course! Will definitely be there again next year.

Forza

Erghh...re-typing. BF keeps having issues for me this morning.

I was going to wait and post a video and report at once, but heh..

Yeah, I was totally chomping at the bit for this one Hida. You were right the course and the weather did suit me. I didn't mind the weather until the final moments of the race when we were shut down for 40 minutes due to the crash in your race at the 200m mark.

I'll preface the report by saying that I had a terrible two nights of sleep due to our 6 month old being sick and requiring attention. Friday, I had 2 1/2 hours of sleep and Saturday I had 2 hours and 15 minutes of sleep, I finally fell asleep after taking a barrage of Bendryl, Advil PM, and Unisom. But, ultimately woke up really groggy and missed my normal breakfast and "routine" in order to make it out the door in time.

I got to Brady about an hour before the gun...Looked for you (more specifically the RCR Truck/Tent but didn't see it). I was thown by a Guardian truck that looked very similar to the RCR truck. I had just enough time to change and warmup for twenty minutes...given my lack of sleep, I was really trying to pull it together. Even though I pre-registered, I signed the parent/guardian portion of the form, etc...just not with it.

After warmup, I made it just in time to the staging (probably why you didn't see me, you had already started), abour 45 seconds before the gun.

We started out strong and like you guys were hauling, nothing too bad though. After the poor lineup, I took my time moving up to the front. Even though my this point the adreneline had started kicking in, I was trying to preserve what energy I had left. By the middle of the first lap, I moved up through the field from dead last to third wheel and was feeling okay. This was the first race that I have participated in with a combined C5 field, and really did feel that the other group "odds" have a much sketchier cast of riders. First time where I started calling people on some bonehead manuvers in the peloton. Just dumb stuff, like fidgeting with water bottles, while swerving into and blocking a paceline with riders dropping back, etc...

At the end of the first lap 3 of the stronger riders broke away, and we decided given the weather and length, that they would blow up and we would swallow them back in, always keeping them in sight. What little hills there were, were pretty easy, I don't think I ever went bigger than my 21 (11/25) in the rear and stayed seated throughout.

By the middle of the second lap, we were still watching the three and we decided we would start roping them back in. Two Hagens riders, a BikeSale guy and myself, started trading pulls to ratchet up the pace. In the process, we started pulling everybody else along with us and nobody else from the field seemed to want to man up and trade pulls. So we backed off a little, and waited to catch the breakaway a little closer to the finish.

Third lap in, we were nuetralized three times I believe, with the last being a complete shutdown due to the crash at the 200m mark, which we were told was in the C4s. Hida, any info on this? During the 3rd lap a front came through and the winds and rain picked back up and the temps dropped. While we were stopped we we just trying to keep warm...we were all shivering, and soaking wet, etc...We were only 3 miles from the finish and probably only a 1/2 mile from the 200m mark based on the course layout. We could hear the volunteer fire dept alarm, the ambulance sirens, etc...pretty sobering.

It was during this time that my lack of sleep started to catch up to me and my adreneline started coming down rather quickly. Once we got going again, I was stiff as all hell, and just exhausted. It was only 6 minutes to go...but, a hellish six minutes. I ended up snagging 10th..and then spent 45 minutes trying to stop shivering and warm up. The Chili and Cornbread, didn't help much...

I'll post a video in this thread later tonight to share the great weather perspective!!

Jancouver

Humboldt huh? You definitely saw me since you were quit a bit in my video. Posted pic in the race photos thread. BTW not sure if you are planning on doing Dana Point but the field limit there is 150 so get ready

crapweasel

That's what I was afraid of, actually. I'm sort of surprised there were time gaps given how short the end of the race ended up being for you guys. Do they let anyone who got dropped back into the pack at that point?

Forza

I don't know for sure. I do know that we had two more join us after we had been stopped for quite some time (like after 20 minutes)...maybe it's because they don't have the resources to neutralize individuals.

spinwax

This is awesome and what cycling is all about!

Is sounds like cramping was the theme and par for the course this year.

Hida Yanra

yeah - that crash was bad.
... the details aren't especially flattering to the riders involved, so I'll leave it at, "any combination of characteristics including twitchy, young, old, fast, unstable, & adrenaline can result in people sitting down at high speed."

I rolled by about a minute after it had happened, and the junior was looking to be in shock, they already had him blanket-wrapped, etc. Everyone else looked to be fine. 3-4 guys had also fallen, but they were all up and moving to the parking lot under their own power with no obvious arm/collar bone/leg/face/other injuries.

did you guys get neutralized by the graveyard, right before the turn-of-sketchiness? it was exposed and nasty up there - the weather was indeed bad for that race, standing around in it must have been horrible... I'm sorry to hear that. But, the road was full of cars, and the kid, and his mother, and everyone else.

We were parked next to your team-mate (the guy w/ a Jamis and F/R cameras?) ... I asked about you, but he said he hadn't seen you and wasn't sure if you were going to make it or not.
Try again at Walla-Walla?

@CW - the camera is a funny thing, and it isn't always consistent, but I can tell you that the pack did feel about 50% smaller by the 3rd lap, there just weren't many guys left. Our 3rd lap was pretty tame until I went up and started blowing out the legs part way through, we had gotten down to such a small group at that point that no one really wanted to work, or had legs left to work.

Crash716

Great Race yesterday...was very active at the front, blocking and chasing..finally after about 25m we got a guy into the break...then..

..our teammate got dropped from the break, I chased to get us back into it and in the process got blown completely...however, it did come back together, so, when the fitness gets back i'll be all good. I figured better to chase the break down (mostly) and get dropped than sit in and have nothing happen at all.

Forza

We heard it was bad via the official that stopped us. You never like hearing the words that they were trying to "stabilize him" and that we would get moving once we could. Even though we were shivering and miserable, we were thinking of him and knew it could be worse for us.

Yep, we were stopped right near the cemetary (actually just before it). I chatted with my teammate last night and he crashed out as well in his race. Apparently someone went down in front of him and hea was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is in good spirits though.

No Walla Walla for me unfortunately. Next race is Vance, followed by Ravensdale, then Mutual of Enumclaw...I might throw some PR or SP series races in there too.

carpediemracing 

Had fun with the absentee podium racers:
https://bethelspringseries.com/2011-podium-pictures

Sample "representation" podium:


In case you don't recognize the rider on the right, it's Bobby Sweeting (Kenda Pro Cycling/5 Hour Energy). He was at Battenkill at the same time as this podium shot.

Crash716

The Grim Reaper wears Mavics? hmmm...I would have thought him to be a Sidi kind of guy.

agoodale

I was near the back recovering when I saw that B dropped out of the break and you were drilling it. Nice job. The team is coming together nicely. The next few months should be a blast.

My CycleVets Cat 3 Report...

Worked hard. Tried to make a few things happen (they didn't). F'd up on last lap positioning. 15th. meh.

TMonk

Way to go man sounds like you had a good race.

I did see you at the near the front for the majority of the race. I should have been there with you. My head wasn't in the game.

Look forward to racing with you again; you guys are safe smart racers. You doing San Luis Rey 4/30?

TMonk

I might. I'm doing San Luis Rey the day before and because I haven't been doing the volume I have in the past it will probably wipe me out pretty hard. I'll make the call based on my feeling the night before/morning of.

hurley.girl

I believe a friend of mine was caught in the same crash. There's a spectacular pic of it somewhere. My friend is very sore but okay, I hope.

save10

4/9/11
Turlock Lake Road Race
35 +4
Result: 2nd

Lone gunman in a race with several teams with 6 or more riders. I patrolled the front for the first 40 or so miles as my own domestique either shutting down attacks or trying to get in breakaways with the right mix. Nothing really organized. With 10 miles to go, the entire race was shut down on the road because a racer in one of the women's races had a bad crash that required a Life-Flight evacuation. I don't know any of the details, but hope she's okay. So now a 10 mile shoot out through a long series of rollers to an uphill sprint. In the final km I grab the wheel of a guy I knew to be a good sprinter. A hole opens up and he jumps through and I hold on. I almost come all the way around him, but he gets me by a wheel.

I get 2nd, break 1000W for the first time (previous high 930), and most importantly 6 precious upgrade points.

4/10/11
Pinebluff Criterium
35+ 4
result: 9th

Again a lone gunman with several teams including one with maybe 8 or 9 riders that was sending multiple riders off the front. Obligated to chase down multiple moves. Took a 3 lap solo flyer on prime hunting trip which netted a gift certificate. Recovered in time to make a run at a high finish. Was not paying attention to lap cards when bell lap was called (sitting in the back enjoying a GU gel). Scrambled through the field to get 9th. Perhaps a higher finish possible if the air traffic controller not asleep at the tower.

In Summary:
-Patrolled the front of two races and still had enough to be a factor at the end
-Earned my NCNCA Cat3 upgrade on points (12 months as a cat 4, most points have been earned in last 6 months including two road race wins)
-Lap Cards....read them.

Ohmannuel

Good job save10 and congrats on the upgrade

danahs

really fun race. I wish more people would work together... but I guess thats the nature of cat 4. I feel that my match book is getting larger (and smarter) with every race. I was able to go pretty hard with like 7miles to go but was also getting a bit crampy in the final couple of miles.. and I am not strong enough to pull for 8miles and still expect a good result.

kleinboogie

Cool pic. He looks like the black hoodie guy in the backing up song.

echappist

+1

Grumpy McTrumpy

https://grumpyeatstheworld.blogspot.c...-i-waited.html

mollusk

Next time you see him tell Bobby that a former teacher says "Hey".

ridethecliche

Awesome report grumps.

I see a bunch of my old teammates in those pics. Heh.

He looks like he should be making gang signs for effect.

Out-The-Back

Save10, thanks for the write up, nice job and congrats on the upgrade!

Grumps, excellent write up, felt like I was there. Thanks and nice job....sounds like you'll be doing it again next year?

GirlAnachronism

https://www.saratogian.com/articles/2...3857551200.txt

Everyone's just fine. There were three women involved and I've been talking to the two who went to the hospital--both are bruised and sore but with nothing broken or permanently damaged, and both cleared to get back on the bike.

PS Nice job at Cherry Blossom.