The road race was as hard as advertised. The wind wasn't blowing too hard at the start, but picked up to be a factor for the third lap. I was hoping I wouldn't get dropped on the climb the first go around, and I didn't, partly due to a lull in the pace between the two major sections of the climb. The decent and rollers on lap 1 were no fun at all due to a lot of yo-yoing and generally riding the brakes downhill.
Felt fairly fresh heading into the climb on lap 2, was riding mid-pack, and just barely managed to maintain contact on the steep section of Carrol as the pace surged. But after the feedzone, the pace stayed high and I was having to close gaps as riders dropped, so I didn't have anything left for the surge on N. Flynn, after the overpass. I dropped, recovered a bit, and grabbed on the next wheel I could hold.
Then the fun started. By the end of the steep decent, we had a chase group of 5. I was yelling at people to get organized and it worked pretty well. At some of the corners, we could see the pack, and at the turn onto Greenville, we were back around 30 seconds. It was a hard chase up Greenville with the wind and we lost a couple guys. I dropped a little ways past the start, dialing it back a bit to recover a bit before the climb, then watched the last two guys make the junction with the pack around the base of the climb. There the fun stopped.
The last lap was just survival. Another chase group caught me on the false flat heading up Carrol and exploded on the climb. I kept up with the stragglers, and got some much needed water from Ren and Ashley in the feedzone (thanks!). Rode with a guy in a Stage 5 cycling jersey the rest of the way (he's from Boston and said he knows of Kate Riedell from East Coast races). We were generally working together, though I sat in for much of the way up Greenville, until he slowed up to grab water offered by a course marshall (against the rules, right?). Was tired and trying to avoid cramping. On the way up Carrol, he picked up the pace up the steep section and I let him go, but kicked it up a notch on the flatter section and passed him to finish strong.
Result: 43 of 91 starters.
Lesson from day 1: Need more hill training and long hard tempo rides before Pescadero. Downside of taking a bottle of Cytomax (and 1 water) on a hot day is that pure water goes down easier. (And there's always enough of a lull somewhere to rip open a gel or two.)
Crit:
I was really looking forward to this race, as the first flat crit of my season. (In my collegiate days years ago, my most consistent results were in flat crits.) My objectives were to contest some primes and help Seth in the finale.
The primes were fun. I found a couple places where I could use some energy to move up a lot, and generally watched for wheels that were moving forward. I was in the mix for 3 of the 5 primes. The best of these was the last prime, where I was 3rd wheel heading into the last corner, and saw an attack coming on the right. Grabbed the wheel past the corner and pulled through when he swung off. It seemed too far to go at 300m or so (especially for a prime), and I didn't immediately see the attack on the far left. It didn't look like I could catch it, so I just kept the pace up and got 2nd.
I hadn't had to work too hard for the prime and easily got back in the group, but lost position over the next few laps, particularly when the swarming started to get out of hand with 3 to go. I was probably 30 or 40 back at the bell.
Then Jeff's teamwork came to the rescue. He took a hard pull at the front with Seth on his wheel. On the backstretch, it parted the field, with a line on either side of the road. I sailed right up the middle and got on Seth's wheel, intending to get past him in the chicane and take over for Jeff. The situation looked great, since Jeff was almost right at the front of the peleton and had done the work to catch the last-lap break.
Or rather, I should have been right behind Seth's wheel. He was a bit to Jeff's left, so I came in to the right, more in line with Jeff. I was being too aggressive and yet didn't carve into the corner as hard as they did, so my left brake lever hit Seth's thigh pretty good at the entrance to the corner (sorry Seth!). I bobbled a bit, then managed to save it and just coasted through the corner until I was sure it was safe and my nerves steadied.
Result: Happy with 2nd in the prime and relieved that I didn't cause a huge pileup. Glad Seth placed well.
Lesson from day 2: It doesn't waste any energy to be up near the front, single-file and 3-8 back, even if it's more exposed to the wind than sitting mid-pack 20 back. It was smoother and felt like the safest place in the race, when the pace was decent, plus it was sometimes possible to spot the attacks in the surge and grab a new wheel at the front of the swarm. Only caveat is that sometimes you have to fight pretty hard for a wheel.
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