Category 4 - scheduled for 40 minutes (actually 37). 24.1mph average.
E4 Mice in attendance: Jeff, Seth, Jake, and I.
Rain aside, the Golden State crit a few weeks back convinced me that technical criterium courses are a good thing so long as you stay at the front. So I've been looking forward to the Napa and Burlingame courses.
Still, it was a surprise to see how short the course was, a little under a half a mile (~700m). At speed, this made for one-minute laps and a lot of that time was spent turning, with four 90s plus a "crazy P turn" (a 90 immediately followed by a 130 hairpin, around a traffic island and through a yield/merging lane). It also made for an exciting race to watch. This is one of the few races Stacey has come along for, and she enjoyed the combination of having a good local cafe on the corner and the easy spectating.
Starting first had the advantage of letting us warm up on the course. Race promoters were still patching pot holes and until a few minutes before the race, and we started a bit late. My plan was to line up early so I'd start the race at the front, so I hung out near the start. Everyone wanted good position, and as soon as two guys lined up, the pack formed up pretty quick. Got my spot and worked to keep it when we had to do a surprise "look see" neutral lap, which seemed intended to cover up the race delay as much as anything. Then more sitting. The whistle came out of nowhere 5 minutes later.
The pace was fast from the start and we were all strung out in single file for most of the race. At the front there were a few times when it bunched up, mostly when it wasn't clear who was going to set the pace. And the 90-degree corners in the first half of the course were plenty wide enough to go through two-across. Still, the group at the front was pretty unchanged throughout the race... guys at the front were generally familiar faces and it was a handful animating the race. Jeff was up right at the front at the start, 5th wheel or so. After I moved up right to the front after a few laps, I lost sight of him. Until I saw Seth on the last lap, that was the last I saw of the other RMC guys, and there wasn't much occasion to look around.
My plan of staying at the front worked pretty well. No matter where you were, the P-turn required slowing down to 15mph or less, then jumping out of the turn with a moderate-to-hard sprint. That's where gaps were opening up, making the race harder the further back you were. When I lost position, I looked for easy ways to get it back. The wide 90s were one place to get a place or two per lap (pedaling through the outside) and when I needed to move up big, I found I could sometimes use my jump out of the P-turn to carry enough speed to move up on the sides of the straightaway. When guys in front of me were slowing down, I either moved up or went off the front.
It seemed like I was at or off the front a handful of times, but only three moves were meaningful. The first was my attempt to bridge up to a 4-man breakaway that formed in the middle of the race and got close to 10-15 seconds on the field. I made it 90% across in 1.5 laps before hitting the redline and easing up. Definitely burned a match or two there, and for nothing since the group got caught within 5 more laps. Got back in the pack near the front and spent some time actively trying to recover.
Then I went for the second prime, almost without intending to. I was sitting around 5th wheel when the bell rang and Tim Fehon (Aussie in St. George kit) pushed the pace at the front. Tim was slowing up a bit, so I attacked just before the 4th 90, taking the outside line. Got a good gap by the P turn and was clear for the prime win. Prize: A bottle of Napa wine.
A couple laps later, with around 2 to go a guy made a hard attack (red jersey, I think, but didn't see team). A guy in blue followed and I worked hard to get on his wheel. I was thinking that any big move this late in the race could be dangerous and I didn't want to let them go. I didn't quite make the bridge, and I don't think the second guy did either--he got caught a half lap later. But while I found my way back into the pack, I didn't see if the first guy got caught. We didn't realize until after the race and a few of us contested the results that he'd gotten a serious gap and stayed away.
I saw Seth for the first time when he moved up in our two-wide bunch at the bell. I'd lost some position and snap in the last move, but was lying 8 or 10 back. Tim was at the front of the pack and slid out while led us through the P-turn, which surprised me given how solid he is in the corners. Part of it might have been the extra speed and jitters for the last lap. We'd seen several crashes in that corner in the last 10 laps, but this one really caused some confusion as we ended up way overgeared coming out. It felt as a slug fest as we were trying to get on top of our gears, then shifting up for the final 50m dash. It looks like the places mostly stayed the same from the corner to the finish.
Results: Finished 10th. Seth got 5th. Jake was mid-20s. Jeff said he was pulled with 8 to go after slipping to the back and getting gapped.
Yay, my first top 10 and first prime win of 2008! Happy to finally do something worth noting this year. But I was kicking myself afterwards about having been quite so aggressive. Confident in my form after peaking for Pescadero, I came in hoping for a top placing and was motivated to win. I ended up using a bunch of energy in moments when I felt those chances threatened.
The E4 race was quite the crash fest, with most crashes in the P turn and all just one-man-down. Over the course of the race, I probably had to go around 5 guys on the ground. The most concerning crash was the highest speed... not in the P turn but in the 4th 90. Sometime in the first half, I was second wheel with a little gap on the pack and the guy in front hit his pedal hard and went down. I avoided it on the outside.
Post-race lunch: We had the best Mexican since our food trip to Mexico last August. The spot: Antojitos La Mixteca on Jefferson in Napa, which I picked on recommendation from Chowhound. The tacos were awesome (we tried: suadero, which was beef prepared like carnitas; pollo, prepared in a tinga; and pastor), served piping hot on fresh tortillas with a great tomatillo salsa. The chips were fresh, with a great hot red salsa. And the most interesting was the plate I ordered: chileajo de puerco, pork in a red chile sauce, a deep burgundy red and thick and complex like a mole. It was one of a number of Oaxacan specialties on the menu.
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