Hellyer WNR #1 – P/1/2/3 Teammates – NoneGarmin. Strava. “I’ve ridden track leagues in 4 different countries and the 1-2-3 races last night where right up there speed wise with the best I’ve seen.” —Lee Povey Lee wasn’t kidding. This was the biggest turnout I’ve ever seen for a Wednesday night, and the fastest racing at Hellyer since HVC last year. And it was only the first Wednesday night race of the season! Anyways…let’s get into it. Scratch - The scratch was fast off the whistle. There was an emphasis on being up to “race speed” during the neutral lap which was not taken lightly (30+?!). I had my eyes on Judd and Dave McCook (Team CLIF Bar Cycling) as the most experienced riders in the pack of 25+ (unheard of for Hellyer…we’re usually lucky to get 10 of us weekly). McCook was doing everything he could to split up the pack and keep everyone on their toes while his junior kept position for the finish. With 3 to go I was on Judd’s wheel with Dave just uptrack from me. If either of them attacked, I was golden for the sprint. It didn’t happen. Dan Smith (Morgan Stanley/Specialized) attacked over top with a string of skinnies behind him. Once they lit it up I had no chance of jumping and catching on behind the Judd and McCook wall. I hammered it in and finished safely in the pack. Tempo - This is probably my least favorite race, but at least it was only 10 laps. Usually a shorter tempo equates to more pain in the A’s field because all the skinnies want to go off the front to prevent the “sprinters” from taking their points at the line. Fergus Tanaka (Team Chica Sexy) went first and I went with him, taking 1 point for the first lap around. I looked behind me and didn’t have much chase so I kept it going. McCook and another bridged up to me and we battled it out for the next two or three sprints. After that, I was pretty much useless and sat in the pack for the rest of the race. I need to figure this one out…I never do well. At least I scored 1 point, which was my only goal in such a competative field. Miss N Out - This is my race. I love to see how different tactics play out and learn how to respond in the moment to shifts in the field. Off the whistle I attacked to the front and sat on the red, letting another rider pace it in the lane while I blocked anyone coming under or over me. I like doing this in the beginning because you can control the pace, and let a substantial amount of the pack get knocked off the back. The field was too strong for me to sit on the front the whole time and they started coming over top in waves. I found myself in the back playing the devil about halfway through the race. I don’t have a problem with that, but I know I need to be careful so that I can still sprint at the end if I make the cut. With about 5 to go one of the juniors did not exit the track after being eliminated, boxed me in, and we were both out the next time around. Great! The race ended with a good sprint between McCook, Matthew Valencia (Team Specialized Racing Juniors, 2012 Junior National Champion), and Raul Arias (SJBC). McCook fended off Valencia and let Arias take it (McCook coaches him). Points - By the time the points comes along I am usually in survival mode. My only plan was to stay in the group and not get dropped since I had no chance of placing well in the overall. I did that for the first two sprints, but got a little frisky on the third. I saw Tanaka, Tim Tsuruda (Team Chica Sexy), Marc Marino (Team Chica Sexy), and Dave Mesa (Team Chica Sexy) all attack with 2 to go before the sprint, so I hopped on. I was assuming one of them would jump, but nobody went off their train so I came around and took the sprint. I thought Tsuruda would be right on me so I was digging pretty hard and opened up a quarter lap gap by myself. Oops. There was no way I could hold that for 15 more laps so I sat up and hopped back in with the group when they came around. We finished the rest off safe and FAST. Really fast. 25 laps in 12 minutes fast. All around this was an amazing season opener with some tough competition. I hope it stays this way throughout the year. Thanks to Larry Nolan for promoting and everyone at Hellyer that has put in the work to kick off the 2013 season proper! -Z
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Hellyer WNR #1 – P/1/2/3
Teammates – None
Garmin. Strava.

“I’ve ridden track leagues in 4 different countries and the 1-2-3 races last night where right up there speed wise with the best I’ve seen.” —Lee Povey

Lee wasn’t kidding. This was the biggest turnout I’ve ever seen for a Wednesday night, and the fastest racing at Hellyer since HVC last year. And it was only the first Wednesday night race of the season! Anyways…let’s get into it.

Scratch - The scratch was fast off the whistle. There was an emphasis on being up to “race speed” during the neutral lap which was not taken lightly (30+?!). I had my eyes on Judd and Dave McCook (Team CLIF Bar Cycling) as the most experienced riders in the pack of 25+ (unheard of for Hellyer…we’re usually lucky to get 10 of us weekly). McCook was doing everything he could to split up the pack and keep everyone on their toes while his junior kept position for the finish. With 3 to go I was on Judd’s wheel with Dave just uptrack from me. If either of them attacked, I was golden for the sprint. It didn’t happen. Dan Smith (Morgan Stanley/Specialized) attacked over top with a string of skinnies behind him. Once they lit it up I had no chance of jumping and catching on behind the Judd and McCook wall. I hammered it in and finished safely in the pack.

Tempo - This is probably my least favorite race, but at least it was only 10 laps. Usually a shorter tempo equates to more pain in the A’s field because all the skinnies want to go off the front to prevent the “sprinters” from taking their points at the line. Fergus Tanaka (Team Chica Sexy) went first and I went with him, taking 1 point for the first lap around. I looked behind me and didn’t have much chase so I kept it going. McCook and another bridged up to me and we battled it out for the next two or three sprints. After that, I was pretty much useless and sat in the pack for the rest of the race. I need to figure this one out…I never do well. At least I scored 1 point, which was my only goal in such a competative field.

Miss N Out - This is my race. I love to see how different tactics play out and learn how to respond in the moment to shifts in the field. Off the whistle I attacked to the front and sat on the red, letting another rider pace it in the lane while I blocked anyone coming under or over me. I like doing this in the beginning because you can control the pace, and let a substantial amount of the pack get knocked off the back. The field was too strong for me to sit on the front the whole time and they started coming over top in waves. I found myself in the back playing the devil about halfway through the race. I don’t have a problem with that, but I know I need to be careful so that I can still sprint at the end if I make the cut. With about 5 to go one of the juniors did not exit the track after being eliminated, boxed me in, and we were both out the next time around. Great! The race ended with a good sprint between McCook, Matthew Valencia (Team Specialized Racing Juniors, 2012 Junior National Champion), and Raul Arias (SJBC). McCook fended off Valencia and let Arias take it (McCook coaches him).

Points - By the time the points comes along I am usually in survival mode. My only plan was to stay in the group and not get dropped since I had no chance of placing well in the overall. I did that for the first two sprints, but got a little frisky on the third. I saw Tanaka, Tim Tsuruda (Team Chica Sexy), Marc Marino (Team Chica Sexy), and Dave Mesa (Team Chica Sexy) all attack with 2 to go before the sprint, so I hopped on. I was assuming one of them would jump, but nobody went off their train so I came around and took the sprint. I thought Tsuruda would be right on me so I was digging pretty hard and opened up a quarter lap gap by myself. Oops. There was no way I could hold that for 15 more laps so I sat up and hopped back in with the group when they came around. We finished the rest off safe and FAST. Really fast. 25 laps in 12 minutes fast.

All around this was an amazing season opener with some tough competition. I hope it stays this way throughout the year. Thanks to Larry Nolan for promoting and everyone at Hellyer that has put in the work to kick off the 2013 season proper!

-Z

thejaguarshark: Velo Allegro Criterium – Elite 3 Teammates – None.Garmin. Strava. Coach told me, “SoCal crits are always a roll of the dice.” So true. I spent the morning getting up too early, driving, watching the 5s (crash themselves, but Al did well), trying to nap, watching the 125 deep (!) 4 field, trying to nap some more, thinking about suiting up, oh wait I still have 2 hours before I even need to think about that, more napping. By the time I suited up and got on the trainer the sun was out and it was heating up. I’d been hydrating all morning and finished another bottle during my warm up. Ready to rip. I lined up at the front. I seem to have a knack for that no matter what time I roll over to the staging. Besides Tim McGee (Predator Carbon Repair), I didn’t see any familiar faces. The NCNCA has a rep for just being hard, one of the hardest districts in the nation. The SCNCA has a rep for some crit killers…and these guys are not your average competitive roadies. They look like football players on bikes. There were a few big ones out there so I noted that and led it out off the whistle. I like riding the front at the beginning of crits so I can take good lines and keep the pace in check…hopefully rubbing off on the 60+ other riders behind me to ride smooth for the rest of the race. As the pack sorted itself out I started to let some wheels go and sit in the top 10-20. The Hughes park course is five lanes wide with one 90* right hander into the final stretch. I think the sprint is just about 200m, maybe a little further depending on where you really hit it. I rode the rest of the race in the pack doing absolutely no work. I think 30+ minutes of my file have my power at 0w! When we got lap cards with five to go, it was on. I moved myself up. Marked Tim, the Bahati team, the OTR team, and one Master’s rider who looked like a strong TT guy (vintage Campy aero helmet cover!) and was racing really well all day. With three to go a slew of Bahati crushers hit the front so I dug deep to snag that train. I was 3rd or 4th wheel behind them for a lap as they started to ramp it up. It felt like they went too early and my feeling was right. They started to gas out as other trains attacked on the outside and up the gutters at various points in the lap. I kept hopping train to train, staying top five wheels overall, but never in the wind. A junior attacked the front with two to go and the Campy OG hoped on his wheel. If these guys kept it up into one to go, this was my ticket. I was now third wheel coming into one to go feeling fresh. Almost there!!! We made it all the way to turn (more like sweeper) three with the pack strung out and trying to chase behind us. I was hoping the Campy OG would take off early so I could use him as a leadout and avoid the 60 person mess behind me. He didn’t go for it! Sometime after the final sweeper and into turn four there were two trains attacking: one outside to the left of me and one inside (in the gutter…) to my right. The leader of the outside line decided he would forget how to ride his bike going into the sprint, cut the outside line too sharp, and leaned his full weight into me. My left elbow was now in the middle of his chest going full out through a turn and into the final sprint. Somehow I didn’t crash (thank you track racing), but by the time it was sorted out I was in no place to contest. I jammed a 1225w seated effort out of pure annoyance and came in 29th place. Tim won it, so that was a big plus! I gave that rider an earful to say the least, not about me, but about safety. If he had put me down in that corner who knows how many of the 60 racers behind us would have been crashed out and potentially hurt. A bike race just isn’t worth that. Coach also told me, “No win, but at least you still got your skin!” So true. -Z
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thejaguarshark:

image
Velo Allegro Criterium – Elite 3
Teammates – None.
Garmin. Strava.

Coach told me, “SoCal crits are always a roll of the dice.” So true.

I spent the morning getting up too early, driving, watching the 5s (crash themselves, but Al did well), trying to nap, watching the 125 deep (!) 4 field, trying to nap some more, thinking about suiting up, oh wait I still have 2 hours before I even need to think about that, more napping. By the time I suited up and got on the trainer the sun was out and it was heating up. I’d been hydrating all morning and finished another bottle during my warm up. Ready to rip.

I lined up at the front. I seem to have a knack for that no matter what time I roll over to the staging. Besides Tim McGee (Predator Carbon Repair), I didn’t see any familiar faces. The NCNCA has a rep for just being hard, one of the hardest districts in the nation. The SCNCA has a rep for some crit killers…and these guys are not your average competitive roadies. They look like football players on bikes. There were a few big ones out there so I noted that and led it out off the whistle. I like riding the front at the beginning of crits so I can take good lines and keep the pace in check…hopefully rubbing off on the 60+ other riders behind me to ride smooth for the rest of the race. As the pack sorted itself out I started to let some wheels go and sit in the top 10-20. The Hughes park course is five lanes wide with one 90* right hander into the final stretch. I think the sprint is just about 200m, maybe a little further depending on where you really hit it. I rode the rest of the race in the pack doing absolutely no work. I think 30+ minutes of my file have my power at 0w!

When we got lap cards with five to go, it was on. I moved myself up. Marked Tim, the Bahati team, the OTR team, and one Master’s rider who looked like a strong TT guy (vintage Campy aero helmet cover!) and was racing really well all day. With three to go a slew of Bahati crushers hit the front so I dug deep to snag that train. I was 3rd or 4th wheel behind them for a lap as they started to ramp it up. It felt like they went too early and my feeling was right. They started to gas out as other trains attacked on the outside and up the gutters at various points in the lap. I kept hopping train to train, staying top five wheels overall, but never in the wind. A junior attacked the front with two to go and the Campy OG hoped on his wheel. If these guys kept it up into one to go, this was my ticket. I was now third wheel coming into one to go feeling fresh. Almost there!!!

We made it all the way to turn (more like sweeper) three with the pack strung out and trying to chase behind us. I was hoping the Campy OG would take off early so I could use him as a leadout and avoid the 60 person mess behind me. He didn’t go for it! Sometime after the final sweeper and into turn four there were two trains attacking: one outside to the left of me and one inside (in the gutter…) to my right. The leader of the outside line decided he would forget how to ride his bike going into the sprint, cut the outside line too sharp, and leaned his full weight into me. My left elbow was now in the middle of his chest going full out through a turn and into the final sprint. Somehow I didn’t crash (thank you track racing), but by the time it was sorted out I was in no place to contest. I jammed a 1225w seated effort out of pure annoyance and came in 29th place. Tim won it, so that was a big plus!

I gave that rider an earful to say the least, not about me, but about safety. If he had put me down in that corner who knows how many of the 60 racers behind us would have been crashed out and potentially hurt. A bike race just isn’t worth that. Coach also told me, “No win, but at least you still got your skin!” So true.

-Z

Race Report: Leesville Gap Road Race

leesville road

if i recall correctly, it was at about mile 10 when the 60 of us rolled onto one of the worst pieces of road i’ve ever ridden. craters, gravel sections, over-filled potholes, huge rocks - you name it and we did our best to navigate it. somewhere between dodging flatted riders and trying to find a clear path i was one of at least 20 riders to lose a water bottle. considering we had just settled into the notoriously rough 60+ mile course and were quickly approaching a 1500’ climb in 80˚ heat, this worried me. looking ahead i could see Naveen at the front in good position (as usual) and used him as a target to move forward. i eventually found his wheel and things seemed to smooth out. at some point i mention to him that i lost a bottle and he insists that i take one of his - what a gentleman! it was mile 17ish when the road kicked up and i found myself climbing with a lead group of 10 to 15 riders. we kept a solid pace and i found it best to ditch the wheel sucking and just look for a clean line up the jagged hillside - keeping pace with the riders around me. a davis rider went off the front and a few people reacted, but i kept myself under wraps knowing that we had a lot of road left to cover.

the race was shattered and there were only a handful of us grinding along as we came over the top of the climb, a few seconds behind the lone davis rider. we dropped into the descent which is just as horribly maintained as the the approach, but, the smaller group managed to keep the speeds up and everyone kept it cool. the road flattened out a bit and there were a few riders who caught on. the davis rider seems to have flatted out so we were now at about 10 in the group. we’d rotate through the smoother sections until we hit a gravel patch where everyone would fishtail and do their best to keep upright. the rider in front of me flats and while i’m in the process of working up to the wheel ahead another guy decides he’s going to pass me. as he’s moving up my right side, the roadside seems to disappear and down he goes - ouch. we finally hit a properly paved road and everybody snacks. i now count 7 of us: 2 berkeley riders, 1 team bicycles plus/sierra nevada rider, 1 taleo guy, one rider (whose team escapes me), matt from fusion sport, and myself. we quickly establish a pace line and the group of us work well together, keeping the rotations smooth. i couldn’t see any groups behind us and felt confident that the road was rough enough to deter any bridge attempts.

fast-forward through a few sharp rollers, a speedy descent at the heels of a pick-up truck and a much-needed feed zone, and we’re closing in on mile 50 — from here it’s a dead flat 14 mile run into the finish. all of us are still working together fairly well, but at this point there are a few riders who seem to be skipping pulls. the rest of us look to be feeling good and would rather work than risk being caught by a chase, so we keep the rotation going. at approximately mile 59, i look back and am sure i see a chase group …oh shit. i announce my findings and do my best to get everyone moving a bit faster. the pace quickens for a bit, we take the farmland equivalent of a chicane: left …right and eventually a left turn onto the finishing road. we can look back now and clearly see there is nobody within striking distance so the cat and mouse dance begins. the pace eases up and everyone is doing their best to sit in and conserve energy for the inevitable sprint finish. i’m at about 4th wheel when we come up on the 1k to-go sign. not looking forward to battling out a full on sprint, i decide to go for it. i jump and go around the left, take a few pedal strokes and soon realize i’m being reeled in. i immediately let off and slot back in at about 5th wheel. the 200m sign shows its face and the sprint goes! i manage to jump onto a wheel, my legs start to fade and it slowly pulls away from me. there’s two riders battling out for the top spot while a berkeley rider and myself are giving it our all — i’m able to give it one last kick a few meters out and seal 3rd on the day.

sandwiches were later consumed.

-kevBRITE 


image courtesy of the homie google.

Wards Ferry Road Race - 2012

with the go-cart packed and de la coffee in hand, i headed out around 4:30am, en-route to Sonora, California for the 14th Annual Wards Ferry Road Race. The long drive gave me more than enough time to rehearse the basic plan i’d established for the race: stay up front. 

My genius** plan seemed all but dashed when i rolled up to the start line and learned that the P/1/2, Masters 1/2/3 and E3 groups would be lumped into one field. We were set to complete 5 laps of the hilly 12 mile course.

Fast forward and our 43 man group is dropping into a fast, bumpy descent. Yours truly — somewhere in the back half. After managing to gain a few spots, we hit the first hill and I settle into a comfortable rhythm, someone jumps and we all rush to close the gap. This is the scenario. Rinsing / repeating, climbing / descending. I’m working hard to keep myself relaxed and alert. There’s a hill at the beginning of each lap that they’re calling the “feed zone” (i’ll call it Feed Hill). Feed Hill seems to bait everyone into hitting the gas. At one point, possibly lap 3, I’m doing my best to hold on to the lead group, and my breakfast, while we frantically rush up Feed Hill. Coming over the top, I glance back and see that our group has shrunk to about half of what it was. This smaller group keeps an efficient pace through the descents and along the rough back stretch. We approach the right turn onto Feed Hill for the last time and someone turns it up. I work myself into the red to get around a few riders and latch onto the back of the 3 man move. Coming over top we’ve got a solid gap and I’m doing all I can to recover while not losing contact. I couldn’t muster up a pull and sat on for a bit while a maniacal bike racer in an iron data/thirsty bear kit, who shall remain nameless, pulls the 3 of us around. My legs decide they want to respond again, and I do my best to help keep our distance from the group. The four of us share the work the best we can and there’s still no sign of a chase. At about 2k to go, the aforementioned maniacal bike racer tucks into TT mode and basically rolls off the front of our now splintering group.  I cross the line 3rd overall - taking the top spot among the E3 field.

Tough race, and there’s a picture of my pain-induced donkey face floating around the interwebz to prove it.

-kevBRITE

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