RACE REPORT #2

First of all I added a few names to my distribution list, so welcome to my weekly race report/lunchtime diversion you new people. Another weekend has gone by and two more races under my belt. It was a good weekend for me with amazing weather, though it’s been a hectic few days since then. Before we get any further a recap…

The official first edition of “Last week BY THE NUMBERS ”

Number of inboxes clogged by yours truly………….46
Number of replies received………………………….17
Number of the above asking for money ……………..4
Number of the above that weren’t form letters………1
Number that actually got money……………………..1

My favorite reply had to be the one that asked if I was going to “start racing on the palindrome next”…for those of you that English is a second language, a palindrome is a word/phrase that reads the same both backwards and forwards i.e. “A man, a plan, a canal Panama!” A velodrome is the racing track with banked turns.

Now for the meat (or tofu for those of you averse to dead flesh) of the letter, the results. I left Seattle Friday night to spend the night at a teammate’s parent’s house closer to the race course. His mother gave us a ride down and she was super nice and really friendly, but not exactly what I’m accustomed to. Picture the following; hair dyed platinum blond, smokes about a pack a day, speaks in baby talk to her lap dog (shedding and in heat), and repeatedly offers her vegan son foods like chicken chow mein and meat lovers pizza. The house is classic rural American kitsch, chainsaw carvings of bears coming out of stumps and Indian chiefs, the gnarly stump coffee table indefinitely preserved in a ½” layer of glossy lacquer, and to top it all off the big ‘ol lazy-boy recliner firmly planted three feet in front of the television. I could go on but it would be a little mean, and at some point I’m supposed to give some race results.

Saturday Mason Lake #2, it was the exact same course as last week—three laps about 12 miles in length around the lake. The first mile or so is a neutral roll out (meaning the lead car sets the pace) at which point we hit the first turn and are off. I once again made the mistake of lining up in the middle of the pack, a mistake I realized as soon as we hit the first turn because as soon as the pace car accelerated the guy that won last week broke away and started soloing away from the pack. For those of you not in the know that is really gutsy and really tough, when you’re drafting in the pack/peloton it’s about 20%-30% less effort for the same speed and you can theoretically just keep rotating through the riders pulling at the front so that they share the load. While I was working my way towards the front I ran into (figuratively, not literally) a teammate of the guy who was off the front and found out that he is a former long distance runner that was good enough to go to trials, so he’s got an engine on him. Just before the end of the first lap I managed to get to the front and tried breaking away to catch this guy. Unlike last week he wasn’t even in sight at this point. When I started chasing he was a little over 40 seconds ahead of us (the race officials and observant spectators will count and let you know) and I closed the gap to about 25 seconds when I started blowing up. Just when I had resigned myself to slipping back into the pack another rider bridged from the peloton up to me and we started working together to stay away from the pack/try to catch the lead guy. We never did catch the lead guy, but we did manage to stay in front of the peloton, and even passed the theoretically faster race that started five minutes ahead of us. I made the mistake of assuming that they were a women’s race that we were lapping and announced “on your left ladies” at which point I realized they were the men’s race that had started ahead of us…I’m pretty sure that they all think I’m a dick, but such is life. We passed them just a kilometer or so before the finish line which had the potential to get hairy because neither myself nor Philippe (the other guy in the breakaway with me) particularly wanted to pull the other one to the finish line, but that’s exactly what I ended up doing allowing him to beat me in the sprint leaving me with third place for the second week in a row and the determination that I need to work on my sprinting tactics a little more. Still, third out of 50+ aint bad.

Sunday was a dead flat road race six times around a seven mile course with some nasty winds. A few of us tried getting some breakaways going but it was to windy to attempt it solo and while there were plenty of riders who were strong enough to hang on when we would try to break away they either weren’t strong enough or weren’t willing to pull through and take their turn at the front. After the first few laps I stopped trying and just hung out in the pack, but by that point my efforts along with my teammate Nate (the guy whose house I was staying at) had shrunk the peloton to about half its starting size. About halfway through the final lap the lead car slowed way down neutralizing the field because we were about to lap the women’s field right at the finish. We were held neutral (rolling slowly~15mph) for a little over a mile which made everyone very antsy and twitchy. With about two miles left they let us go again and with everyone rested and the finish line so close the pace went up quite a bit with some serious jockeying for position. I had good position out of the second to last turn with about 500 meters to go when a big solid kinda chunky guy (perfect for drafting off of) tried breaking away. I jumped on his wheel until 300 meters to go when I passed him and started sprinting for the line. This would normally be considered a very long sprint, but after Saturday I realized I don’t really have that short really high end speed that makes good sprinters with 50 meters to go, so for the Sunday race I resolved to try and get a jump on everyone a little early, enough that they couldn’t draft off of me and then just hold it until the finish line. So I passed chunky with 300 meters to go came around the last turn with 50 meters still until the 200 meter sign. To give you an idea of what’s normal the 200 meter sign signifies the spot where they open up the full width of the road to the field sprint and is generally considered far enough from the finish that the true sprints won’t be anywhere near starting. For that last bit I just buried myself in it and crossed the line in first with about 5+ lengths between me and the next rider. I was happy.

This approach probably won’t work so well once I upgrade for a couple of reasons, one it will be more difficult to get a good jump on the other riders, and two there might actually be teams setting up for the sprint with leadout men etc.

Before I finish, I’ve also been meaning to clarify the classification system for amateur racing. Categories are 1-5, 1 being high and 5 being low. The upgrade requirements are as listed below.

From 5 to 4:
Experience in 10 mass start races;

From 4 to 3:
Need 20 points in any 12-month period;
or experience in 25 qualifying races with a minimum of 10 top-10 finishes.
30 points in 12 months is an automatic upgrade

From 3 to 2:
Need 25 points in any 12-month period
60 points in 12 months is an automatic upgrade

From 2 to 1:
Need 30 points in any 12-month period
60 points in 12 months is an automatic upgrade

Points are awarded 1st through 6th place as follows 7-5-4-3-2-1
For the past two weeks I have two third place finishes and one first (the time trial that I kicked bootie in doesn’t count) so I have 4+4+7=15 points which means I need five more before I can upgrade. Maybe I can get them this weekend, I’ll let you know