Tardy Race report, Training Update, and the general happs

A little late, but then so have all of my other race reports this year.



For what would be my last race week of the season Seth and I headed up north, for yet another 600 mile road trip to tow the line with NorCals finest in two more velo promo events.

First off, I gotta say that what VeloPromo does is incredible. I got a chance to talk to The Main Man, at University RR and Asked him how it all started. He was amiable and seemed to jump at the opportunity to explain VeloPromo's roots. Those guys promote some 30 odd races a year. Primarily Road Races, most of them in Northern California. They do it for the love of the sport, and man oh man do we appreciate it!




San Ardo:

A mostly flat fast course and read more like a gigantic circuit race then a RR. There was a small little hill, that saw maybe two to three hundred feet gained a lap, but nothing substantial. About 23 or so miles a lap and we were to ride three laps. There was a slight breeze but the winds never got above 11 mph. We were informed that a break hadn't worked in the last 10 years or so in the Cat 3's and that it was all about positioning coming under the bridge right before the turn that marked about 200 meters to the line... Hmmm positioning into the last turn? Sounds a lot the SoCal crit scene. About half way through the second lap things started to shake up and there was an attack followed by a counter, followed by another counter... A good group of guys started gaining time on the field... I was sitting near the front and was thinking that mix looked tempting but not sure that I wanted to bridge just yet..Then BAM, Seth jumped, I was on his wheel like white on rice- We broke clean from the pack and laid down a pretty big 32- 34 mph bridge effort for what felt like 5 minutes to reach the break. We immediately started rotating through and badda bing badda boom- started moving. There was some confusion when we started to overtake other fields that didn't really neutralize, and then tried to sneak into our pace line... several riders bridged and in the confusion I was sure we had been caught. The break slowed to an agonizing crawl. After about 5 minutes, we realized that we hadn't been caught by our field- Several riders had bridged and our break was double the size but the pack lingering behind us belonged to another category. We got organized again and kept it smooth. The deal was sealed in my mind. We were working very smoothly. This break was going to work. I decided since I was the only one with a team mate in the break I should stop pulling, rest my legs, and put the big The break was doing fine with out me, I would rest and then sprint to victory... However, fate had other plans... About 3 miles before the finish line PSSSSSSHSHSHSSSSS. I fell victim to the rough road condittions and flatted.... Oh well, that's racing. Seth managed a second place finish. He lead it out and was passed by only one rider... No doubt I would've had his wheel.



The next day was University Road Race. Which is a 3 mile circuit around UC Santa Cruz. Basically you go straight up and then straight down. The race was hard and the field was full of strong riders. There was a constant barrage of attacks. It wasn't the hill that was necessarily hard or the average speed that made the race hard. It was responding to all the attacks. Every time I passed start finish I thought the next lap would be my last. But I hung in there despite myself. I was second coming around the corner at the base of the decent and responded to an early surge which shot my legs to heck. Many riders came past, I dug deep and pased many of them again to finish strong in tenth place. Seth picked a bad wheel at the end and ended up getting gaped, he didn't quite make it to the front and finished 4th (Good enough to secure his cat 2 upgrade- WAY TO GO MAN!!) The Docta, aka Smitty, aka Docta Professa Smitty, got popped with three to go and lost contact with the lead group that was whittled down from 65 at the beginning to about 22 at the end. He fought the good fight and settled into his rhythm and finished 25th. All in all Platinum's Cat three team had good representation and rep'd hard, showing once again that we are a force to be reckoned with in NorCal as well as SoCal...




Earlier in the season I had been toying around with racing everest challenge... I have decided against this notion. My "off season" has officially begun. I will do a couple mountain bike races for the team this month and have been running 5 times this week. Man I love trail running! Its nice to be able to spare the legs for something other then road-cycling specific training and then there is also the wedding to plan. I also started picking up some catering shifts to help with the savings account so life is still plenty busy.



Happy riding ;)