Santa Rosa Corporate Crit, Cat 2/3
1st place, James Badia
Orosi RR, P/1/2
2nd place, Ted Huang
Berkely 2-Man Team Time Trial:
1st place, P/1/2, Badia/Nauta
1st place, 70+, MacNeill/Peterson
2nd place, P/1/2, Morenzoni/Beebe
3rd place, 90+, Wilford/Tapscott
Below are reports from the Crit, RR, and TT's
-Rob
James' Santa Rosa Crit Report:
==============================
Category 2/3 with fields picked separately
3/24/07
Category 2/3 with fields picked separately
3/24/07
Teamates: Ted Burns, Bill Dunham
Placing: 1st! of 70 ish
Placing: 1st! of 70 ish
This was my first time racing this course, it was a flat crit with some chicanes in it. Nice pavement and wide finish. It was a 55 minute race. After about 5 minutes a breakaway formed of about 7 guys. They got about 5 seconds so I decided to try and bridge. I made it up to the break which was working together half heartedly. We had about 15 seconds on the field when 2 guys attacked the break, I went after it with one guy on my wheel and we were down to 4 people (myself, a Lombardi, a Clif Bar, and a Cycle Sports). For the next 50 minutes we worked together well with the gap getting as high as 45 seconds, then down to 25, then back to 45. There were 4 primes, each of us in the break taking one. No one tried to attack on the primes we all just let everyone get one. The head winds on the two back straight and the finishing straight was fierce. With 2 to go it was obvious we would stay away, guys started skipping pulls, myself included. On the second to last straightaway I was 3rd wheel, the Lombardi and Cyclesports guys started Cat and mousing a bit. When I saw that I attacked going into the last corner. I kept sprinting all the way to the line (about 150 meters) the Lombardi guy was on my wheel the whole time, I was worried he would come around me at the line, when he tried he came along side of me but wasn't able to get me at the line.
I entered the P1/2 race an hour later, I felt strong for the first 10 minutes, then a break away got up the road with about 20 guys in it. I stayed in the pack for about 20 minutes and helped chase but we were going backwards. I pulled out and decided to save my legs for Pinole tomorrow morning with Tore.
Thank for reading
James
Ted's Orosi RR Report:
==============================
Orosi RR Pro 1/2, 3/25/07
Field Size: 25ish
Teammates: Jono and Dominic
Velo Promo created an absolute jewel of a course in Orosi. The course starts amongst the orchards of Orosi and dabbles into the foothills of the eastern Sierras, winding it's way up the side of a mountain in stair steppy fashion. The course then undulates along a plateau along the top before plunging straight back down to the farmlands/orchards yielding the courses only bit of flat (maybe 5 miles) before heading back into the hills again.
As usual, this race provided a small local field with the NRC Redlands race going on down south. Besides a contingent of BPG/RH Villa guys, there were a handful of riders from So Cal as well, none of whom we recognized. We also had one or two juniors in our midst. Their smaller gearing obviously didn't slow one of them down as one of them ended up winning the race!
The race commenced in very leisurely fashion with Andy Mendonca (BPG) launching almost obligatory attack before the climb, bringing along another rider. No one seemed too concerned and we dawdled along as the gap ballooned to at least several minutes. A So Cal rider picked up the pace on the climb and the gap became pegged at 2 minutes or so. Since we had the most
riders from a single team in the field except for BPG (they had at least 4 and had a rider in the break), we felt compelled to encourage a little pacemaking. I made some leg softening(to myself) attacks that went nowhere. Through the feedzone on the 2nd lap, the pace picked up dramatically and I just managed to latch on to a BPG rider, Kevin Klein, and Grant (a 17 year old!) I clearly wasn't climbing as well, so I opted to hang on.
Once the road flattened out, I was able to pull through a bit, but clearly lacked power. Our group
swelled to 8 or so with Dominic eventually bridging up. A few miles after the top of the ascent, our gruppo compacto caught the two-up break, and Salvotre, the sole Cal Giant rider, attacked drawing out a BPG rider with him. We made a significant error at this juncture by not having Dominic with him. (We unfortunately lost Jono on the climb) With two of us remaining, I was at a loss for what to do as I knew we should be conserving one of us for the finish, but also knew that a bit of pacemaking was in order to keep the gap in check. I also didn't feel compelled to have Dominic wreck himself in case I didn't have legs for the last climb.(My numerous attacks only softened me up) With no one really working, both Dominic and I took turns doing some light tempo at the front. We arrived at the base of the climb knowing the fireworks would begin and sure enough, through the feedzone, Kevin ratcheted up the pace. Luckily, I anticipated this and just barely managed to grab a quick feed and jump on the Klein Express. Grant and Kevin set a mean pace and I again hung on for dear life. A BPG rider, for some reason, sat about two bike lengths back the entire climb. Over the top, I moved into last position. The BPG rider then opened a gap. Kevin, sensing this, drilled it to open a wider gap. I jumped around the BPG rider and onto the duo. From then on, we took turns pulling to keep the gap up. Shortly after, we passed the cooked Cal Giant rider a but still no Christian (BPG rider still off the front)in sight. Finally, as we approached the final descent, a red jersey came into view. Christian latched on as we rode by and we thought we'd be a group of four for the finish. No one wanted to over work, so we rode at a gentle tempo.
With 2km to go, I took one last pull, and no one would pull around me. With 1km to go, I came to virtually a standstill as I didn't want to lead out the sprint. But then 3-4 riders blew by us, forcing all of us to accelerate. Grant saw his opportunity, and took off with about 700 meters to go. He quickly distanced himself as the rest of us looked at each other. Christian finally decided to punch it, and I emerged from his draft and wound up a very long slightly uphill sprint. I felt my legs fading after a couple hundred meters, but still had 150m or so left, and tried to keep the power on as I closed the gap to Grant. But it was too little too late. Grant won definitely by 4-5 bike lengths in fine style with myself 2nd, Kevin third, and Dominic rolled in a short time later in 9th. Jono finished as well having experienced chills midway through the race, along with a lack of energy. We all concluded that pre-race, it is better to err on the side of more calories than less calories. I hope to be hearing about this kid named Grant in a few years. He's the real deal, and nice to boot.
It was beautiful day in Orosi in great company. We couldn't have asked for much more.
Rob's TTT Report:
==============================
Berkeley Hills 2-Man Team Time Trial
Date: 25 March 2007
Team: Brian Peterson & Rob MacNeill
Category: 70+
Result: 1st of 22 teams in 70+, 2nd fastest of 100+ teams for the day
Now 3 years old, the new format for this TTT is nearly 1 lap of the Berkeley Hills RR course. It starts on San Pablo Dam Rd at the boat launch. From there, it goes mostly downhill, turns right then goes over some lumpy terrain. Another sweeping right at the end of a fast descent leads to a false flat and another right with more false flat before tackling the 3 Bears (Mama, Baby, then Papa). The Bears are ~2-4 minute power climbs. The finish is just past the summit of Papa Bear after a 1 km descent. Typically, good times for the course are on the order of 40+ minutes.
We've done this race a couple of times before and have been 2nd twice, once in the 4's on the old course and once in the 3's a couple years ago. This year we avoided P12 and entered 70+ (we're both 35 yo Cat 2's) to maximize a chance for a win. As it turns out, the 70+ was one of the biggest fields and the P12's was one of the smallest, mostly populated by our teammates Badia/Nauta & Beebe/Morenzoni. Still, we were confident going in that we'd be one of the stronger teams overall.
In the couple weeks leading up to the TTT, We both got out to do a little practice and we've both been doing TT races, Brian with the Beat the Clock series and Rob with CVC and San Dimas TT stages, so we were both well practiced together and solo.
After a solid warmup for both of us, we lined up and started the effort. Our strategy this year involved not killing ourselves on the first mostly downhill stretch. The last time we did this race, that leg turned Rob's bad day even worse and Brian had to do most of the pace making for the rest of that TT. This year, we wanted to be sure we had reserves for when it counted on the harder parts of the course.
With that in mind, we stuck to the plan, trading pulls evenly and to suit our individual strengths--Brian eats up false flats and downhills, Rob does better on hills. We were really moving along on the course and we were both thinking we were on a sub 40 minute ride. We pushed each other through the course and over the first couple Bears. On the screaming approach to Papa Bear, Rob and Brian were able to rest somewhat and get ready to give the last hill a max effort finish. Unfortunately, Rob whacked his wheels on a very uneven transition from road to bridge pavement at the bottom of Papa Bear, quickly flatting his front wheel and doing some serious damage to his rear wheel. We were on too good a ride to quit though, so Rob struggled up Papa Bear with the sudden increase in rolling resistance and loss of maneuverability, while Brian encouraged him on. Then it was a matter of keeping it upright for the last kilometer down a 40 mph descent on a flat front tire, which we did.
We were on such a good ride that we still put in a 40:52.2, good for 1st in 70+ by 1:18 over 2nd place. We were even faster than our 1st place teammates Badia/Nauta in P12 and narrowly missed fastest time of the day by 6 seconds, won by Nolan/Metcalfe in 90+. So we think we lost about a minute from the mishap but all in all, it was a good day and we made the best of some bad luck. Next year, we'll be back and looking to break 40 minutes.
Overall Times for the top 4 teams (W/AV Elite Team members took 2nd-4th):
Orosi RR Pro 1/2, 3/25/07
Field Size: 25ish
Teammates: Jono and Dominic
Velo Promo created an absolute jewel of a course in Orosi. The course starts amongst the orchards of Orosi and dabbles into the foothills of the eastern Sierras, winding it's way up the side of a mountain in stair steppy fashion. The course then undulates along a plateau along the top before plunging straight back down to the farmlands/orchards yielding the courses only bit of flat (maybe 5 miles) before heading back into the hills again.
As usual, this race provided a small local field with the NRC Redlands race going on down south. Besides a contingent of BPG/RH Villa guys, there were a handful of riders from So Cal as well, none of whom we recognized. We also had one or two juniors in our midst. Their smaller gearing obviously didn't slow one of them down as one of them ended up winning the race!
The race commenced in very leisurely fashion with Andy Mendonca (BPG) launching almost obligatory attack before the climb, bringing along another rider. No one seemed too concerned and we dawdled along as the gap ballooned to at least several minutes. A So Cal rider picked up the pace on the climb and the gap became pegged at 2 minutes or so. Since we had the most
riders from a single team in the field except for BPG (they had at least 4 and had a rider in the break), we felt compelled to encourage a little pacemaking. I made some leg softening(to myself) attacks that went nowhere. Through the feedzone on the 2nd lap, the pace picked up dramatically and I just managed to latch on to a BPG rider, Kevin Klein, and Grant (a 17 year old!) I clearly wasn't climbing as well, so I opted to hang on.
Once the road flattened out, I was able to pull through a bit, but clearly lacked power. Our group
swelled to 8 or so with Dominic eventually bridging up. A few miles after the top of the ascent, our gruppo compacto caught the two-up break, and Salvotre, the sole Cal Giant rider, attacked drawing out a BPG rider with him. We made a significant error at this juncture by not having Dominic with him. (We unfortunately lost Jono on the climb) With two of us remaining, I was at a loss for what to do as I knew we should be conserving one of us for the finish, but also knew that a bit of pacemaking was in order to keep the gap in check. I also didn't feel compelled to have Dominic wreck himself in case I didn't have legs for the last climb.(My numerous attacks only softened me up) With no one really working, both Dominic and I took turns doing some light tempo at the front. We arrived at the base of the climb knowing the fireworks would begin and sure enough, through the feedzone, Kevin ratcheted up the pace. Luckily, I anticipated this and just barely managed to grab a quick feed and jump on the Klein Express. Grant and Kevin set a mean pace and I again hung on for dear life. A BPG rider, for some reason, sat about two bike lengths back the entire climb. Over the top, I moved into last position. The BPG rider then opened a gap. Kevin, sensing this, drilled it to open a wider gap. I jumped around the BPG rider and onto the duo. From then on, we took turns pulling to keep the gap up. Shortly after, we passed the cooked Cal Giant rider a but still no Christian (BPG rider still off the front)in sight. Finally, as we approached the final descent, a red jersey came into view. Christian latched on as we rode by and we thought we'd be a group of four for the finish. No one wanted to over work, so we rode at a gentle tempo.
With 2km to go, I took one last pull, and no one would pull around me. With 1km to go, I came to virtually a standstill as I didn't want to lead out the sprint. But then 3-4 riders blew by us, forcing all of us to accelerate. Grant saw his opportunity, and took off with about 700 meters to go. He quickly distanced himself as the rest of us looked at each other. Christian finally decided to punch it, and I emerged from his draft and wound up a very long slightly uphill sprint. I felt my legs fading after a couple hundred meters, but still had 150m or so left, and tried to keep the power on as I closed the gap to Grant. But it was too little too late. Grant won definitely by 4-5 bike lengths in fine style with myself 2nd, Kevin third, and Dominic rolled in a short time later in 9th. Jono finished as well having experienced chills midway through the race, along with a lack of energy. We all concluded that pre-race, it is better to err on the side of more calories than less calories. I hope to be hearing about this kid named Grant in a few years. He's the real deal, and nice to boot.
It was beautiful day in Orosi in great company. We couldn't have asked for much more.
Rob's TTT Report:
==============================
Berkeley Hills 2-Man Team Time Trial
Date: 25 March 2007
Team: Brian Peterson & Rob MacNeill
Category: 70+
Result: 1st of 22 teams in 70+, 2nd fastest of 100+ teams for the day
Now 3 years old, the new format for this TTT is nearly 1 lap of the Berkeley Hills RR course. It starts on San Pablo Dam Rd at the boat launch. From there, it goes mostly downhill, turns right then goes over some lumpy terrain. Another sweeping right at the end of a fast descent leads to a false flat and another right with more false flat before tackling the 3 Bears (Mama, Baby, then Papa). The Bears are ~2-4 minute power climbs. The finish is just past the summit of Papa Bear after a 1 km descent. Typically, good times for the course are on the order of 40+ minutes.
We've done this race a couple of times before and have been 2nd twice, once in the 4's on the old course and once in the 3's a couple years ago. This year we avoided P12 and entered 70+ (we're both 35 yo Cat 2's) to maximize a chance for a win. As it turns out, the 70+ was one of the biggest fields and the P12's was one of the smallest, mostly populated by our teammates Badia/Nauta & Beebe/Morenzoni. Still, we were confident going in that we'd be one of the stronger teams overall.
In the couple weeks leading up to the TTT, We both got out to do a little practice and we've both been doing TT races, Brian with the Beat the Clock series and Rob with CVC and San Dimas TT stages, so we were both well practiced together and solo.
After a solid warmup for both of us, we lined up and started the effort. Our strategy this year involved not killing ourselves on the first mostly downhill stretch. The last time we did this race, that leg turned Rob's bad day even worse and Brian had to do most of the pace making for the rest of that TT. This year, we wanted to be sure we had reserves for when it counted on the harder parts of the course.
With that in mind, we stuck to the plan, trading pulls evenly and to suit our individual strengths--Brian eats up false flats and downhills, Rob does better on hills. We were really moving along on the course and we were both thinking we were on a sub 40 minute ride. We pushed each other through the course and over the first couple Bears. On the screaming approach to Papa Bear, Rob and Brian were able to rest somewhat and get ready to give the last hill a max effort finish. Unfortunately, Rob whacked his wheels on a very uneven transition from road to bridge pavement at the bottom of Papa Bear, quickly flatting his front wheel and doing some serious damage to his rear wheel. We were on too good a ride to quit though, so Rob struggled up Papa Bear with the sudden increase in rolling resistance and loss of maneuverability, while Brian encouraged him on. Then it was a matter of keeping it upright for the last kilometer down a 40 mph descent on a flat front tire, which we did.
We were on such a good ride that we still put in a 40:52.2, good for 1st in 70+ by 1:18 over 2nd place. We were even faster than our 1st place teammates Badia/Nauta in P12 and narrowly missed fastest time of the day by 6 seconds, won by Nolan/Metcalfe in 90+. So we think we lost about a minute from the mishap but all in all, it was a good day and we made the best of some bad luck. Next year, we'll be back and looking to break 40 minutes.
Overall Times for the top 4 teams (W/AV Elite Team members took 2nd-4th):
1 40:46.6 Kevin METCALFE Lawrence NOLAN Master 90+
2 40:52.5 Robert MACNEILL Brian PETERSON Master 70+
3 40:55.8 James BADIA Tore NAUTA Elite 1/2/Pro
4 41:35.5 Matt MORENZONI Matthew BEEBE Elite 1/2/Pro
2 40:52.5 Robert MACNEILL Brian PETERSON Master 70+
3 40:55.8 James BADIA Tore NAUTA Elite 1/2/Pro
4 41:35.5 Matt MORENZONI Matthew BEEBE Elite 1/2/Pro
No comments:
Post a Comment