A bit late on getting the reports out. Better late than never though. James describes the good teamwork and racing from Visalia and Land Park crits. Things are really coming together for the team in '08!
----------------------------------------------------------
Race: Land Park Criterium
----------------------------------------------------------
Race: Land Park Criterium
Location: Land Park in Sacramento
Teamates: Rand Miller, Aroussen Laflamme, Jono
Placing: 2nd of ~55
The 4 of us piled into my Honda Element for the weekend bound for Land Park and the Visalia criterium. The course at Land Park is a road though the park that winds around the park and some chicanes leading into the finish line. This was my first time doing this race and I told historically this race had a lot of crashes. Our team plan was to be active as a team, sharing the load of attacking and covering breaks. Rand, Jono, and Aroussen were all very aggressive during the race. At one point Aroussen and I were in a breakaway with just the two of us, the pack not wanting that to happen brought us back pretty quickly. Rand had the largest gap of any breakaway all day and he did it solo, eventually his attempt was pulled back as well. Coming into the finish I was feeling good, the pace stayed pretty high until the last lap when there was some surging. Aroussen and Rand both got primes during the race. Just after the last left hand turn leading into the finishing chicanes I had a little bit of deja vu from the Merco races, the pack sat up a little and I attacked from pretty far out. I held a good gap for a while, but was forced to take a longer line around the last bend to get around a rider who had been off the front. I went around him on the outside adding a few feet to my line to the finish, just at the line Randy from BPG came around me. I was happy to have another podium finish but missed the win by inches. The team rode very well together and we had lots of compliments from other riders in the race on how well we rode. It was a great race for the 4 of us who haven't raced together much this year.
The 4 of us piled into my Honda Element for the weekend bound for Land Park and the Visalia criterium. The course at Land Park is a road though the park that winds around the park and some chicanes leading into the finish line. This was my first time doing this race and I told historically this race had a lot of crashes. Our team plan was to be active as a team, sharing the load of attacking and covering breaks. Rand, Jono, and Aroussen were all very aggressive during the race. At one point Aroussen and I were in a breakaway with just the two of us, the pack not wanting that to happen brought us back pretty quickly. Rand had the largest gap of any breakaway all day and he did it solo, eventually his attempt was pulled back as well. Coming into the finish I was feeling good, the pace stayed pretty high until the last lap when there was some surging. Aroussen and Rand both got primes during the race. Just after the last left hand turn leading into the finishing chicanes I had a little bit of deja vu from the Merco races, the pack sat up a little and I attacked from pretty far out. I held a good gap for a while, but was forced to take a longer line around the last bend to get around a rider who had been off the front. I went around him on the outside adding a few feet to my line to the finish, just at the line Randy from BPG came around me. I was happy to have another podium finish but missed the win by inches. The team rode very well together and we had lots of compliments from other riders in the race on how well we rode. It was a great race for the 4 of us who haven't raced together much this year.
We all got into the Honda to head to Visalia and it wouldn't start, thanks to the guys and Ryan from Metromint for the push we push started it with ease. (Better get the battery checked).
We arrived in Visalia about 10:45pm, some of us went for a dip in the hot tub then went to sleep. Our race in Visalia was at 11:30am. We showed up 2 hours before and were impressed with the setup at the visalia crit. We got a good warmup just outside of the downtown area showed up to the startline early for a good position. Many of the big teams and names were there including BMC, Colavita, Successful Living, Bissel, and many others. With the 4 of us not having the firepower that the bigger teams had we decided to take a little more of a defensive approach than the day before. Rand did a good job staying near the front and trying to get into attacks as they formed. Aroussen did a great job maintaining position near the front of the race. As for me my legs felt good throughout the entire race, except for a slight cramping feeling about 3/4 of the way through the race. It wasn't bad enough to take me out of the race. Going into the finish inside about 3 laps to go the race started getting really fast and the big teams started forming the trains up near the front. I positioned myself at the back of all of this mayhem and stayed there until the sprint started where I passed a few people for 21st place. This was my first Pro/1 race and it was a good learning experience for me. I definitely feel I had the legs and the fitness for a top 5 finish in this race, I didn't have the eye of the tiger on this day. Rand, rode a very active race and was at the front getting into small breakaways. I like the way Rand races and expect a win from him soon. Aroussen still being new to criterium racing in the US rode an Awesome race, maintained position well and rode very smooth, if you don't know Aroussen you will know him soon because he is on the brink of some good finishes, Jono was still finding his legs after his recent arrival from Australia, his fitness is good right now so I expect to see good things from our Aussie friend in coming weeks.
Visalia full results here
In all it was a great race weekend for the 4 of us. We all got to know each other a little better and had a safe weekend of racing. The muscle cramp I was feeling during the race turned out to be a strained/pulled muscle that took some time to heal. It feels better now, so the next race for me will be the Ronde van Brisbane races this weekend.
James
No comments:
Post a Comment