Martinez and Santa Cruz Crit Reports

A couple of hard crits went down this past weekend. Dominic and Rob give the details from the Santa Cruz and Martinez events.

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Dominic's Santa Cruz Crit Report
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Santa Cruz Crit, Pro/1/2
50 laps
April 6, 2008
Field: 75+
Teammates: James Badia, Neil Harrington, Matt Beebe, Rob MacNeill

Normally the best finisher on the team writes the report... in this case however none of us finished - I just happened to be the last one to drop out.

For me this race is a good workout to prepare for the brutality of Cat's Hill. Counting this year I've done it three times in P/1/2 and only finished once (last year).

The Santa Cruz Crit is not an easy race where you can really help out your teammates. Either you get over the hill with the group or you slip back each lap until you're off the back chasing on over the top (or even worse, on the descent and backside). Once that happens it's only a matter of time until you're permanently off the back. It's crucial to maintain good position near the front of the bunch, spin up the hill and don't get swarmed. And oh yeah, do it 50 times in a row while avoiding the snarl of traffic and occasional crashes in the hairpin turn.

Before the start I told Neil "whatever you do, hang in there for at least the first 15 minutes as things usually settle down after that". This year I was wrong. The first 15 minutes were hard but almost mellow compared to previous years (15% easier according to the power numbers). Things just never let up and my peak 10 min and 20 min power came about 35 minutes into the race. Sorry about that Neil.

The race started off aggressively and we all tried to maintain a good spot near the front. I saw James, Rob and Neil near the head end of the pack. A break quickly formed and Neil tried to bridge up. Unfortunately he didn't make it and came back to the pack. Rob tried to follow a BPG rider across but they also didn't make it. I was just trying to stay protected and out of trouble. The break lasted probably 10-15 laps but it too came back together. Some counters ensued but any thoughts I had of getting in a break were not backed by sufficient pedaling force to get my sorry butt up to where it needed to be.

After about 50 minutes of racing I realized that the pack was considerably reduced since when I looked over my shoulder I found out that I was tail gunning. I resolved to move up and spent quite a bit of energy to do so. Gaps were opening up all the time and you had to close quite a few just to stay in the game. James closed several of these and I think those efforts cost him. At one point I closed a few of these as well and dug deep in the hopes that it would help James stay in contention. Then James returned the favor thinking it would help me stay in contention. That's about the best kind of team work you can have in this race. Sadly the effort caused James to blow and despite my trying to grunt encouragement as we assailed the hill for the 26th or 27th time, James didn't make it.

Realizing I was the only AV rider left kinda took the wind out of my sails. I'm not sure why but I assumed that I'd be working for someone else. At that point I was still at the wrong end of the pack and had fallen into the trap of chasing back on over the top and on the descent. That lasted about another 2 or 3 laps and then I came off and called it a day. I'm disappointed that I wasn't able to suck it up and get back on especially after watching Lauren's determination and grit when she solo'ed in for the win in the Women's 1/2/3 race.

Looking at the power data is kind of interesting: I spent 16+ minutes in Zone 6 (i.e. above VO2max which for me is 400w), only 5 minutes in Zone 5 (355-400w) and the bulk of the time in Z1 or 2. Rob also reported spending over 16 minutes in Z6. Basically the race was either full-on or not with little in between. That's typical of P/1/2 races.

Also it's not too surprising that I came off as the day before at Ward's Ferry I had 24+ minutes in Z6 and 17+ minutes in Z5. I don't know if there is any theory regarding the amount of time you can spend over threshold on consecutive days but I think I found out my current limits. I suppose if I had wanted to do better at Santa Cruz I should not have raced Wards Ferry the day before.

Thanks for reading,
--dominic

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Rob's Martinez Crit Report
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Martinez Criterium, Pro/1/2
75 minutes
April 5, 2008
Result: ~30th of 75 or so
Teammates: James Badia, Neil Harrington

The Martinez course is a fun clockwise L-shaped circuit with some linked corners, dodgy pavement, and a short hill after a long start-finish straight. This was a first time race for me and Neil, but James had raced the year before. Our 75 minute race had some big money on offer ($7500) so it drew out lots of fast guys and fast racing. It seemed like Rock Racing sent half their team to the race. There was a lone Bissell pro as well. Then there was the other usual NorCal suspects from Cal Giant, BPG, Z-Team, Davis, and so on.

As expected, we started off in a flurry of speed and kept at it full-stick for a long while. I focused on surfing the pack and trying to move up into the sweet spot. There was a lot of jockeying for position and lots of bunching then accelerating after every turn so maintaining position was tough. Without a lot of diligence, it's easy to drift backward. At some point early in the race, Neil was taken out leading into a fast turn at the base of the hill. He went to take a free lap but they let him in off the back and he struggled to latch on. Eventually Neil pulled out. That left James and I in green. James was looking comfortable in the pack and was riding strong, getting in a short lived break early on.

About 20 minutes into the race, a breakaway with some Rock, Giant, and BPG representation got off. Just as James and I were talking about covering it, another Rock jumped with a another Cal Giant and I latched on. Through the chicane, Rock must've gotten the radio call to sit up. Cal Giant sat up with him but I jumped again through the turns and got good separation. I chased really hard for about a lap and as I was getting close, the lone Bissell rider had tried to bridge as well. The pack clearly didn't want him in the break so they chased him hard and it all came back together. After that, I was pretty gassed for while. I don't have the top end quite yet to do that repeatedly or to be able to recover quickly from the hard efforts. As I sought shelter in the pack, THE break went off. This one had the right mix of horsepower and representation: 2 Rocks (including Bahati), Reaney from CalGiant, the Bissell guy and a BPG rider. Their gap grew and shrank and grew again throughout the rest of the race. From what I hear, the second Rock Racing guy took a flyer and held it to the line while Reaney beat Bahati for 2nd.

I was in a bit of survival mode for the 2nd half of the race. With about 15 minutes left to go, I got a flat and had a nice 1-2 minute rest before sprinting back in. There were a couple of nervous crashes in the last couple of laps that had me even less eager to get in the mix. James was up in good position but it turns out he had some trouble with his rear wheel. The skewer came loose so he couldn't contest the sprint. I sprinted out of the last corner for the heck of it, though I was well back at that point, finishing somewhere around 30th. It was a bummer that James had mechanical problems at the end. He was racing strong and smart all race, I'm sure he would've finished well.

My fitness is coming around slowly. At least I feel like I'm on the upswing and surviving races like this can only help for other races down the road. Looking at my power numbers, I spent about 25 minutes in Z6+, about 20 minutes Z3-5, and the rest in Z1-2. The normalized power was right around threshold for the 75 minutes. That's hard racin!

Thanks for reading,
-Rob