Catching Up with Past Reports: Sisquoc RR, SLO Crit, and Watsonville Crit

While I was away for a week, the guys were out there racing hard. I'm just catching up with posting their reports. In all, there was a lot of good racing and results from the team with 3 top 10's in 3 races:

Sisquoc road Race: 9th place for Fabrice
San Luis Obispo Crit: 6th for James
Watsonville Crit: 2nd for Rand

Most of the guys finishing ahead of Fabrice, James and Rand were professionals, no shame in that, especially considering that they beat a bunch of pros too! Below are the reports from the respective highest placed riders.

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Race: Santa Maria Sisquoc Circuit Race, P/1/2
Date: 19 July 2008
Team: Jeff, Bo, and Fabrice,

Placings: 9th (Fabrice) of ~75

Full Results

The Sisquoc Circuit Race is a race on a 10.75 miles loop, 7 laps. The weather was sunny and not too warm. The circuit is not too difficult by itself, but exhausting over time. The finish line is on a descent after 3 successive climbs. A strong headwind made some parts of the circuit difficult.

During the race there were a lot of attacks but nobody got much of a gap. I tried some attacks but when we were in a group at the front, nobody wanted to collaborate, But I don't know why!!! In the last lap after some attacks, a professional from team Successful Living got off solo and his team controlled all the attacks behind.

During that's last lap, that guy increased his gap and won the race with a comfortable margin. For the second place there was a sprint from the pack. I finished 9th of the race, not too bad taking account of all my attacks.

Jeff finished in the pack as did Bo.

Fabrice

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San Luis Obispo Downtown Criterium
Men's Pro 1/2
Teammates: Rand (18th), Fabrice (11th), Jeff, Bo
Placing: 6th of 75ish

Full Results

The SLO Downtown Criterium is anything but Slow. The race started out fast and besides one or two occasions where the pace eased for a few seconds remained fast for the entire 75 minutes. The course is the usual downtown course with a chicane section through the mission, a fast slightly downhill long finish on new pavement this year. All of the corners if done correctly allow you to carry your speed. This was a great course for me. Last year I finished 14th and won a primme. This year no primme but I placed higher. After the Coyote Creek and Lafayette races I was starting to feel a little fatigued. I decided to take a break and only do a few easy rides during the week and focus on my rest. I wasn't sure how I would feel come race day but I ended up feeling great! We had our team meeting where Bo's wife Amy agreed to call radio updates from the sidelines, also recent National Champion John Elgart was calling radio updates for us as well. The plan was for me to relax a little during the beginning of the race and everyone cover attacks throughout the race. If it came down to to field sprint I was to be the go to guy.

Rand and Fabrice repeatedly attacked and covered attacks, but nothing was sticking. Cal Giant was also riding very aggressive and attacking repeatedly. SoCal racers like their field sprints for sure. I covered a few attacks that immediately fizzled once my breakaway mates realized they had a sprinter with them. Jeff covered a few attacks and spent some time near the front as well. About mid race I realized I wasn't sticking to the plan of me relaxing for the first part of the race. I decided to ease up a little and not waste energy fighting for position. I drifted back to about 30th wheel and hung there for a little while trying to conserve. With 5 to go I was slowly moving up. Fabrice, Rand, and Jeff were closer to the front, I got up to them at about 3 to go and started to surf the pack a little for the easy move up spots. When we heard the bell I was sitting in about 12th position, I held that through the Mission chicane than picked up a few spots, I came out of the last corner in 7th, passed one guy then the sprint started and it was a long line with no one really passing anyone. Daniel Holloway finished 1st with Cody O'Reily, Tony Cruz, and Rock Racing rider coming in before me as well.

This is one of my favorite races of the year, along with Burlingame and San Rafael. If you have never made the trip to San Luis Obispo I definitely recommend it to anyone for next year.

Thanks for reading,
James

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Watsonville Crit
Watsonville, CA
July 19, 2008
Weather: Windy, Cold, Foggy/overcast
Teammates: Matt Beebe
Place: 2nd of ~40

Full Results

Watsonville is a really fun, technical crit course, and though it is not really all that far from the Bay, it tends to be a low-key event with relatively small fields. It is probably for the better, because the course contains multiple hairpins with drainage ditches across them, making for dicey cornering. There is also a small hill that tends to make the race hurt more than one would expect.

There was still a solid group of riders this year, with notables like Jackson Stewart (BMC), Daniel Holloway (VMG-Felt) and James Mattis (CalGiant), and all sorts of powerful riders. I was feeling quite feisty and really wanted to get in a breakaway early.

Luckily, there were quite a few other guys with a similar idea, and within about 10 minutes into the race, after numerous attacks, I managed to get into a break of 6 that got significant time on the field. This break was comprised of Jackson Stewart, James Mattis, Brian Bosch (Sierra Pacific), Justin Fraga (BPG), and a McGuire rider. We worked well together, and the technical course allowed for the small group to pull away. By about halfway through the race, we had
lapped what was left of the field.

The breakaway riders continued to try and attack one another and catch each other off guard, but everyone was pretty attentive. I was the only rider without a teammate in the pack, as Beebe had done his job early and was calling stuff out to me from the sidelines, so I had to be extremely careful not to get caught behind a split.

Coming into the final 10 laps, James Mattis made a bold attack and held a decent gap until about 3 to go, but was reeled in. Several teams attempted to lead their riders out, but I marked Jackson Stewart. We entered the final corner in about 5th and 6th wheels, and sprinted hard up the finishing hill. Jackson took the win, and I came through just behind him in 2nd. Justin beat Brian Bosch for 3rd.

Great race...I really like the atmosphere around this race every year, and I love the course. Thanks to Beebe for support, and thanks for reading.

Rand