Webcor Builders San Jose Crit Race Report

Below is James' report from the inaugural San Jose Classic Criterium, built by our title sponsor, Webcor! We had a pretty big team line up for this early season race. Overall, the team rode well and James finished in the top ten.

Official Results

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San Jose Classic Criterium

Saturday Feb. 14, 2009

Teamates: Justin Fraga, Rob MacNeill (~20th), Ryan Prsha, Neil Harrington, Fabrice Dubost (~14th), Peter Cazalet, Brian "BP" Buchholz, Brad Goodson, Greg Gomez

Placing: 8th of 60ish

This is the first year of the San Jose Classic Criterium and my first race for 2009. The race was sponsored by Webcor Builders and put on by the city of San Jose. It was a little difficult finding registration, but once I got that sorted it was back to the car to get things sorted. I didn't have an opportunity to pre ride the course but the course map didn't look like there was anything too scary. At the start of the race the wind was blowing but the ground was dry. I still haven't gotten my new Giant TCR Advanced setup, so I was racing on my trusty steel Ritchey Breakaway.

We had our team meeting about 20 minutes before the start of the race. Director Bruce was there to call the radio information to us. The plan was to cover all attacks and if guys were feeling good to initiate their own attacks. What we didn't want to happen was to have a breakaway get away without a Webcor rider in it.

The race started out with most riders going easy on the first lap to get a feel for the course. The Webcor/AV team did a great job at the beginning of the race covering attacks and initiating some of their own. I stayed near the front for most of the race following some chase attempts. Brian Buchholz launched a very strong attack but unfortunately had a mishap and went down in the 180.

At about 40 minutes into the race I had a flat, I rolled to the pit and luckily Neil was nearby to give me the wheel off of his bike, since BP had already used my rear wheel from the pit. When I got back into the race there was a break of 4 off the front, there were no Webcor/AV riders in it. Bruce called on the radio for the Webcor/AV team to go to the front and bring the break back. It took a little while but eventually the guys organized at the front and put in some strong chase efforts to bring the gap down significantly, but were never successful in bringing back the group of 4, which included Jackson Stewart (BMC), Scott Z (Kelly), Justin England (Cal Giant), and Jesse Moore (Cal Giant).

With about 5 laps to go we still hadn't caught the break, I was sitting in good position when I got squeezed into the wall by Dave McCook. I lost a bunch of spots and found myself somewhere near the back. Feeling lucky to still be in the race I regrouped and started finding my way back toward the front. Thanks to Peter Cazalet for helping me move up during this time. At about 2 to go I still was pretty far back, somewhere around 20th (in the field) with the break of 4 still away it looked like we were sprinting for 5th place. When I heard the bell I was sitting around 15th. I put in a large effort on the straightaway opposite the finish line and moved into the the top 10. Guys started sprinting out of the 1st left hand sweeper turn and all the way down the long straightaway, I managed to pass a few people going into the last left hand sweeper turn. I came out of this turn in 4th and tried to go up the inside on the final turn but got squeezed. I stayed in 4th to the line which was good for 8th place overall.

Fabrice rolled in a few spots behind me with Rob close behind him.

Personally I felt great during the race. I never felt like I was in the red zone the entire race. The team rode well today, but could have ridden the race better. I think everyone learned a lot and we had a decent discussion at our post race team meeting. I am sure we will do more post race discussion this week via email. Our team has a lot of depth this year, guys are still getting to know each other and finding their race legs. When everything clicks, and it will happen, this team is sure to produce some great results in 2009.

Thanks to the City of San Jose for a great course and event. Thanks to Webcor Builders and other sponsors for allowing the race to happen. Thanks to Director Bruce for radio support. Finally, thanks to www.WilliamsCycling.com . This was my first race on the new System 38 carbon clinchers, the wheels performed superbly, they were plenty stiff and inspired confidence in the corners.

Thanks for reading,
James Badia