5/9 Joseph Mendez Crit P12: 5th for Rand
5/16 Modesto Crit P12: 8th for Rand
5/16 Modesto Crit 35+123: 4th for James
5/17 Modesto RR P12: 10th for James
Below are the detailed reports.
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Joseph Mendez Criterium
05/09/09
Pleasanton, CA
Teammates: Justin Fraga, Brian Buchholz, James Badia, Rob MacNeill, Graham Simpson, Neil Harrington, Matt Beebe, Keith & Bob on the Radio
Place: 5th of ~60
Full Results
Formerly known as the EBC crit, this is one of the most wide-open courses imaginable. No corners of note, extremely wide straights, smooth pavement and ripping wind make this race harder than you would expect.
Our plan was...well...pretty standard. Fraga and I attack like a couple crazy breakaway monkeys, with James ready for a field sprint if nothing sticks. Keith Williams (Williams Wheels, sponsor of the century) was on the radio slingin' his usual ridiculous nonsense at us, as well as calling out times and laps.
Justin attacked early, in a break with Chad Gerlach among others. Pretty solid effort by him, but it was too early. That break came back, and we reshuffled with me in the next move. Unfortunately the break that stuck contained all the major players and was 10-strong. 1 in 10 odds are not great, and frankly we should have had another rider in the move.
Oh well.
I did what I could to conserve energy and get ready for the last few laps. Chad Gerlach attacked the break with 7 to go, but everyone kept rotating through and he was brought back. With 1.1 laps to go, a DBC kid attacked hard, and I attacked to chase. This attacking strung the break out, and we dropped a few guys, which was the hope. Gerlach attacked as soon as the top 3 guys came back together on the backstretch and no one could answer. As I was setting up for the sprint, a couple guys came flying past us into the final turn. I had no idea they were there. My bad dawg.
Ended up 5th overall.
Couple mistakes to learn from. 1) 1 rider in a 10 man break is not enough. Our team should not have sat on that kind of move. 2) I should have waited for Gerlach's move instead of going with a full lap to go. Wasted some valuable matches there only to be caught.
Still, another top-5 for the Elite team. It's been a good year so far! It's great to see all our guys up at the front working and attacking and whatnot.
Thanks for reading,
Rand
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Modesto Criterium
05/16/09
Modesto, CA
Weather: like 110 degrees. seriously.
Teammates: James Badia, Rob Macneill, Matt Beebe
Place: 8th of ~60
Full Results
I should not have even been at this race. I am supposed to be locked up in a room with books and papers and equations and pain and suffering, studying for my PhD qualifying exam.
Nevertheless, I am addicted to bike racing and so, on a whim, I loaded my car and drove out to Modesto on a record-setting hot day. This was a pretty standard downtown course (though the downtown course is rapidly becoming a scarcity): 6 corners with a TON of botts dots. Not super windy, but really hot.
Those who know me can guess how the race went.
Flurry of attacks, breakaway sticks with me and 9 other guys. We all roll around for a while yelling at each other to 'pull through' and 'dont be sissies' and to 'hold your line idiot' and 'we're gonna get caught' and 'you have three teammates so you best start pulling' and 'seriously, stop clipping your pedal moron' and pretty much every combination of the above.
2 laps to go, we are still away but in jeopardy of being caught. I start cramping and cannot get out of the saddle. I feebly attempt to attack, which looks pathetic when you are unable to stand up or even pedal smoothly. Going into the final sprint, I pretend like I have something left in hopes that it will intimidate my break-mates into handing me the win. Alas, they called my bluff and I got rocked. I finished 8th out of 10 breakmates.
I am going to implement a new system whereby I assess my performance with letter grades:
Finish Position: D
Tactics: C-
Style: F
Overall: FAIL.
Good thing I am in school for something else besides bike racing...
Thanks for reading!
Rand
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Modesto Road Race
05/17/09
Modesto, CA
Weather: Ridiculously hot
Teammates: Matt Beebe
Place: 10th of ~30
My legs were a little tired going into this race from racing two races the day before in downtown Modesto. I was talked into doing this race by teammate Neil Harrington, ultimately he ended up not doing the race so Matt and I were left with the smallest team Webcor has fielded so far this year. That doesn't mean we weren't going to try and ride like a big team. The plan was to be aggressive and try to ride near the front of the group, following moves or attacking and creating moves on our own. The course is a flat 9 mile circuit with lots of 90 degrees turns. It was a full road closure and run all on farming roads.
The race started out pretty slow for about the first 5 minutes. After that it was really fast the entire time. Lots of attacks were attempted in the first half of the race with myself and Beebe sharing the load of assuring Webcor had representation. Just after the mid point of the race a break of about 10 guys went and Beebe and I were not in it. I didn't think the break would stick but soon the pack started slowing and the time gap increased. Beebe and I both went to the front and attempted to organize a chase effort but no one was willing to comply. I recovered for about 5min. sitting in the pack then went to the front and again tried to organize a chase. No one would help and there were 2 laps to go, the break had a minute 30 seconds on the field. At this point I decided to attack. I was able to get separation. At this time I decided to just go into TT mode and see what happened. I continued to increase my time gap over the field. When I was about 30 seconds in front of the field two riders bridged up to me. The 3 of us started working together and we continued to open our gap to the field and reduce the gap to the lead group. In the end we would finish about 15 seconds behind the lead group and 90 seconds in front of the field. I finished 10th place in the overall.
In the end it was a solid race and great training for the summer races to come. I felt pretty good given the heat, it was nice to get in to the air conditioned car and get out of the central valley.
--
James
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