Locally, the Webcor/Alto Velo Men's team had a great weekend of crit racing this past Saturday and Sunday. Rand scored two big results for the team with a 3rd place at the Dash 4 Cash and a WIN at the Two-Wheel Crit. Justin also got a nice top-5 in the first one, while Neil got a top-10 in the second. Good team racing all weekend long! Below are Rand's reports from both crits.
Farther afield, our rider Ryan Parnes is participating in the Nature Valley Grand Prix after the W/AV team help secure him a expenses paid composite team rider spot through his win at the Wente Omnium. He scored an excellent 16th place in the opening time trial against a 150 rider strong field with a lot of fast pros. In fact, Ryan was in 2nd place in the amateur GC after the first stage. He had some bad luck in the stage 2 crit, dropping down a bit in the standings, but he's focused on doing well for the upcoming stages.
NVGP Stage 1 Report in cyclingnews
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2009 ICCC Dash for Cash
Pleasanton, CA
Weather: Windy and warm
Teammates: Justin Fraga, James Badia, Brian Buchholz, Rob MacNeill, Neil Harrington, Graham Simpson
Place: 3rd of ~120
Full Results
This is a pretty wide-open, normal crit course with some technical dodging of road dividers on the backside due to the heavy crosswinds. I typically enjoy racing crits in the wind because, well, it hurts more, and guttering races is a lot of fun.
Justin and I rolled over the hill to Pleasanton, both feeling somewhat apathetic about racing. We decided that was probably for the best...why waste energy being amped up BEFORE the race? However, after a bit more caffeine and some Masters race heckling, we felt a bit more lively.
I felt terrible at the start of this race. Legs were dead, no snap. So I kept attacking and covering attacks, praying that they would come around.
The team had excellent coverage in all the major breakaways of the day. Good riding by everyone involved. I think I saw every teammate at the front at one time or another.
Frankly, my memory of this race is not great. I have no idea when or how it happened, but somehow Justin and I ended up in a completely disorganized break of about 12 riders with maybe...10 laps to go. Steve Reaney, Dean LaBerge, Larry Nolan and Joel Robertson were in the break with us. Few people were rotating smoothly, so we basically took turns attacking and countering.
Here is where it gets ugly.
With 3 laps to go, I was off the front of the break with Joel Robertson. Quite a nice setup, actually, because he is one of the fastest guys out there in terms of long-term speed but is not the best of sprinters.
Well, Reaney bridged up to us with one other rider as I was finishing my pull, and I drifted back to slot in behind them. Meanwhile, Joel sped up and Reaney looked to me to pull him back.
This is where bike racing is actually decided...these split second decisions at the critical turning points of the race. I could either dig deep, burn a match, and also bring Reaney up to Joel...or I could play poker, let the gap open, and bet that Steve would eventually close the gap.
Turns out neither one happened. Joel turned up the heat, while Reaney and I sat there staring at each other. The remnants of the break caught up to us, and Joel pulled out to about a 15 second lead with 1 lap to go.
Poor communication and a disorganized break meant that, with 1/2 a lap to go, Joel STILL had a 15 second gap. I swear he is half-mule, or half-ox or half-Jens Voigt. Anyway, I attacked with absolutely everything I had into the final cross/headwind stretch, getting a small gap. I distinctly remember looking ahead to see Joel giving the victory salute, then looking back to see Dean LaBerge sprinting up behind me. I pulled out the ugliest, most pathetic "sprint" I could muster at that point, heaved my bike in the general direction of the finish line, only to get beat by a flying LaBerge, dropping me down to 3rd place. Fraga rolled through just behind in 5th. Buchholz won the field sprint for 12th.
Not a bad result, and hats off to Joel for being a man and laying it on the line. Thanks to the team for the hard work, sorry we couldn't pull of the win.
Again, I will be grading myself on relevant aspects of the race:
Style: C- (I literally caught my chamois on my seat when I attempted a bike throw)
Tactics: F
Being a Sissy: A+
Overall: Get a new hobby
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Two Wheel Crit 2009
Rohnert Park, CA
Weather: Hurricane-force wind, sunny
Teammates: Peter Cazalet, Neil Harrington, Brian Peterson, Tom Fahey
Place: 1st of ~50
This course looked ridiculous on the map. It looked sort of like a cheap knockoff of Land Park without all the cool chicanes. WRONG. In fact, it was an undulating, exposed, meandering course that, when combined with the wind made for some interesting racing. I'd highly recommend going next year.
Anyway, Neil made an early break, which came back in a lap or two. I countered a few times, and finally about 20 minutes into the 75 minute race, I got off the front with Joel Robertson (the big elk from Sierra Pacific), Joe Ianarelli from Clif Bar, and a guy from Lombardi. Clif and Lombardi had the big teams in the race, so we were able to get a decent gap pretty quickly. Then, poor Mr. Lombardi guy got dropped, after having helped us get out to about 45 seconds ahead of the field. Bummer.
The three of us were fully committed to the move, which totally sucked, to be completely honest. We had almost an hour to go in ripping head/crosswinds, with a lot of strong riders having missed the break, and an unhappy Lombardi team organizing a chase. A betting man would probably have put money on the break coming back. But then again, we did have Jens Robertson with us...
Anyway, we got the gap to 55 seconds about 30 minutes into the race, at which point the pack made a serious effort to close us down. The gap plummeted to 25 seconds.
Joel and I looked at one another, and without uttering a word, communicated the following:
"Lets get the $%&* outta here"
With a lot of help from the Clif Bar rider, we pushed as hard as we could. In one lap, the gap grew to 1:15.
Heading into 1 lap to go, we had a 1:00 gap on a group of chasers, and 1:30 on the field. Haunted by the demons of yesterday's botched finish, I attacked on the windiest part of the course, with 1/2 a lap to go. I did not want to sprint against Ianarelli, as I know he has a good finishing kick.
I managed to stay away solo for the win. Joel rolled across in 2nd, Joe was 3rd. Neil came in at 7th after making it into the chasing group...great ride by him.
I definitely want to thank my teammates for helping to shut down the field. Great job by Peter, Brian, Neil and Tom. Seriously, can't say how awesome it is to have such solid teammates.
Rand
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