Panoche Valley Road Race a.k.a. My First Road Race

It's been a while since my last blog and things have changed over the past month. Two weeks ago the NCNCA (Northern California Nevada Cycling Association) approved an upgrade from Category 5 to Category 4, so this morning I went to my first road race (not criterium) as a "Cat 4"

For those confused with the last sentence - my first road events were the Ronde van Brisbeen Criterium and the Ronde van Brisbeen Circuit race. There is a difference between a circuit, criterium and road race - please read below

Wikipedia Definitions (sounds good to me)

A criterium, or crit, is a type of bike race held on a short course (usually less than 5 km), often run on closed-off city centre streets.

Road bicycle racing is a popular bicycle racing sport held on roads (following the geography of the area), using racing bicycles. The term 'road racing' is usually applied to events where competing riders start simultaneously (unless riding a handicap event) with the winner being the first at the end of the course (individual and team time trials are another form of cycle racing on roads).

The morning started out with massive bathroom lines and people spinning on their trainers in the shade. My teammate and I registered and changed into our kits and bathed in sun block for the long ride ahead. The morning temperature was in the high 80's and would reach 95 (Fahrenheit) at the end of the race. We sat on the start line for 3 minutes as the race director explained the road conditions and other tidbits of information. The first 5-7 miles of the race were mellow enough to chat and was a welcoming break from the full throttle starts in cyclocross. My teammate and I moved to the front of the peloton and made some nice efforts on the climbs. The group worked together though a canyon until we reached an area with people handing out water bottles. Someone decided this would be a great place to attack and the pace went from 20 to 30(+) miles per hour. My teammate and I were exchanging a water bottle and noticed the break going, so we had to make an extra effort to pull ourselves back into the game. The main group shot down a winding downhill section reaching speeds up to 43 miles per hour. My teammate hit a nasty pothole causing his front wheel to flat and sending him into a corner on the side of the road. Luckily, his bike stayed upright, but could not finish the race. The group continued rocketing down the hill and into the flats before the turn around point of the race. The road back was another story and the tactics changed dramatically - the winds were insane. The group worked together into the head winds and one rider from Z-Team escaped for about 6 or 7 miles. Our group eventually caught the Z-Team rider (who would go on to win the final sprint) in the rolling hills. Overall, the lead group consisting of 28 riders worked together on the way back to the finish line. The race ended in a mass sprint to line and it took some non-sprinter types to get things rolling 500 meters from the line. I made several pulls during the race and was satisfied with my first road race - 17th place. There were several sections where I pulled the main group - not bad for chicken sticks.

This weekend is the Mt. Hamilton road race and I look forward to the 22 mile climb and steep decent on the backside - maybe this race will suit my body type. Anyway, here are some highlights from the Panoche Valley Road Race.

Coke was served at the end of the race in buckets of ice :)

Bees swarmed the group 3 miles into the race - the group started yelling "bees! bees!" - what can you do?

My teammate and I got attacked while exchanging a water bottle in the feed zone

I got stung (by a wasp) several times between my shoulder blades and some riders started slapping my back to kill the little bastard - I had to pull him from my jersey and he continued to sting my hand

Did not expect my chicken sticks to pull a group in the windy flats and short climbs

Sharing a Round Table Pizza with my teammate (so easy to please)

Thanks for reading.

Priorities

A picture (image) is worth a thousand words

Time to re-build

Ronde van Brisbeen Criterium

Last weekend I competed in my first road event (EVER) as a Category 5 rider – the only road experience had been from group rides and the Mt. Tam Hill Challenge. It was difficult to fall asleep the night before the race and the techno music across the street did not help my situation. The next morning I jumped into the shower at 5:30am and had a Clif Bar for breakfast with a double shot of espresso. My teammate rolled up to the apartment at 6:15am and we loaded his car with wheels, trainer, bike and my gear bag.

The course was being set-up as we drove into the parking lot and a few riders were already spinning on their trainers. Matt and I unpacked our gear and walked to the registration to get our numbers. Once back to the car we set-up the trainers and spun for about 30-40 minutes with hooded sweatshirts and iPOD in the back pocket of my jersey.

The race course had a few technical areas and a 180 degree turn which caused several people to fall on the 2nd and 3rd lap of our race. I rode up front to avoid the chaos and worked with some riders to push the pace. Eventually, one rider wanted to work together and we rode away from the pack for 3 laps until he dropped back into the main group. There were 12 laps to go and I did not want to slow down, so I put my head down and visualized a cyclocross race or time trial. The wind was strong on the main straight away, so I stayed low and aero in my hoods for most of the race. During the final laps I threw up on myself – it was funny and tasted like cookies and Red Bull. On the last lap I stepped the pace up one more time and finished strong. This weekend I plan on racing the Martinez Criterium and look forward to more road race experience. In the meantime I will do my best to keep the page updated with fresh news and interesting articles.

Thanks for reading

My Ride

In a perfect world free of giant SUVs and other annoying vehicles - you would see me driving this car to the races and weekend outings. There are some great concepts in the world and I can only hope to see them in application during my lifetime.

2008 Road Season

This evening I rode down to the Design Center to meet a teammate who passed along the 2008 racing kit - it's finally in my hands. Tomorrow I plan on wearing the new kit on my evening ride to get accustomed to the fit and figure out what modifications might be needed. The sleeves are a bit tight on my bicep and this is strange since my arms are small. The bib shorts have a larger elastic band on the lower section of the leg which is supposed to compress the crucial areas of the leg during rides or races. This new kits brings motivation to lose a few pounds before any serious racing begins ;)

Thanks for reading

Power Juice

Like cars need gas to drive... I need illy to ride on the weekends.

It's been a blessing and a pleasure to have an illy cafe across the street from my apartment. Some mornings it's hard to wake up and the smell of fresh espresso wakes the senses before a long day on the bike.

My weapon of choice?

Espresso doppio

The Gitana 13

The other day I stopped to take a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge on my morning ride and accidentally snapped a picture of a world record sail boat entering the Bay. I just returned from my morning ride before work and thought the sail boat made a nice picture under the bridge, so I took a few shots with my digital camera. Later I read in the SF Weekly about the sail boat which set the fastest time from New York to San Francisco.