Time to catch up with all the races since March. Most of my posts are detailed recounts of everything that happened leading up to and including race day. Getting ready for Gavin to be born, school work, my job, and trying to get things done around the house has pushed reporting to the wayside. So to get up to date I am going to do a race report similar to what you would get on a team website or in a journal.
Redlands Classic- Fresh off my crash at the TdM I lined up at the Redlands Classic. Anne was sick that weekend so I was racing with no supporters. The race was very fast, as expected with a national race calendar race. Last year I think I made 5 laps before I was way off the back and maybe 7 before I was pulled. This year I stayed near the middle of the field for the whole race. There were a number of crashes especially on the sharp corner after the uphill finishing straight. There was a big crash in the final corner that almost caught my teammate and I but we managed a 27th and 28th place finish respectively.
Cyclevets Classic- Fun course, only one turn and then the rest was a big oval. There was only a small hill on the back side so it was fast. I started near the front of the field. I was in the top 10 for the first 30 minutes of the race. With 5 laps to go I started to fall back some. I couldn’t figure out why I was falling back. With one lap to go there was a huge crash at the finish line for some reason I decided to swing out to the left on that lap. Every other lap I moved to the inside at the start finish line. Luckily for me the crash was on the right and I missed it. My teammate went down and was knocked out. I finished 26th and realized after I finished that my tire in the front was flat.
Dana Point Grand Prix- I was really looking forward to this race. I had fun at the course last year and it was the last race that I was pulled from. I knew that I would be able to finish this year as a CAT 4. It was the biggest starting field that I have ever been in, 143 people. I was sitting around 30th with 5 laps to go. I was trying to move up on the outside when I noticed someone go into the hay bales in turn one. I locked up the breaks but there was a second crash in the middle of the road. Everything happened very quickly and all I remember is that my back tire was locked on and bouncing off bikes all over the road. I don’t know how I stayed upright. I remember bouncing off a couple different racers and then my rear derailleur caught on someone’s frame and locked up my chain. I had to stop fix the chain and then I was way too far back to catch up.
From what I understand a rider in the back of the field crashed the lap before. Two motorcycle cops stopped just after the turn and blocked the rider. No one notified the riders that there were two vehicles blocking the road right after the turn. The field was traveling at about 33MPH. The leader of the middle line hit the bike in the middle of the road. It broke his frame in half and he was pretty scraped up. The guy that hit the hay bale was trying to get around the second motorcycle. All I saw were bikes flying and riders squeezing together. There was no damage to my bike thankfully but I was disappointed to not finish the race for the second year in a row.
Overall the races went good. I have made huge gains since last year. I talked to a guy that I met last year in the CAT 5’s. Last year he was able to finish races when I was getting spit off the back. We both moved into the CAT 4’s this year and he is now getting spit off the back. I am finishing in the top 25 at most races. I am looking forward to continuing in my improvement and turning my focus towards triathlons in the future.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Tour De Murrieta
The Tour de Murrieta, the beginning, where everything started for my life as an amateur cyclist. I still remember signing up last year thinking that I would finish with the pack and could possibly have a shot to win the race. I signed up for a circuit race not understanding what that meant and had no idea what a big ring roller meant.
I have learned a lot in a year. I learned that racing is a lot faster than the average person thinks. I learned that average speed is useless. Most races surge repeatedly so it doesn’t matter if you can ride at 23mph for an hour. The question is can you jump up to 28mph then slow down to 20mph for a minute before jumping back up to a high speed.
I was pretty confident going into the TdM this year. I signed up for all three events. I got in touch with all my teammates to see if they wanted to develop a plan of attack. I went and pre-rode all three courses and felt really confident. I did pretty well at Ontario the week before and I thought it was going to be a good weekend.
I talked to Saul Rasin on the phone for a little bit about how to attack the weekend. He is a former pro cyclist and is full of knowledge. I decided to park near the start house on Friday and warm up on the trainer. The other option was to park near the finish line so that you didn’t have to make the 20 mile ride back to the start line.
I decided to take the advice of several riders and I started warming up earlier than I did last year. I used to warm up for about 15-20 minutes. Lately I have been warming up for about 30 minutes. I decided to warm up for about 45 for the Time Trial because I expected to be finished with the course in about 13 minutes.
I felt like I had a good workout and I was ready to go. I started to head house but you had to go through some water to get there. I had just got over the hill and I managed to flip over the handle bars and face plant into the road. It felt super slow going down but I was moving pretty quick. There was another rider right there and I jumped up and asked him if the cut was bad. He gave be a shocked look and then said yes.
I quickly rode to the ambulance and had them put a bandage on my face. I looked at my bike and there was blood everywhere, my gloves were bloody, and I could see blood drops on the ground near the ambulance. I kept yelling for them to hurry because my start time was coming up.
They finished and I sprinted to the start line. I heard them calling my number and I was trying to yell to let them know I was coming. I got to the start line and they were already counting me down. The holder grabbed the bike and I got both feet clipped in and it was time to go. I started out fine but after the first small hill I realized that the tape restricted how much I could open my mouth to suck air.
Halfway through the course I started to feel the sting from the sweat running across the road rash. Everything started to hurt but I just pushed on. There was a 1 mile dirt section that was very steep. I sat up and pedaled but it wasn’t as fast as I know I could go. I was passed by two guys that started after me on that dirt section. I pushed as hard as my body would let me. The bike felt off but I couldn’t tell if it was the bike or me.
I got to the finish line and I was relieved to be done with that course. I rode to the dirt section and started to look at the bike. It was at that point that I realized that the fork was broken. It was cracked all the through and most likely was the whole way up the hill. I don’t know how it didn’t snap off on the off road section. I got a ride back to the start line since there was no way I was going to chance riding it back. This was my team’s race so I decided to put off the hospital and I worked my shift for the rest of the race.
After the finish of all the races I drove down to the start line and found Matt, the owner of I.E. bikes, to get my bike fixed. He put it in his truck and drove it to his shop. After I knew that the bike was going to be taken care of I drove over to urgent care. They cleaned me up and gave me 5 stitches, 2 in the crease of the lip and 3 in the lower part of my chin.
I immediately went to the bike shop from there to check on my bike. They replaced the fork with one from a women’s bike. They primered it white for me because the original colors were silver and purple. I tried to race on Saturday but everything hurt. It hurt to get out of bed that day but I wouldn’t admit it. I warmed up but way shorter than normal because I wanted to save the pain tolerance for the race. The race didn’t go well. I had a bruise on my chest that made it hard to breath, one on my knee that made it hard to stand and pedal and bruises on both wrist that caused me to cringe with every bump in the road. I only made it half of the race before I was spit out the back and pulled off the course.
I have learned a lot in a year. I learned that racing is a lot faster than the average person thinks. I learned that average speed is useless. Most races surge repeatedly so it doesn’t matter if you can ride at 23mph for an hour. The question is can you jump up to 28mph then slow down to 20mph for a minute before jumping back up to a high speed.
I was pretty confident going into the TdM this year. I signed up for all three events. I got in touch with all my teammates to see if they wanted to develop a plan of attack. I went and pre-rode all three courses and felt really confident. I did pretty well at Ontario the week before and I thought it was going to be a good weekend.
I talked to Saul Rasin on the phone for a little bit about how to attack the weekend. He is a former pro cyclist and is full of knowledge. I decided to park near the start house on Friday and warm up on the trainer. The other option was to park near the finish line so that you didn’t have to make the 20 mile ride back to the start line.
I decided to take the advice of several riders and I started warming up earlier than I did last year. I used to warm up for about 15-20 minutes. Lately I have been warming up for about 30 minutes. I decided to warm up for about 45 for the Time Trial because I expected to be finished with the course in about 13 minutes.
I felt like I had a good workout and I was ready to go. I started to head house but you had to go through some water to get there. I had just got over the hill and I managed to flip over the handle bars and face plant into the road. It felt super slow going down but I was moving pretty quick. There was another rider right there and I jumped up and asked him if the cut was bad. He gave be a shocked look and then said yes.
I quickly rode to the ambulance and had them put a bandage on my face. I looked at my bike and there was blood everywhere, my gloves were bloody, and I could see blood drops on the ground near the ambulance. I kept yelling for them to hurry because my start time was coming up.
They finished and I sprinted to the start line. I heard them calling my number and I was trying to yell to let them know I was coming. I got to the start line and they were already counting me down. The holder grabbed the bike and I got both feet clipped in and it was time to go. I started out fine but after the first small hill I realized that the tape restricted how much I could open my mouth to suck air.
Halfway through the course I started to feel the sting from the sweat running across the road rash. Everything started to hurt but I just pushed on. There was a 1 mile dirt section that was very steep. I sat up and pedaled but it wasn’t as fast as I know I could go. I was passed by two guys that started after me on that dirt section. I pushed as hard as my body would let me. The bike felt off but I couldn’t tell if it was the bike or me.
I got to the finish line and I was relieved to be done with that course. I rode to the dirt section and started to look at the bike. It was at that point that I realized that the fork was broken. It was cracked all the through and most likely was the whole way up the hill. I don’t know how it didn’t snap off on the off road section. I got a ride back to the start line since there was no way I was going to chance riding it back. This was my team’s race so I decided to put off the hospital and I worked my shift for the rest of the race.
After the finish of all the races I drove down to the start line and found Matt, the owner of I.E. bikes, to get my bike fixed. He put it in his truck and drove it to his shop. After I knew that the bike was going to be taken care of I drove over to urgent care. They cleaned me up and gave me 5 stitches, 2 in the crease of the lip and 3 in the lower part of my chin.
I immediately went to the bike shop from there to check on my bike. They replaced the fork with one from a women’s bike. They primered it white for me because the original colors were silver and purple. I tried to race on Saturday but everything hurt. It hurt to get out of bed that day but I wouldn’t admit it. I warmed up but way shorter than normal because I wanted to save the pain tolerance for the race. The race didn’t go well. I had a bruise on my chest that made it hard to breath, one on my knee that made it hard to stand and pedal and bruises on both wrist that caused me to cringe with every bump in the road. I only made it half of the race before I was spit out the back and pulled off the course.
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