Burlingame Criterium Race Report 2006

Date: 6/25 06
Course: L-shaped technical crit
Category: Elite 3
Field: 87
Teammate: Channing (2nd)
Place: 20th / 27mph avg speed
Results: http://burlingamecriterium.com/athletes/results.html


Well you might have seen Channing’s race report and I don’t have much to add to it. This race is one I like allot but this morning (8:40am), the race wasn’t so good for me. I only got 10~min of warm-up and felt crappy up until the closing laps of the race. Channing was holding a great position up near the front but I could not stay up there. Again I have to say that the quality of riders is as bad as, or worse than the 4 fields I left only a month ago. What a friggn’ mess!

With 2 laps to go I felt like my legs were ready to go and I planned to move up in the final lap, drill it to the final turn, then sprint with whatever I had left. I managed to get into decent outside position going into the sweeper across from Channing. Then right before the last turn some guy bangs Ben from Squdera and he and another rider swerve towards me and I had to evasive maneuver at the worst time, Right when I should have been winding up for the sprint. I stayed off the ground though and half-ass sprinted into 20th place. Disappointing for sure until I heard Channing got 2nd. After that I felt a lot better. I looked forward to the next race, which would be my first foray into the Masters 1/2/3 and hoped for a good, clean, fast race…..



Category: Master 35+ 1/2/3
Field: 94
Teammate: Channing (27th)
Place: 20th / 28.3 mph avg speed
Finish Line Photo link:http://kckphoto.smugmug.com/gallery/1600554/1/77713129


Lining up on the front row I was happy to be in the “big show” so to speak. This is a field littered with ex-badass pros and national champs. I had heard from lots of people that there is no messing around in this class and at this point I was willing to get hammered by the big dogs if it meant I could run a fast, clean race without jamming on the brakes in every turn.

The race was fast pretty much from the start, but hey! Hardly any brakes in the corners and I could stay in the drops and just pedal for a while. Things were looking like a repeat of the last race in the respect that Channing, once again, was holding perfect position and while I could move up from time to time to get on Channing’s wheel I couldn’t stay on his wheel and would get shuffled back a few places.

When your flying around at almost 30 mph it’s quite hard to move up just like that! I knew I would have to be patient and wait for the opportunities to come to me and if nothing else be prepared to go with the surge I thought would come on the final lap. So that’s just what I did. On the final lap I was in the top 30 and exiting the chicane I planned to just sprint out and down the straight into the sweeper and sprint again and see what happened.

Things sort of worked out good, I came around Channing just as there was a separation and I made it into the front group. Exhausted as I was, I sprinted for all I had. I managed to get into 20th ….again but at least it felt like a hard earned 20th and I am happy with the result.

Thoughts…….

I felt I was not aggressive enough in the 3’s race but was ok in the Masters race mostly due to not feeling that good early.
Racing when your not 100% is frustrating but a humbling experience.
Doing the double and with the faster/ harder race later I felt amazing good cardio wise; this is a good sign for the looming CX season.
In a Crit, to be in contention for the podium you have to ride in the front 10 guys almost all the time, unless you’re on super form and you ride around everybody! ( I know this, but got a little reminder!)
I have been riding consistently and feeling better week to week. In the past this has lead to good results so I’ll keep plugging away and hope the horsepower shows up at Davis, Lafayette, or the Cougar MTN weekend before I take a break before cross.

Giddi-up!