Monday, November 27, 2006

CCCX #3 Prundale

All Photos By: Rick Rasmussen
And they're off!

Central Coast Cyclocross Round #3

Catagory: Elite Men

Place: 14th/ 24

Teammates: none

10 laps/ 1 Hour

This was the third round of the Central Coast Series. I did round #1 at the same venue (Manzanita Park) and then missed #2 being in L.V. for Interbike. Round #1 was my first "official" Elite race and while I enjoyed the course, I got a healthy beatin' with all the fast guys in attendance, I finished 25th place and got lapped with 2 to go by the top 3? A wee bit ego crushing.

Anyway..... Brian Rogers asked me if I wanted to carpool so I picked him up around 10:00am and we headed off. It was nice to have some company on the long drive down. There were some light sprinkles on the windshield but nothing much really. We arrived in good time, reg'ed and I got my ass out and did me some laps. I had almost no warm up last week so it was my priority to get in at least 5-6 laps under 80% HR with one being a hot lap. I managed to get that all in 43 Min's. OK not to bad. I felt reasonably good for staying out until 2am drinking with friends, gotta love the beer carbs.

The course used a lot of the same stuff as round #1 so it made it a little easier for me to get used to the layout. I really liked the super fast right hand sweeper turn by the bleachers and the triple barrier to downhill section. The long pavement start uphill, is also good for me being somewhat of a roadie/ sprinter.

I managed a good start position and we're off... I got clipped in and started to move up on the way up the hill. It bottle necked up top into a chicane, so positioning was very important. I got onto the dirt in around 12th place maybe? It was already stringing out fast, so it was hard to tell for sure.

On the rivet mid-race.

I was holding my spot pretty good until the middle of the 2nd lap when the dreaded Lactic acid "lead legs" feeling crept over me and I knew I had to back off a bit to let it clear out that's when I started to loose spots pretty quick. One here, one there one everywhere! While better than last week, I need to get a handle on the warm up process. I am still figuring out what it is "I" need to get to the start line "opened up" and ready to go...

Tackling the run up.

Finally the legs came back online and I was able to start putting it down and I found my groove on the course. I was reeling in guys here and there, finally catching Rick Hunter. We traded pulls for a few laps then started to catch a few more guys. At this point I was feeling quite strong so I set off on my own to chase down Jason Rahwles. It took me about 1.5 laps and we rode together for a bit. I was going well over the triple barrier and decided to try to gap Jason with 2 laps to go. I flew top speed into the barriers clearing all and with a one step remount, lept over my bike! I guess the rear tire bounced on the ground, kicked sideways and the seat was not where it was supposed to be! I looked up to see Jason go flying past me while on the ground. Well, after my Ninja like safety roll, I sprang up, nabbed the bike and got back on before he was 1/2 way to the baseball infields. I felt ok and put my head down to catch back. I came real close sprinting up the hill but came up short by about 4 bike lengths or 3 seconds however you want to look at it......

What a race. I liked the course better than last time here. It had more "flow" at least for me. I got to actually race and had some power left in the end to close down the gap on the final lap. When the legs protested here and there I just pictured Barry on my ass and the motivation to not get lapped was huge (thanks Barry!)

Big thanks to the Ritchey boy's (Dave, Lander, John) and others for hanging out and cheering me on. On the way home Brian and I got some food and bench raced the whole way home.... Good stuff.

Also, props to the CCCX crew. You guys put on a good race. It makes the long drive worth it! I sure hope there's beer for the final, that rocked last year!

Up Next.... Sunday, Sunday, Sunday! Pilarcitos Round#5 at Coyote Point, BIG FUN...

See ya there!




1 Comments:

Blogger velopicante said...

NICO!
when you mentioned "lead legs" I cringed thinking you were going to have a bad race. way to turn your race around! your just a regular bad ass!

look'n forward to CCCP! I love that course. cya!

09:47  

Post a Comment

<< Home