Blackberry Criterium 9/6/09

WET! That is the only word I can think of to describe the race and the weekend for that matter.

We, being Lindsay and my parents arrived to partial clear skies about a hour in a half early with a race start at 11:00. We hung around a bit as they worked on getting the course finalized and waiting for registration to open. Just as I got suited up and was ready to begin warm up it started down pouring. My plan was to warm up under cover on the trainer but I thought it would be better to do that on the course so I knew what I was getting into. I was going to get wet anyways, I figured no sense in delaying the inevitable. The course was shaped as a square bowl with 2 turns at the top of each side. I actually really liked it as we pretty much had 4 lanes all to ourselves on both sides of the course. During my warm up I almost crashed as the cross wind was really brutal coming down the start/finish side and I was so close I unclipped one of my feet anticipated hitting the deck. Thankfully I didn't.



As you can see it is pretty wet.

I decided to go with out a rain jacket as my thought was it would slow me down in a sprint and or be a bit of a issue. It probably wouldn't but in my mind I already convinced myself that and it wasn't cold, just wet. I had every intention on making sure I was there at the end for the sprint and was fairly confident I could finish on the podium. As I have proved in the past my plans sometimes don't work out in the end but I had a plan atleast. We had a total of 22 or 23 riders so the field was pretty small but I was surprised there was that many with the way the weather was. The race started a little slower than usual due to the obvious storm that was taking place while we were racing. Just think, racing on a bike with tires no wider than that of a nickel in the rain and NASCAR won't even race in the rain with 4 wheels!



With 6 or so laps to go I was in the middle of the pack near the front when a Wines rider went to the front and got away. I yelled that there was someone coming up and a Cucina Fresca rider next to me said "Ah let him go, he is going to early". I watched 2 more guys bridge the gap to the Wines rider and got to thinking that I should move closer to the front. With 5 laps to go the break away of 3 seemed to be working together and were gaining more time on us. As we went by the start/finish line to get 5 laps left I decided I should try and bridge the gap. I went as hard as I could and pulled a good size gap on the field and closed in on the 3 in front. It seemed everytime I would get closer to the 3 leaders they would move a little farther away.



This was the worse possible scenerio I could be in- stuck right in the middle of the two groups taking the full brunt of the wind working my a$$ off. I was able to catch one of the riders on the last lap but the field passed me going down the hill right before the finish. I sat up and coasted through in 12th place. Not to bad of a race. There were no crashes which is great because it was pretty slick out there. Thanks to the family and Lindsay for the pictures. Good to have them there cheering me on in the weather.





The dogs taking in the action.

Until next season!

Lake Velo # 3 Carnation

This course was a flat course out in the farm land of Carnation. Friday night it rained all night and when I woke up Saturday morning it was still raining. Boo. I wasn't really looking forward to racing in the rain. A good friend of mine Jake Frame who used to race pretty seriously a few years ago (I'm trying to get him back into it) and seem's to know all the local racers, once told me he would never ride in the rain. Back when he told me that I didn't really understand it because at the time I was just riding the bicycle for motorcycle race training. Now I understand it. I raced in the rain and snow earlier in the year and since April I think I have raced once in the rain. That is several months of loving the sun and dry weather. I understand now Jake, thank you.

The race series is put on by Hagens Berman Cycling Team Pro/AM team which holds a few of our Cycle U coaches and seems to dominate the local race scene. The whole way up it rained. When I arrived it was down to a mist. We had a large team show up with 9 Cycle U members ready to race and hoping it would dry out. Sure enough with about 20 minutes to go the weather cleared up. We unlayered and lined up to race.

It started somewhat calm then picked up in pace. A couple guys tried getting away right on the first lap so that made the pace even faster. The next lap was fairly calm. We were doing a total of 6 laps. We came around a corner and a friend of the teams that races at Pacific Raceways and is a very strong triathlete as well as a top Time Trialist hit the deck hard right in front of me. He landed hard and I could hear the wind being punched out of him. That kinda shook me up a bit and then a lap later there was another pile up in the same corner with 5 guys taking Chris down from the team. However he was up quick and trying to get back on his bike when I went by. Every lap after that we were all tip toeing through that corner. We let 1 guy get off the front for a lap or two. The pace kept speeding up and slowing down which made staying on Rolly's wheel difficult. With 2 laps to go the "plan" was to get 2 or 3 guys to the front to hammer the pace on the last lap and then Rolly would lead me out for the sprint. Plans never seem to happen the way you want them too. None of the other teams in the group wanted to work to get the guy off the front back, so Rolly moved to the front and started putting in some hard efforts that snapped the guys back to what we were doing. We were racing bikes, not on a Sunday ride. The pace increased and I was able to get on the back of Rolly's wheel with half a lap to go. This is when the extra power from good ole adrenaline comes into play. Everyone is bumping trying to get in the best position as we came around the last corner. It was really nice because we had both lanes at 1000 meters. Normally it is only at 200 meters. I sat on his wheel as long for a little bit then everyone started sprinting by us. I moved out and went, but knew we still had a ways to go so I didn't crush the pedals too hard. I went by a few guys that sprinted to early and got behind a Hagens Berman rider. I moved over to his left on the shoulder and began my sprint. Just as I did that he moved over as well and I had to sit up. Wrong place at the wrong time. I rode across the line right behind the top 3.



It was a fun race and I finally was able to get myself in a position to try for a win. Our pace was just under 25 mph on average. My max speed was 39.7 on the sprint. Thanks to Rolly for taking control and getting me up there with a chance.

Last race of the year is in Bremerton at the Blackberry Festival on Sunday 9/06.