Wente Vineyards Road Race (17-18s) Race Report

When I checked online for the already registered riders, I was expecting a more stronger (not that this field wasn't strong!) field, or in other words a larger turnout with the Juniors who are out of my league. Fortunately, there was no Cat 2+ Junior, but the National Cyclocross Junior Champion Bjorn Fox was racing, who I raced at San Bruno and Mt. Tam in 2010. A guy from Team Bicycles Plus was also a strong rider, and finally, Alex Freund from Davis who is the 15-16s of the JPS last year. Other than that, there was a total of 8 of us in the field.

I usually don't race in the 17s-18s because everybody is ahead of me in terms of almost everything; race experience, equipment, category, fitness, etc. and so it really discourages me from competing with these guys (I got lucky at San Bruno '11). So anyways I got a ride from Alex who was racing with me that day, and registered and everything and we went to rollout and OH NO. Apparently Alex didn't pass, even though he had blocked his gear the day before, to the same setup he had at Sea Otter. Alex started to panic and tried to find a screwdriver, but the Juniors 17/18s were already lined up and the next group to go. Luckily, they waited for him, and what happened was the official rolled out again and since it was so close he just let him go. PHEW.

The start of our race was very calm. We rolled along at about 15mph and we were going easy, which was good because Alex and I didn't have time to warm up, even though we had our trainers and everything. I recognized Alex Freund from Davis Bike Club and the J17/18 National Cyclocross Champion Bjorn Fox. The other CAT3 rider Garrett Hankins was in the front of the pack of about 12-13ish since the Junior Ladies were mixed with us. I knew I had to watch out for Alex and Bjorn so I stayed behind them for most of the 1st lap. The 1st Lap was completely uneventful, there were times it would go hard at the descent but I don't think any of the Junior Guys were dropped. The wind was picking up though.

By Lap 2 I was surprised I had so much energy. Coming into Lap 2, was that long stretch where a headwind was present. There were about 4-5 of us taking turns pulling, with Alex (teammate) telling me to not pull for so long. After the long roll in the wind, we were approaching the climb. About 1/3 through the 1km climb, like I expected, Bjorn attacked. Garrett and Alex Freund responded, while the rest of the not-as-experienced Juniors sat and watched. I didn't mean to be pessimistic, but I had already decided not to catch Bjorn's break since I know I would end up so exhausted and I didn't want to leave Alex behind (If I were to get dropped from exhaustion). Besides, I didn't race here to win, I raced to get good results. With the 3 away, I still had a chance of getting top 5. Remy from team swift did a lot of pulling. We weren't chasing whatsoever, but I was expecting him to drop back so we could pull, but he just stayed at the front. Alex followed, then me, then Nathan Carpenter from Tieni Duro. About half of the 2nd lap Nathan dropped back and for the rest of the lap (and race) it was Remy, Alex, and me.

The climbs were not bad. I found myself climbing in the 52t ring for most of the rollers, and the 39t for the rest. I only used my 30t (which I really need to get rid of!) to conserve energy. The climbs weren't bad at all but a gap would form between Alex and Remy during a descent. I don't know why I fall back on descents but I do know that I could pedal my way to close the gap, even though it means spinning out the 52t-14t. Even though it wasted energy, I caught up.

So we didn't see the 3 leaders for the whole 2nd lap. On the 3rd lap on the 1km climb, one of Remy's supporters had told him the "Davis guy" or Alex Freund was a minute ahead. This was great news, since I assumed he wasn't as agile on the climbs (agile referring to speed, but not power!) but he was one hell of a Time Trialist so he could gap us more on the flats and descents. So we were encouraged and we picked the speed up a little, went through the rollers and what not, and then descended to a marshal who told us to slow down. When I made that right turn I saw a whole bunch of cyclists stopped. NOOOOOOOOOO! This had ruined everything, well just the plan to catch up to Alex. Now our legs would feel all weird when we got back, or the gap would increase. We even thought that we'd be able to go at the same time as Alex and Garrett. They were able to leave before us though. We were probably there for 15ish minutes (which added to our overall times) and the three of us just chatted a good conversation. Apparently there was a bad crash and someone needed helicopter assistance. I hope they're okay.

Anyways final lap, I was stupid and hungry so I took a few bites of my Clif Bar. I swear it was the dumbest thing I could do, to eat during a descent (it was a straight descent) and so a gap had opened between me and Alex+Remy. It took a lot of energy to close the gap, and when I did I thought I had compromised my energy for the last climb, but I didn't. We ended in a group with some Cat 4 guys and we just rode to the hill. 1/3rd of the climb I went off the back to pick some speed up so I jumped to secure 4th place. Alex had also sprinted to the line for 5th place! It was a great result! I was pretty bummed when I saw Alex Freund right in front of me, I was 7 seconds behind him! But he did a good job and he deserved 3rd place.

I really like the course and I hope to do it again next year. The rolling hills are definitely my type, and when I get even stronger I look forward to doing more of these types of races.

Race: Wente Vineyards Road Race

Category: Juniors 17-18s

Place: 4th/ 8th

Menlo Park Grand Prix Race Report

Race #5 for 2011, Criterium #3. My attitude toward racing this criterium was rather different ever since getting tortured at Sea Otter. Previously, I would enter criteriums worried about the speed and how tired I would be. But since I realized that this crit wouldn't be as hard as the Sea Otter Road Race (And I was sure of it) I was able to give it my all.

I carpooled with Kenneth and we met up with Milaud, Alberto, and a few of the older racers, (sorry I've forgotten their names, I do remember Scott though). We started late due to a crash in the Women's field (I'm not sure which category, but a PenVelo Woman did go down, and I hope she is doing okay). So our schedule was mixed up, we had a warm-up plan in which we would end at 3:30, but in turns out our race didn't start until 4ish, so we had a long cool-down period. My warm-up was a small pattern, 5min zone 1, 3 min zone 2, 2 min going into zone 4 and 5, and reversed and repeat twice. I thought it was a pretty effective warm-up.

Going to the start line, I felt very neutral, as in, I wasn't nervous or anything and I felt cool and collected. We began with a neutral lap, which I was thankful for because it took about 5 chances to clip in. I sort of felt the neutral lap was pretty fast, but it was alright as I still had a lot of energy. The first few laps were typical of a Criterium, people in the front started off hard and so the pace tired out a few in the back, including Milaud who fell out of the pack with another rider. My objective was to stay in the left of the field so that I wouldn't get stuck in the inside of the turns since most turns were left turns. Our plan was to protect Kenneth our sprinter. He was doing a great job hanging on to my wheel, while I was trying to find a position at the front. During the 4th lap he flatted, and although officials allowed him to return once the whole field passed the start/finish, he was unable to catch the fast pace that the peloton held.

The rest of the race was pretty calm. There weren't too many sketchy riders, and I didn't experience a near-crash situation. On the super long stretch after turn 2, towards the end there was a headwind which caused the peloton to slow down, I used this as an advantage to recover and it really did help. Also, no matter how many times the mentor kept saying "Don't brake in the turns" someone still did it so when I was behind guys who did that, I wasted a lot of energy exiting the turns. But when I wasn't behind the brakers, I noticed that you can really fly through the corners without braking, conserving momentum and energy, that being said, my new objective was to stay in the front to avoid the braking.

There were a few unsuccessful breaks, I noticed two Tieni Duro guys trying to pace it up, one of them who caused me to take the 1st corner really slow during the 3rd to last lap because I learned that he had already been lapped, and he tried to help get his teammate up the pack, so when he did, he just slowed down and I had to go around him.

During the last two laps, I was feeling great so I moved up to the front of the pack during mid 2nd to last lap. During the bell lap, I led the field and tried to keep my great position in the front, but by the 3rd corner, the sprinters were summoned out of the pack and they took over so I just sat back. I wanted to attempt to lead out some of the PV guys but I was drained from lead earlier in the lap, as well as being unprotected during the headwind.

I finished 17th, but I was feeling really good and I think racing the Sea Otter RR changed how I perceive criteriums. I almost felt that I could contest the sprint, and I think I could have if I saved more energy. I want to say that my effort here was outstanding, and I could feel I improved; I've never been able to stay at the front for the last lap, and I made less energy-wasting moves and I drafted much better here.

I felt really great today and I look forward to more criteriums. This was also officially my 10th race, which means I'm eligible for an upgrade to the 4's now, but I'm waiting on that until after the Berkeley Hills road race. Also, there was a crash in the CAT 4's race which was right after ours. I hope everyone is okay.

Place: 17th out of 38.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/81097059

Sea Otter Classic Road Race Report

As most cyclists know, the Sea Otter Classic is a grand cycling event where almost every type of cycling comes unites. It's a whole lot of fun because of the so many cyclists who you share a similarity with are present.

This being the first official Peninsula Velo Junior race, Alex, Alberto and I were to do the Category 5 road race. It was about 47 miles with about 4800 feet of climbing. Naturally, I love to climb and I love hills so much, so I was hoping to be a contender for the final uphill battle towards the end of the race. Coach Ray was there to discuss the plan, which was for Alberto to go ahead and chase any break attempts while Alex would protect me from the wind while we took it easy. In the end, we had a great plan in which Alberto would jump at set a high pace at the bottom of the last climb to tire out leaders, and then when they got tired, Alex would go ahead and tire out the next set of threats, then when that was over, me and anybody remaining would jump and go all out since we saved our energy at the bottom.

The race started late because of rollout, which all of us passed. I think we started at about 3:37 or somewhere close to that. The first few miles were in the neutral zone, where it wasn't really hilly. We had about 100 starters, and I think we had 75 left IN the neutral zone when we climbed a short 6% hill. I was wowed. There was another steeper, short section, where more people got dropped, so we probably had about 60ish people left. Fast forward to the middle of the neutral zone, which was the lowest point mentally in the race.

I heard the uncomfortable noise of a crashing bike, followed by "RIDER DOWN!" suddenly, the whole center of the front of the peloton just went down, which riders blamed the motorcycle for stopping abruptly to pace us down since we were going down hill. I was glad I was totally far from the center, but when I saw a PV Jersey down, I was completely devastated, since I knew there were only 3 of us. I looked and I saw it was Alex who was down, and it blew my mind away that he went down. It was really devastating, and all I hoped was that he, and everyone else, weren't too injured, and I was hoping that he'd be able to catch on. The peloton even slowed down to wait for anyone caught in the crash. I wasn't able to see him during the rest of the race. (He was alright, he had a few scrapes, but thankfully nothing broken)

Without Alex, I knew Alberto and I had to work even harder. The first two laps which were about 15 miles were uneventful. The peloton were taking all the steep hills over 7% at about 7mph, so i was able to ride the 30t-25t, conserving a lot of energy. I noticed a lot of people climb standing up, tiring themselves out, while I climbed in my granny gear sitting down almost effortless, so it made me feel a little better. On the third lap, the pace began moving, which was what I totally expected. "The Wall" which was the beginning 7%-10% climb, was where the breaks started happening. I was able to catch on to take the downhill effortlessly. At 2/5 of the lap I was dropped by about 30 or so riders in the main pack. There was a paceline of 4 guys who were working together, but I felt their pace wasn't fast enough to catch on. So I went a little harder.

So for half of that lap and 2 more, I was completely alone and in the wind. Alberto had told me that he dropped out because he had gotten sick. That pace was really hard. At the start of the 4th lap after the wall I had a serious cramp in which my leg stiffened up and just locked. It was the most painful thing I had ever experienced ever since I started cycling. It started in my right leg during the descent after the wall. After that, the road inclines a little more, so I had some pain coming in my left leg too. It wasn't as bad as my right leg, but It was still painful.

At this point, I felt like quitting. I felt like dropping out of the race. I was alone for so long, nobody ahead, nobody behind. But then I realized that it doesn't matter what place I get anymore. My new goal was to finish. I didn't care if i got last place, I didn't care if I got dropped from a CAT5 road race, I cared about finishing. I thought about all those riders who weren't even able to officially start the race out of neutral zone, from the crash and all. So I continued. I jumped, just to pick up speed just in case I was able to catch on to anyone. Suddenly after the feed zone, I saw about 5 riders who were really far and spread apart. After the feed zone, you can see riders for another 3km or so. My motivation was back, and so were my legs. I caught up to all those riders I saw, and I passed even more riders on the last lap.

I was glad I didn't quit! I was wondering why I even felt like quitting! But anyways, about half of the final lap, I saw a group behind me. It was that group of 4, which was now a group of 3, from earlier. They caught up to everyone I had passed, and they caught up to me. I was wrong about their pace earlier, but I was amazed and inspired by their hard work. They told me to grab on their wheels, and we switched off until the final climb. Talk about teamwork!

For the final climb, I was pacing myself but I got too excited when I saw about 10 or so riders ahead of me. I forgot about what Coach Ray and the other PV members had told us, that we shouldn't take the bottom half too fast. Well I took it too fast thinking I could hold the pace until the end. I saw the "1km to go sign" and I was so burnt so I just went up at about 8mph. When I saw the finish line, I thought I had worked hard enough so I went as hard as I could very slowly. I passed right before the 2:30:00 mark. I was greeted by Alex's mom and then Ray and then Alberto and his dad. I was just so glad that I finished, and I didn't care what place I got.

After the race, I talked to Alex to see if he was okay and he said he was. Apparently, one rider went into the barbed wires and it cut all the way to his bone. I'm really sorry about that guy. After that we were on our way home. Alex's parents offered me dinner, which I was really grateful for, along with the ride. Overall, it was a great experience. It was the hardest cycling I have ever done, but at least I know what intensity I need to pay attention to.

I checked my results today, and I was extremely happy with my placing.

Race Date: April 15, 2011 @ 3:30PM

Finishing Time: 2:29:57

Place: 17th (53 Finishers, ~100 Starters)