Cat's Hill Classic Criterium (Cat 4) Race Report

After having a bad race at Wente Vineyards (Road Race) I wanted some redemption at one of the hardest Crits on the calendar. My last Crit was also a hilly Crit--at UCB's race weekend. I knew I was getting better at Crits but I'm still not sure if the fact that it is hilly plays a factor in that claim.

Anyways, I raced with a good number of teammates. We started on time and pretty mellow. I stayed behind my teammate Christian Hughes who is also a junior! It's been two years since I did this course, but the climb wasn't startling. I did it in the right gear the first time, then experimented the next few laps. I also did my best to stay hydrated; the best place for me to drink was right after Cat's Hill...on the back straight.

There was an early break with two riders. Nobody did anything because they thought it was too early. The pace increased a little after two laps of them away, and we were closing the gap.

Soon I was falling behind the field and doing very uneconomical maneuvers--not closing gaps, choosing too heavy of a gear, being out in the wind, etc. So I knew I had to get as conservative as possible. The first way I conserved energy was during the climb--I told myself to use a very light gear, and when I did, I passed almost 3/4 of everyone in front of me and ended up in the front.

The next way was by using the descent to recover. After the descent, there's a right corner which people slow down for. Thus, I didn't pedal during the final approach to the corner, and as a result I was able to cruise into the apex and pedal out of it to eventually land behind a wheel to draft.

With me at the front behind two guys, both of them said they couldn't do it anymore. Nobody else in the field wanted to work, so I went ahead and dialed up some power to try and bridge To the break. I was 5 seconds away from them on the climb (people were yelling it out) and almost caught them on the back straight, but coming into the 9th lap (halfway point of the race) I started to fade and redline, and didn't want to waste all my energy (like in Wente Vineyards). I believe it was a gamble that I won because the two guys in the break were really strong and they probably would've burned me!

However, I ended up getting a prime which I was unaware of!

I fell back into the field right before the climb, and felt like crap--so crappy I was unsure if I could finish! So I stayed as conservative as possible for the rest of the race.

One thing I noticed was that I always gained positions on the climb. I was able to gain on average 5 positions, even 10 at times. I thank my power to weight ratio for this. There were also a lot of collisions on the climb, easily avoided though because they were all on the right side and I always turned into the left side.

On the lap before bell-lap, the pace increased and surprisingly I was able to adjust to it. I stayed in the top 15 of the pack to get ready for a good position during the bell lap. The 2-man breakaway was able to stay throughout the end, so we were getting ready for the field sprint. On bell lap, the pace remained the same. I was looking forward to the climb, but didn't drill it too hard because everyone around me was already suffering. However, I was able to pass every rider so I slowed down to recover and held on to my position in the top 5 of the field.

I definitely had enough left in me for an all-out sprint. I took the final corner fast and waited for the sprint to start. Apparently it had started and I started too late but I was able to pass some guys. Before I knew it, we were already at the finish line where I ended up 4th in the field sprint--nearly neck to neck with another guy.

My official result was 6th place/50 starters, plus the prime I was unaware of. This is one of my best results yet, and outside of Collegiate racing it is my first time placing in a criterium. The winner was a talented Junior from Bear Development, who stated the other guy in the break was a professional mountain cyclist who gave him the win.

I had a bad race last week but a superb race this week. Maybe I am becoming a Criterium guy? I know I'm getting better at them, but I need to race a flatter one to see!

P.S. I got my first point toward upgrading to Category 3!

--D

Wente Vineyards Road Race (Cat 4) Race Report

This one will be pretty brief because there's not much to say. I knew the course and looked forward to it because rolling hills and windy descents are fun (to me)! I raced with plenty of Leopard-Sapporo teammates--my first road race with the Cat 4 squad!

We started and once we approached the climb everyone was drilling it. I was probably the 6th guy in the train up the climb and I was already dying trying to stay on my teammate, Chris's, wheel. I looked back once we hit the overpass and saw an incredible gap on the field. Yup, way too early.

We hit the next climb which isn't supposed to that bad and I went from 6th wheel to 60th as I saw everyone pass me. I wasn't feeling all too good and I was already in no men's land on the false flat section. Luckily, I was able to catch and pass riders on the windy downhill sections! I ended up bridging to the field on the windy straight section.

When we approached the main climb again, I got dropped toward the 2nd lap turnover. Spent most of my time in no man's land again for the lap, and toward the end the heat cramps came up. Thought I should dropout, but decided to finish the final lap without any care toward my result.

I most likely hit the wall/bonked due to not drinking enough fluids, and my Gu was ineffective because I didn't hydrate myself enough after digesting it. It could also be because I went way to hard in the beginning. But I finished the race nearly dead last and climbed at, like, 35 RPM with cramps and such.

Overall, it was a bad race. Everyone has bad races so there's nothing to complain about. I just need to move on and learn more!

--D