Hi All! How are ya'll? I'm good, very, very tired, but good. Just finished racing the San Luis Rey RR, and I'm still alive. I came in to this race with the goal of finishing high, even winning. There was a new category offered this year, a Masters 30+ 4/5, which suits me just fine. Anytime I can get a chance to race with guys more my age, but not Cat ones or twos, I take it. The race was held on the recently modified (as of last season) course in Bonsall, and all though the course is good, I much prefered the old course any day. The new course just doesn't break up the pack enough, making it extremely difficult to move around. Anyhow, on to the race report...
My race started at 7:35am, and as soon as the whistle blew I immediately went to the front not wanting a repeat of last week's Devil's Punchbowl start. Now mind you, I didn't get on the front and work, but rather just soft pedal, while keeping the pace high enough that no one was in a hurry to get around me. Eventually some riders did go around and I told myself to just stay in the top twenty riders of the full seventy five rider field, and I'd be OK.
The pack pretty much stayed together throughout the flats, and even as we began to head up the climb the first time. After being a little too far back at the first turn-around on the course, I decided that I didn't want that to happen at the turn-around at the start/finish area. I pedaled hard and shot to the front, allowing myself to be the first rider around the turn-around, not too worried about the effort it took, knowing that we had a descent that I could recover on immediately afterwards.
As we reached the flats for the second time, two riders attacked hard and managed to open up a gap on the field. I was a little too far back at this point to respond, but to be honest, I don't think I would of that early in the race, (we still had approximately 28 miles left). At that point, I worked my way up to the front again, and watched as the two riders slowly began building their lead on the field. None of us in the pack were interested in chasing them, it was even said out loud that there's no way they're going to stay away, especially in the winds that were beginning to pick up.
We rounded the first turn-around, and headed back towards the climb. As we were riding back to the climb along the flats, some guys were getting anxious, and wanted to start chasing the break away. I told myself to stay near the front, but don't work. I didn't think the two riders were that far up the road, expecting to see them around every corner. As we approached the climb, still not having seen the two riders, I began to get anxious myself, and thought there was a good chance that if I drilled it up the climb, we'd surely catch them.
I went to the front of the pack and really "put it to the pedals". The climb itself was about three miles long, I decided to take the lead after the first mile, and pulled the entire field up the last two miles of the climb, reaching the turn-around first again, and much to my disbelief, still not seeing the two-rider break away! Crap! All that work for nothing! I told myself to relax, that I could recover on the descent, but knowing that I had burned a lot of matches with that big effort.
As we made our way on to the flats for the last time, we still hadn't seen the break away, and riders were really beginning to get anxious. Several attempts were made to form some kind of chase, and for the most part, there was some organization. I just kept myself near the front, close to the front, but not on it. A few guys were beginning to get upset at me because of this, and ultimately I decided that I might as well take a couple of pulls, keeping them short, and not too hard.
The third time up the climb, I positioned myself near the front, not sure how my legs were going to respond after the earlier effort up it. I managed to stay near the front for quite awhile, but ultimately about a 1/4 of a mile from the finish line, the pack began to swarm around me and pass by. I tried to respond, but my legs were screaming at me. The pack, or what was left of it opened up a small gap on me, I looked back and saw that there was no one else behind me who was threat, so I dug deep and fought my way back on to the wheels of the pack with about 400 meters left.
At this point, the pack was spread across the entire road, and guys were beginning to bounce off each other, yelling loudly, fighting for last second positions. This looked like an all to familiar "crit" finish to me, and as bad as my legs felt, and thinking there was no way I had enough punch left to fight my way through that mob, I sat up and watched the field sprint to the line.
28th on the day.
The break stuck.
I checked my computer clock, and saw that we finished the race at 9:30am, just like I thought. The Cat 4 race was scheduled to begin at 10:15am. Why not? After all, what better way to cap off a four-week racing block then to completely destroy myself!!! I paid my $10, got my number, went to the car, ate a Clif Bar, drank a Coke, and began riding around to keep the legs loose. Sure didn't need a big warm-up!
The race was fairly uneventful, except for a crash that resulted from a rider two ahead of me, who for a long time prior to the crash, couldn't seem to hold his line, frequently crossing the center line, and for some unknown reason, locking his brakes up causing me to do the same, resulting in a rider slamming in to the back of my bike, and judging by the horrible sound, resulting in a big crash behind me! I knew that guy was going to cause something bad to happen! I came out OK, some slight marks on my frame, and a bent derailleur hanger. I could never get to the front because of the large field size and tired legs, but I did manage to finish three of the four laps, getting 90 race miles for the day! As I made my way up the climb for the sixth time, I rode past two "MASI" riders who were suffering badly, and overheard their conversation. Rider one: "Why do we do this?" Rider two: "Because. You can't replicate this shit!" Amen! Next up, the State RR Championships, June 6th. Hope I learned something over the last four weeks! Hope all is well! Until next time...
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