States...

Hi All! Well, the California State Road Race Championships have come and gone. As you may know if you follow this blog, I trained hard for that race, riding more, and with more structure then I ever had before. Have been watching my diet closley, getting my weight down lower then it's ever been, hoping to bring it all together on June 6th. The good news is, it worked!

My father-in-law Marv and I left San Diego headed for Bakersfield around 9am Saturday morning. After a short stop at the base of the Grapevine for a Subway sandwich, we reached Bakersfield and drove straight to the race course. I wanted to pre-ride some of the 31-mile course, especially the climb, to get a feel for what I was to expect come Sunday.

When we arrived, all the Masters racing had finished up for the day, and the race crew was packing up. The weather as expected was hot. I believe it was around 96-97 degrees! I unloaded my bike, changed in to my kit, and began making my way down the road while Marv leap frogged along the way in the car in case I needed help.

The course was fairly uneventful, give or take some potholes and rough asphalt, until mile-11. At mile-11 the climb began. I was told by friends that the climb, although fairly long, (about 3.5 miles), wouldn't be of much benefit to me because it wasn't all the steep, and that the descent on the other side was, and besides being steep, was fairly technical. As I made my way up the climb, I began thinking they were mistaken, the climb took a bit of work to get up.

As I reached the summit of the climb I noticed chalk writing on the asphalt, "Go Lance!" "Go Levi!" "KOM". Then sure enough, there was a tape strip marking the KOM line. This was the same climb used by the Tour of California ealier! Pretty cool I thought. I originally planned on stopping at the top of the climb, loading the bike in the car, and finishing the rest of the course recon by driving it, but Marv and I both decided that I might as well ride the descent to get a feel for how technical it was, and it wasn't like that would make much more work for the legs.

After reaching the bottom of the descent I decided to keep pushing on, I was feeling good and was just short of an hour on the bike. About fifteen minutes down the road, I began getting warm and decided to call it quits as soon as I could find a shady spot to pull over and load the bike in the car. All in all, I rode 22-miles of the 31-mile course. We drove the remainder of the course to check it out, and then made our way to the hotel, cleaned up, and then headed out to meet John Bailey and his wife for dinner.

We arrived at the course Sunday morning around 7:30am, checked in, unloaded the car, and then around 8:45 I began riding my bike up and down the road for a light warm-up. I decided there was no point in getting a hard warm-up considering the temperature outside, (expected forecast 98+ degrees!) and the fact the race was 62-miles long, with the first 11-miles fairly flat until we reached the climb.

The whistle blew a little after 9:30, and off we went! As expected the first 10.5 miles of the race was a nice, easy pace, although some rider decided to attack 5-miles in to course. We all just laughed and let him hang out there until eventually he fried himself and was brought back in to the pack. Also as expected, about a kilometer from the start of the climb, a mass surge took place with the bulk of the pack wanting to be near the front as we tore in to the climb. I say tore, because we hit the base of the climb at speeds around 22-24mph! Those speeds didn't let up for the first mile of the climb! I was easily able to stay near the front of the group as we made our way up the climb, happy that the recent work on the bike, and my drop in weight seemed to be paying off.

We reached the summit in what seemed like no time at all, and then made our way back down the other side. The descent was nice and controlled, and the pack stayed together through the windy back half of the course. As we rounded the final turn on the course and began making our way to the start/finish line, the pack was riding the gutter/curb up the road, myself sitting about 4th place in the field of 101 riders. A rider directly behind me somehow managed to get his front wheel caught in the crack on the road that was between the concrete gutter and the road asphalt itself, and the next thing I know I hear riders and bike hitting the deck! I remember thinking I'm so glad I'm ahead of that!

The feedzone for this race was directly after the start/finish line, on a pancake flat section of the course. Before the race even began, I thought that was an unusual spot for a feedzone. I knew the speeds would be fairly high as we approached that section, and sure enough, they were. I had Marv waiting there in case I needed a bottle, and as planned, he was. The problem was, there was so much chaos taking place with riders attempting to get over to their feeders, and other riders not taking feeds and instead blasting through the feedzone, that I decided it wasn't worth even trying to take the bottle from Marv.

I threw an empty bottle to the opposite side of the road, and continued on. To my amazement, a number of riders didn't just take a bottle from their feeder, but quite a few took actual mussette bags, and a large number of them began pulling out one or two Cokes, numerous gels, and snack food! Why??? We only had 31-miles left, so why the need for numerous gels, and all that snack food??? I suppose it looks "pro"!

The second and final lap around the course was definitely ridden at a faster pace then the first. I rode smart, stayed near the front, and focused on keeping myself out of the ever-present wind. Same pattern as the first lap, the pack staying together, then the surge just before the base of the climb. Knowing that the climb was going to hurt, and expecting the final selection was going to be made on it, I mentally dug in and prepared for battle.

We hit the climb at another blazing pace, and held it again for quite a while. I pedaled hard, fighting to keep myself near the front, definitely not wanting to get unhitched and loose contact with the lead group I was in. I was passing a number of riders as they began falling off the pace, they were really breathing hard, not sounding too good, making sure to focus on my own breathing, keeping as calm as I could.

About 3/4 the way up the climb, as we neared the steepest section of it, a rider directly in front of me must not of been paying attention, and wound up off the pavement and in the soft shoulder of dirt, which was very narrow, and had about a thirty-foot drop down it! He struggled with his bike for a second, and fought hard not to go over the edge. He did what he had to do, turned his bars hard right, and fell over, hitting the pavement directly in front of me! I hit my brakes hard, causing riders behind me to crash, and two riders directly to the right off the original crashed rider swerved right, hitting each other, and then hitting the deck. I unclipped my foot expecting to have to stop, and then at the last second noticed a small gap between the two fallen riders, pedaled with my foot that was still clipped in, shot through the gap, clipped my other foot back in, and took off.

The good news, I didn't crash, the bad news, a lead group of twenty-some riders that were ahead of the crash, were now quite a ways up the road! I began pedaling hard, hoping to reel in the lead group, but knowing I couldn't go too deep and blow myself up, leaving nothing for the other side. The lead group was also pedaling hard though, making it impossible to catch them. I crested the summit with about nine or ten other riders, and we began the descent together.

This time down the descent, we rode much faster, desperately trying to catch the lead group. Unfortunately for two riders, the pace they were pushing was a little too fast, as the found themselves riding right off the side of the rode, and down the side of the hill! Seeing that didn't help my cause, as I braked a little too much and lost more distance to the lead group. I reached the bottom of the descent, and found myself behind a single rider about a half of a kilometer, and decided to go in to TT mode and try and reel him in, hoping we could work together if I did.

He was strong, I wasn't able to reach him, so I checked behind me, and noticed a small group of riders with the motorcycle behind then slowly reeling me in. I decided to ease up, let them catch me, and then work with them to catch the single rider ahead of me. That planned worked. The rest of the race pretty much played out with our chase group, able to see the leaders about a half a mile up the road, working desperately together, trying to catch them, but instead, as we neared the finish, our organization falling apart, with a few riders not wanting to work, and then our group falling apart on the final home stretch. I rode my way across the line about 3rd in that group.

I don't know my final result yet, but my guess is probably 30'ish. All in all, I'm not excited about where I finished, sometimes no matter how prepared you are for a race, bad luck, just as good luck, plays in to the race, and becomes a huge factor in your overall result. I am however, extremely pleased with my performance, knowing that all the hard worked I put in getting ready for this event, paid off big time! Oh well, that's racing!

Next up, the Palomar Challenge on June 19th. I'm hoping for an excellent result in this event, considering it plays right in to my wheelhouse. I'm not going to worry too much about my preparation for this event, it's not an official sanctioned race, and I am leaving town this coming Wednesday for a five-day mini vacation, so that will mean five straight days of no training. So we'll see what happens. Hope all is well, until next time...