The race entry was 125 but I am not sure exactly how many really showed up, I am positive it was over 100. The CAT 4 race was 4 laps thus 40 miles, Evan had estimated that it would take between 1:40 and 1:50. The best thing that I (we) did was pre-ride the course. It gave me the confidence to be able to descend the hills at full speed and if able how fast to take the corners. I also had a pretty good idea of what would be fast and where gaps could occur. Evan's email and our assessment was spot on for the 4s and really kept me in the race.
We had a neutral roll-out from the school down to the start line and Evan and I had staged ourselves in the first quarter of the field. So much for neutral, trying to stay in this start position, half of the field behind us creaped along the flanks and by time we got ready to start we were in the last quarter of the field. This only was a factor for a little while because it was not to hard to crawl up to the top quarter on the first lap. it could have been tragic if there was a wreck or anything, but it worked out.
I stayed in the main field the entire race. I never felt like I was going to be dropped. The only issues were some of the turns, the field would almost come to a stop and then have to come out of the saddle to catch back on. I used the climbs as a means to gain positions. I would swing out and then move on the outside of the group as the slower guys would drop through the center. After the second lap of having cars in the on coming traffic lane, I moved to the right hand side and no longer had to deal with those on the far left. As they would get jammed up due to on coming traffic, EVEN if the car was off the course and complete stop, the right hand side just steadily went along, no brakes. Nothing I hate worse then braking going UP hill.
The last lap really separated the field and the last five miles was a crit. Art and Tomas, thanks for the Santa Barbara help, I went into the drops and did not come out of them until the finish line. It was a SIGNIFICANT advantage. I jumped on a a Coppi Rider's wheel (Joaquin) and stayed there for the majority of the time. Coppi, District Velocity Racing, and Fat Frogs started working together. It looked as if Crowther (Coppi) and Church (Dist Velo) had the best fitness (of the teams represented) so I tried to stay in the Dist Velo line. With 1K left things got sketchy. There was actually a guy trying to squeeze by on the left screaming "on your left", "move" over. I decided that I was not going to give up any room on my side. I was sitting within an inch of a Coppi rider so I could not advance, and surely was not going to give up my spot. The guy then moved over off the shoulder to pass, yes in the grass. Karma has a way, and i heard the eerie hiss of a tire flattening, "on your left" was off the back with a flat.
At this point we were about 800m and ramping up for the sprint, I was about 5 meters from the front and was in an okay position when all of a sudden, I believe a Fat Frog racers bike exploded. Apparently, his head tube separated from the top tube. he went down and the field feel apart. I came out of the saddle and took off again behind the Coppi rider, who just set up and quit pedaling. i am not sure why. After that I smashed the gears and finished the race 24th.
What kept me from top 10. Purely tactics. I have to work on this badly. My numbers suck. My max watt was only 800 watts. I got all the way to the game and did nothing at the end. My race numbers for each lap showed a similar story. Positives was that I coasted 24% of the race. So zero cadence and zero power. My average lap power was around 225w and my Normalized Power for each was 300 w. Basically, the numbers showed I could have done more. If you looked at the race in comparison to our over all training rides on Sundays, for me the Sunday ride appears, according to the data, harder. My next goal, win the effing race, field finish is not long the goal.
Results: https://www.usacycling.org/results/?permit=2010-447
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