NFR - Race Report # 1 - Cal Aggie Criterium at Land Park

[RidgeRider]

Today was a good day. I have to say when I awoke this morning at 4:45, I had different feeling about me then I remember last year on race mornings. It is hard to describe but the best word would be 'confidence'. The kind of confidence you have when you know you have prepared for something and now it was just a matter of performing and doing it better than you have in the past. My body tells me I am ready nearly everyday and now my head was in agreement.

Mind you I still have a lot to learn and there is always some luck in racing but I have this feeling it will be a very different year and today was the first indication that this is going to be the case, a fun year.

I met pre-race with my teammates Kevin, Matt, Phil and David as we waited in line for registration. This morning was another foggy and slightly damp morning, that we have had a bit too much of over the last month so, the roads were wet and it was cold. We chatted a bit about the race and where to be in the peloton, to be careful because of the wet roads and because it was first race of the year and guys would be all over the road because of a lack pack riding over the off season.

When I went to bed last night I also had a certain air about me....a feeling of aggression that was somewhat absent last season. I really wanted to be physical and assert myself rather than be a gentlemen or be polite. It was a strange almost foreign feeling that I don't recall ever having felt, sort of what I would imagine a warrior would feel the night before battle.....minus the fear.

After some warmups, we lined up at the start finish at about 9:40AM. I was in the middle of the second row and the "hi's and hello's" amongst the combatants were flying around amongst the peloton with guys you haven't seen since last season all lined up to do battle again.

We kicked off moments later (I bought new pedals over the off season so no "clip in" issues this year1), and straightaway I slotted in the top twenty. I told myself I would not fall back farther than twentieth place today with a full field of 75 riders. I knew I was too fit to sit back to far and I also knew that the wrecks were going to happen in the middle to the back and I wanted no part of crash today given the roads were wet. Almost immediately a couple of guys tried to go off the front, really dumb, but were quickly reeled back in.

The course is a 1 mile course, in a big city park. It has one really big sweeping right hand turn, and as you make your way down the back stretch it then sweeps left a bit, then a bit right then quickly followed by a sharp 270 degree left, followed quickly by a 250 degree right, then a 120 degree left, followed by a 250 degree right and then it sweeps left into a straight to the finish. Interesting course with good reputation for crashes...or is that bad reputation?

I made it my mission to stay as close to the front as possible without going on the front. I was able to stay in contact each lap and from about the tenth lap on, I made sure I was near the front as much as I could.

There were a few attacks along the way but nothing lasted. There was a prime or two, neither of which I went after though my teammate David tried for one of them but finished third.

I only saw one teammate besides David the whole race for a lap or so and then I didn't see them again until after the race. There was a crash just before the 270 degree left about a third of the way into the race which Kevin got caught behind and he worked his butt off trying to get back on to the back of the peloton but I don't think he made it.  Phil couldn't keep the pace but finished 35th.

I saw Matt on the side of the road during the race so he either got "popped" off the back or had a mechanical but David and I stayed close to each other the whole race.

With three laps to go the race started to pick up in intensity. I stayed on a wheels and waited while a few guys tried to attack off the front with no success. We really were going hard but the best thing was I was nowhere near feeling over done. Off season training was clearly a success.

With one lap to go, Bikes Plus attacked down the left on the back straightaway with 3 riders in tow, one a friend of mine and I had to force myself out of the middle to get to the outside and followed as I had slipped back to about 20th, however I could not slot into the line so I had to ride on the left (inside line) going into the 270 degree left which forced me to brake into the corner and I lost momentum coming back for the 250 degree right which left me dangling at the end of what was about 18 riders who had put a gap on the rest of the field. I pushed to close the gap as we were really going hard now and caught back on about 30 yards before the final sharp right and 'sat on' to recover slightly as we broke into the straightaway, I waited too long and by the time I got the sprint engine going I had let the guys in front of me get away just a bit too far and other than passing four guys to the line I finished 14th out of 75 racers, just behind David in 7th and my friend on Bikes Plus who had won the race. There were four bike lengths, between first and fourteenth.

I was thrilled with my race and how close I was to winning. One mistake cost me the race and I can live with that. We had put a gap on the field and I made the winning sprint feeling very good and as strong as anyone out there and I have to say that this was a 35+ race so the vast majority of these guys were a bit younger than me so that's even more satisfying.

Can't wait for the next race. It's going to be a good year!

[finnster01]

Good on you Jack.  :clap_hands: Great result this early in the season!!

And remember that aggression you felt in the evening and remember my Liverpool advice when you hurt and have to dig deep into the cellar mate... Don't let these jockeys beat you. Next time just lean to your right and squash them into the rail. Just take a page out of Mark Cavendish book.  :handbags:

Great report and can't wait to read your next one

[RidgeRider]

Thanks Finn! Here is a picture of RidgeRider on second wheel.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=524480461845&set=a.524480332105.2043770.205400827&pid=31222496&id=205400827

[TheDaddy]

Well done RR ONWARDS AND UPWARDS.