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watsonville fairgrounds
2005/11/19
cat b
22nd/59
teammates: joe

first double race weekend of the season for me. going straight from work into race prep and early to bed to leave for the venue at 7:00 am didn't afford the luxury of a low-key saturday to get my gear and head in order as i've grown accustomed. i did try to eat more on friday to avoid running out of gas mid-race (or mid-weekend). i think i might have overdone it a bit though, as i felt a little sluggish. not sure if it was the food or the schedule.

anyway, got to the venue with plenty of time to spare. did a couple warmup laps on the couse and everything seemed to be in order. i was just about to head out to the road to do my short race-pace warmup efforts when i noticed my rear tufo was seriously low. drat, a puncture, and it didn't look like the sealant was doing its job. with no time to fiddle with it, i dropped it off at the car and jogged with my bike sans rear wheel back down to the pits to my spares. they have 700x30 schwalbe clinchers with good grip, but they are narrow and light (read: thin-walled). i pinch flatted them in training a couple times early in the season so i've been running them at 70psi to avoid flats. so i went from preriding with 700x35 tubulars at 40psi to 700x30 clinchers at 70psi. i didn't want to race on such mismatched tires, so i left my front tufo in the pits and used both clinchers. and the race hadn't even started yet...

since rich maile has been tearing it up so well on his singlespeed this year, often passing the entire b field from behind, the organizers opted to start the singlespeeders first. they sent them their merry way before doing the callups for the b's, so we started a full half lap behind them.

i got an ok spot at the start for such a big crowd. as we rolled forward from the staging pen to the line, an official was partially blocking the left side, and i was able to roll around her and up the left gutter to around the 2rd row. but with the first hairpin left turn so close to the start i got the door closed on me and had to assert my way around the corner as lots of people rolled around on the outside. i need to remember to get to the outside line on starts with tight corners so close.

my race went smoothly enough. my pacing seemed okay, and i didn't make any major errors. only rode the off-camber little hill by the stables once because there was usually someone in front of me dabbing and falling all over themselves on it that i had to run around, but that worked out fine and i gained places there. my head wasn't so into the race though. since i missed the first race in the surf city series and fumbled the second one, i was off the bottom of the standings, so i was approaching the weekend as practice for the big pilarcitos double weekend and crowds at nationals.

as i crested the first runup on what i thought was my second-to-last lap, i could hear the ruckus at the start/finish announcing maile heading out on his bell lap. i realized he had almost made up the other half lap from his early start. i also realized that if he caught me, it would be as if he lapped me (when he really only half-lapped me), and this would become my last lap. so it became a bit of a quandry. should i bury myself to try to stay in front of him just to go out on another lap? i was mostly alone and starting to feel the beating that the 70psi clinchers were dishing out on the hard lumpy course, so with another race tomorrow i resolved to ride my race as i normally would with 2 laps left, only lifting the pace slightly.

i actually picked off a few more fading riders before maile ran by me at the top of the big runup. i got his wheel heading back towards the finish. he had no reason to sprint, and made no effort to. i could have easily gotten back around him. there was another rider only a couple seconds back who i had just run past. he wasn't bridging up and i think he was done or maybe he didn't realize that his race was almost over, so i sat on maile's wheel as we entered the pavement. i couldn't see anyone else ahead within striking distance, so as long as that other guy didn't try anything, i was content to roll in behind maile and save it for tomorrow. i gave him plenty of space to sit up at the line.

had a great time watching the rest of the races and realizing just how fast the elites are. it's amazing that they're considered mediocre compared to the euro pros.

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