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photo: tim brennan

hellyer park, san jose
2006/10/08
elite men
27/36 [+ at least 4 dnfs (slackers)]
'mates: funke, aron, and rick; scott and matthias on the blinglespeeds

not a whole lot to say about this one. another hot, dusty, lumpy, bumpy norcal course. i wasn't feeling all that amped to race earlier in the day. the bumps and heat (inducing memories from cccx #1) seemed to contribute to my general malaise.

got a decent warmup and got off the line well enough in front of some people. i seemed to pass a number of guys in the first lap due to errors or traffic. ran around several on the first technical descent down into the trees who were waiting to ride it in traffic. nice. lots of dropped chains and flats all around, but none for me thankfully (knock on wood). isaias and i agreed that the initial pace seemed rather slow, but since i felt like i was in an ok position, i was happy to find my pace and settle in for the long haul rather than push things in the heat. i'm still getting the hang of racing without my hr monitor, and my instincts were telling me not to run too hot this time.

i dug the relatively fast approaches to the flat barriers. even though they did seem rather tall, i was definitely carrying more speed through them than some others around me. i rode a clean race with only one real bobble and no mechanicals. my closest call was with dfl dylan. he passed me on his singlespeed and i was close behind him entering the velodrome when he lost traction on the off camber and his bike slid out from under him. pucker! somehow he managed to lay it down, dismount on the downhill side of his bike, and run down onto the grass. by this time i was also down on the grass and managed to thread the needle between him and his sliding bike only losing a little momentum.

good news mechanically this time. no dropped chains despite all the bumps. i shortened my chain by 2 links, and made sure to never pedal backwards through fast bumps, which i think helps a lot. i also tried to keep tension in the chain as much as possible and practice fast, overgeared riding through the duff. i felt that gave me a slight advantage over others who were spinning too much. good habits that, in the long run, should help minimize the possibility of chain droppage.

i managed to do a clif shot mid race. after feeling depleted at the end of other races, i'd been thinking of having two immediately prerace instead of my usual one. given the velodrome, i decided to try to eat one mid race this time. thankfully i didn't forget to do it. i took it out of my pocket on the first bit of pavement, held it in my mouth entering the velodrome, ripped it open and ate it along the straightaway, and got water from eric to wash it down with on the last bit of pavement back outside the track. i think it really helped me maintain my pace for the duration. thanks eric!

i generally felt my pace was strong, but i just wasn't feeling scrappy to hold wheels and duke it out with people this time. i'm happy enough with my result, and got good technical practice riding the bumps and keeping a cool head, which should all help me go faster later on.

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