Apr 13, 11:26 PM by Steve | Isla Vista Classic & Garrett Lemire Grand Prix
Posted in Cycling & Race-Report
I came out of this weekend with hopefully some lessons learned, but nothing in the way of results, not even meager pack finishes.
Isla Vista Classic: Those college kids are fast. A huge cat 4/5 field into a tight first corner meant major accordian. I wasn’t strong or smart enough to work my way up and after maybe half an hour I was finally snapped off the back for good. I considered pulling out, but a few Chicken Ranchers came up from behind and I worked with them. My goal at that point was to just finish. And I almost made it, but we were pulled with 2 laps to go. Drat. Now I’m really nervous about Ojai, but I’m assured by several people that the pace was pushed by those darn college kids, and the ojai course is more suited to me…
Average HR 171, max 184. 1 minute zones 1-3, 11 minutes in zone 4, 24 minutes in zone 5.
photo by John Goodman
Garrett Lemire Grand Prix: The short of it is that I did actually finish the race, and was not lapped. Looking at my data, it looks like I held on for 6 laps and came unhinged on the 7th. Its remarkable how even the lap times were when I was with the field and how uneven they became when I was in a smaller group. After I came off I pretty quickly fell in with other riders, including a friend & “rival” Chicken Rancher. Note he was one of the ones that went down in the crit in IV. We went around for a while and were gaining on other riders ahead, including a group containing several lagrangians. They thought we were the main field coming to lap them, and were relieved to find that we weren’t. The announcers said when we came around that we were the second largest group on the course. I think we were all very glad when we were on the last lap. We went up the hill a little harder and still fought for position and sprinted. And I still sucked. I have no idea how I did, I mean it was a huge field and obviously I didn’t finish in the pack, although riders were dropping like flies and I know there were many riders behind me still going—and several riders that had been lapped and rejoined the main field.
Kim and I left Santa Barbara at 5:15am so that I could get out there and ride the course before the first race got off. I wanted to check out this hill and try it in different gear combinations, since I was given conflicting advice about whether to big-ring it or shift for it. I was able to go up it comfortably in the big ring, but decided to do it in the little ring during the race. I never had any issues dropping my chain, although I almost ran into the guy in front of me on the first lap when he did. On one of the laps when I was off the pack, I was in too low a gear and accelerating out of the turn I nearly flung myself off the bike. I hopped a bit but saved it, although it shook me up a bit and I hesitated and lost a lot of momentum up the hill.
Average HR 168, max 181. 30 seconds zone in 3, 16 minutes in zone 4, 23 minutes in zone 5.
After the race, I decided to ride back to Santa Barbara with Ben, and his dad bought us all breakfast at a little cafe/restaurant I noticed right after the first turn that I had noticed during warmup. I’ll admit I noticed it during the race too…
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