Jul 22, 03:11 PM by Steve | Redemption
Posted in Cycling & Race-Report
Redemption is a dish best served cold. Or was it revenge? I always get those confused. Anyway, I had been looking forward to this racing weekend all year, as this pair of relatively local races didn’t go so well for me last year in cat 5. I got dropped on the final climb at Sisquoc, and dropped after only a few laps in San Luis Obispo, and pulled after only about 20 minutes. This year, as a cat 4, was going to be different. Depsite nearly being taken out in the accident on Saturday (see report above), I was very happy with my performance. I was able to move up when I wanted to, be on front when I needed to be, and was in a great position coming into the finish. Apparently the pace of the race blew apart the field too, which was pretty cool because I didn’t think we were working very hard at all. After the race Kim and I went across the freeway for some smoothies, met Seth and his girlfriend Elisa at Subway, headed out to Oceano for a show (The Great American Melodrama), and later dinner at California Pizza Kitchen in downtown San Luis Obispo.
In the morning I got ready, had some breakfast and then rolled out to the race, conveniently having picked a motel that was close by. I found John at registration and we pinned each other’s numbers while watching the cat 5 race. There were a few Echelon guys that we were cheering on. Overall it looked like a pretty clean race and of course there were guys getting shelled left and right. Of course I was one of those guys last year! I found Chester, or rather he found me, and eventually was able to get him my extra helmet to use.
I was not able to get into a good position at the line for the start, but Chester was right up there in front. He stayed there the whole race too. Early on I was able to move up closer to the front and even covered the front a little one of the times he tried to get into a break. It was pretty funny actually because I came up the left side to the front while he was up the road (I stayed on the left side, never moving in front of anyone), and after a few moments a guy comes around me on the left and shouts “you have to go!”. That’s the second time over the weekend someone expected me to chase down my own teammate. Chucklehead’s tag line “Close that gap for me, you P@$$Y!!!” comes to mind…
Overall the race went very well for me, I never really had any trouble keeping up or moving up, and felt comfortable in the corners, except for a few times when guys not holding their line nearly rammed into me. I also clipped a pedal in one corner, which was an interesting feeling. As with Sisquoc, I’m still not very comfortable agressively fighting for position, so even though I was able to move up, I was not able to stay up, so eventually I just kind of settled in near the back, on the left side so I could take the corners on the outside. Kim yelled at me a few times to move up, and after a few laps of that, I shouted at her to stop. I didn’t really have any intention of contesting the sprint, so I just moved up about 10 places on the final lap leading into the last corner and cruised into the finish, riding around the guy on the ground. So, in the end I feel like I redeemed myself. My fitness has increased dramatically, considering that I didn’t find the nearly 26mph race difficult in the least. Now that I am getting stronger and more comfortable I can start to work on being more agressive, holding position near the front, and maybe try to get in a break even if I know it is doomed to fail.
Chester got 2nd, and we convinced him to try for an upgrade and race again in the 3s. We even used out new iPhones to find his results.
San Luis Obispo Cat 4 Pictures >>
Below is a link to some great photos of the 2008 SLO Crit…..
— Jason at Jul 23, 12:24 PMhttp://garagemahalstudios.smugmug.com/