Wards Ferry Climbfest

Once again it was supposed to rain and once again it didn't.  This has occurred probably half a dozen times for me over the last few years.  I'm sure I'll start to get cocky about the weather and one of these days I'll face a Spring Hill 2010.  Click here for example.

I drove out well before the crack of dawn and headed for the hills of Sonora.  While standing in line to register this kid starts asking if he's supposed to race the 4's.  "I've only done a couple road races," he says.  The lady helps him out and it looks like he's due to upgrade.  I figure he must have done a handful of crits and has his 10 finishes.  I tell him good luck and figure I won't see much of him during the race.  This turns out to be true since he practically never leaves the front and ends up winning the race.  Afterward I heard the grumbling, "Dude, this pro mountain biker was in our race.  They should make any kind of pro cat up."  I even heard someone suggest this about a nordic skier.  I agree with the mountain biker sentiment but the nordic skier might be a step too far.  Just because Forest Gump becomes an international ping pong star doesn't mean he's pro enough to pack ride.


Of course, after watching this video I convinced myself I'm wrong.  First of all, I'm certain he could handle a bike, since he also handled football and Jenny's mood swings.  Secondly, have you seen him run?  Thirdly, did you notice when you go back and watch this movie how much time Forest spends talking about himself?!  He's totally a roadie.

Click here for gallery

Anyway the race was hard and the whole group lasted only 1 of 4 laps before the split.  I'd like to think I contributed to this, but who knows.

I was warned that the descent was tricky.  I thought this meant twisty, but what it means is bumpety.  I almost got bucked off a few times and this meant even the recovery on descents was anything but.

Here's me getting in that guy's way.
(Click here for gallery)

I got dropped at the start of the last lap and dangled within range for a little while.  Then I caught Josh from Rio Strada.  We chatted for a minute and then I asked if he wanted to try and catch anyone else.  He didn't want to I didn't succeed.  I managed to avoid getting caught and held on for 10th.  My goal was a top ten, so as you can see, I didn't get greedy.

Here's my best impression of Chris Horner.
(Click here for gallery)

That's not a "winning" smile no matter what my mom says.  That's me joking with the finish line crew about reading my number during my "high speed" finish.

Land Park Crit

Spring has arrived, the clocks have moved forward, the days are longer and we're finally getting wintry wet weather.  All last week we were drenched, which made for a great excuse to recover and do very little riding.  Also on the schedule was Land Park Crit.  This is a local favorite in south Sacramento and I've been meaning to try it out.

Of course, since I've grown accustomed to the sun and warmth, the rain made me nervous and I began to feel like I'd never ridden in wet conditions before.  So what did I do?  Did I shout "HTFU!!" at my legs and leave it at that?  Did I set my face in steely determination toward Land Park?  I did what any hardcore amateur racer would do... I checked with my friends to see if they were wussing out.  Thusly, I began the texting equivalent of a group of ladies deciding to go to the restroom together.  Here's what it would have looked like if technology hadn't stood between us:

Ryan, Ryan and Ryan discussing the merits of Crit racing in the rain

As it turned out we were too late to get a refund, so the decision was made for us.  Wait and see.  And a glorious day it was.  The rain poured all Friday night but Saturday morning cleared up nicely.  Still cloudy and cold, but no storms.

The race was pretty fun.  We had a full field and Malm spent the first half of the race getting into every conceivable breakaway.  In his own words, "The first 20 minutes were fun."  I swore one of the breaks was going to work out.  There were about 7 guys with every team represented.  Some Rio Strada cat didn't realize this and I had to yell at him to not chase his own guy.  A group of us set a false tempo, but in typical fashion, there were enough guys who didn't want to let anything go.

Malm in one of his 18 breakaway attempts.

Inspired by Malm's persistence I also attempted to get off the front.  Here's an image of me "winning".

Yes, the announcer referred to me as "white leggings guy"
Since this is so distinctive, I should forgo pinning my # in the future.

Clearly this evidence of my victory was not convincing to the officials, who decided to count my position on the final lap instead.  This whole "laps" thing escapes me.

So it seemed we'd be headed for a group sprint.  Malm found me and said we should get Odell up front.  I never found him, but he found me, and being the helpful lieutenant I am, I subsequently latched onto his wheel.  Going into the final S turn there was a crash that I narrowly escaped, but Malm got caught behind it.  The finish was fast and open with Odell snagging 5th (he also won an earlier prime).

Here's a video my dad took.  You can see Odell (and me a little later) along the left side of the shot.

Cantua creep and Schnell-ing!

I've had two very fun and very different road races over the last two weeks.

First up was Cantua Creek.  This is 70+ miles, essentially an out and back course done 3 times.  The finish is a stair step climb over about a mile.  Not too steep, but enough to shed people.  Unfortunately that was the only way to do it, since we either had a head wind or a tail wind.  People were quite chatty and the weather was nice.  The group was all together at the base of the climb.  I had done a good job of staying near the front all race, but apparently I did too much patrolling late in the game.  Malm was able to make a good move on the last part of the climb and snag 6th.  I had a respectable but disappointing 15th.

Odell is ever vigilant.  I'd like to say I'm making that face
because it was so hard, but I always look like that.

Snelling was a completely different story.  We had a nice big squad of 4's and it was fun to catch up with everyone.  This is about a 60+ mile race over 5 laps and it was a glorious cross-wind sufferfest.  At the beginning of the 3rd lap things were getting crazy and I found myself cut off from the front group of 30 or so guys.  Jeff (UC Davis) and I chased for maybe 4 or 5 miles and were able to close down with some last minute help from five other guys who caught us near the end.  That was not part of the plan but at least I was back in the lead group.  We never saw any others catch us.  I did my best to stay in good position and avoid another snap like that.  Apparently some sandbagger had forced another break of 3 off the front but the rest of us were either too stupid or too delirious to chase it down.  I was so out of it I didn't realize there was a break until after the race.  Coming down the last stretch of road you could tell everyone was having this internal debate with themselves: "Should I just quit now?  I'm exhausted.  No! Must keep going."  The difficulty of the race overall and the fact that the last stretch before the sprint is very bumpety made it clear that attrition and not just last second power, would play a role.  After having my own little debate I finally determined to do what I had planned before the race: Hop on Ryan Malm's or Ryan Odell's wheel and follow them in.  Malm was at the front so in the last 800 meters I took a dig and moved through the pack and onto his wheel.  I then screamed at him to take the final right hander hard (not sure where that came from).  At the right hand turn you only have 400 meters and I had no sprint, so I was just trying to hold on.  When I did finally try to sprint, my right quad cramped and my leg was stuck straight.  I ended up 12th on the day, which I was happy about.  Malm got 6th (again).  Odell did have some sprint in his legs and came around me for 9th, and Jeff who was with me in the chase won the field sprint for 4th.  Pretty solid day for Davis.  A group of us 3's and 4's hit up In N Out afterward and overall it was a fun day of racing.