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.