2014-07-26 San Rafael Twilight Criterium 35+ 45+ 1/2/3 Race Report by Kevin Metcalfe

I didn’t get the greatest start position and my first thoughts after the gun was “Some of you guys need to either get Speedplay pedals or start at the back.”   🙂

 

I got to the front after a few laps.  There were lots of attacks early on and there appeared to be a pattern.

 

Dirk attacked a lot. Mikes Bikes seemed to be getting guys into breaks, but I guess not liking the combination as the guy tended to not work and their guys behind tended to block for them. Specialized was working for Jeromy to win the Premier series and Craig Roemer was his policeman.  He wasn’t letting anything without Jeromy go and he wasn’t interested in working in a break without Jeromy. Mike Sayers was aggressive as always.

I saw people doing dumb stuff and though I had the guy in front of me skid out in turn 4 one lap and scared the crap out of me, nothing bad happened and nobody that I saw went down.  But all the more reason to get up near the front and stay there.

BTW, raise your hand if this has happened to you.  You get up to the front and you pick a side/line, let’s say the right side.  Then shortly after you get there the guy at the front of the side/line you picked sits up nobody goes around him and you get bogged down while the guys on the other side/line go around and now you’re back in 35^th position again and get to start all over like Sisyphus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisyphus   Yeah, I see a lot of hands.  Kind of like how you pick the faster lane on the freeway only to have it slow down while the lane you were in speeds past.  🙂

Anyway, cutting to the chase we were active in the race.  Jason was active, Dean was in one move and lurking near the front the whole race.  I was active, but nothing was sticking for much more than a lap or two.  Late in the race Jason got away for a  few laps, but nobody joined him and he was brought back with 4 or 5 to go.  Dirk countered and got a slight gap.  With 4 to go I went into control the race for our sprinters mode and spent most of a lap on the front bringing Dirk back.  A couple of guys went around me and when I looked back we had a gap.  I’m not sure why as I hadn’t attacked and I KNOW that I wasn’t riding so hard that nobody could hang.  I think somebody must have been a little tired and sat up and more or less said “somebody else do this”, or somebody (maybe Craig) sat up to let the gap open because of who they had up front.

The group consisted of myself, Mike Sayers, Jeromy, Scott Broomstead (all registered 35+) and Dirk and Dan Shore (registered 45+).  With Jason and Dean behind I didn’t drive the group.  With Specialized, Mikes Bikes and Folsom Bike represented, the pool of potential chasers was small and our little gap was holding.  Between turns 1 and 2 just after seeing 2 laps to go Mike Sayers attacked.  I saw him go and was in position to try and follow but didn’t.  For this I have much regret.  After the fact it is easy to second guess why I didn’t go.  The two biggest reasons were that I had just make a 1 lap effort to close down Dirk and was tired, and I wanted somebody else to do it.  Of course nobody did.  I wanted to make the same move on the last lap but when we got there the opportunity didn’t present itself.  This is where I made my second mistake.  We came around turn 2 and I wanted to move up.  I started to, but got a bit passive and didn’t fight for a better spot and ended up where I started which was behind Dirk, Jeromy, Scott, and Dan.  Through turns 3 and 4 and we sprinted out of the final corner.   I was closing on Dan, but ran out of time and finished 6^th across the line and 4^th in the 35+.

 

Lessons learned.

1.       I should have gone with Mike.  Even in the worse case I would have finished in the same spot, last in our group and 4^th in the 35’s.  In the best case I might have latched onto the winning move.  Dumb, dumb, dumb.  Yeah I was hurting, but that is why that kind of move works, because EVERYBODY is hurting and the guy who wins does so because he ignores it and lets everybody else give up.  I know this, but  when it counted, I was weak.

2.       San Rafael is more or less a race for the final corner.  Yeah, somebody like Dean can probably come around a few guys, but for somebody like me it’s hard as the sprint it too short to get up to speed.  And what that really means is that it’s a sprint for turn 3.  And what that means is that coming out of turn 2 is when I should have gone hard.  The best case would have had move quickly moving into 2^nd and then sprinting around before turn 3 and then holding my lead to the line or getting taken by 1 or two guys.  In the worst case I might have had to drag race all the way to turn 3 and then continue to the line.  Similar result and in either case a higher finish would have been the end result.

3.       Even though I first did this race in 1988(!) and I’ve done it many times I should have taken the time to think about the finish.  Had I taken the time to think it through I would have known to make the big effort half way through the last lap as opposed to trying to weigh the best option in the fog of oxygen debt.

 

All in all though it was a fun race, but I wish I could have a “do over”.