Race Reports from Patrick and Peta, 3-2-08

Patrick’s Race Report

Saw two of our girls out there in the women's race, but I had to get my act together so I didn't get to see who it was, maybe Stephanie and Peta?  The women's race was won by Anne-Marie Miller.

I lined up for the Masters and the 3/4.  Took a few shots in the Masters race.  A lone rider went on lap 7 and I bridged to him half a lap later, but he wouldn't work, just sat on.  So I jumped away from him on the hill and blew up in the wind on the back side and got caught just before the hill the next lap.  Solo efforts at Bethel just don't stick.  The problem with Bethel is that it requires a 20 sec near-max effort every two minutes and it makes getting away from the pack pretty hard as you have no opportunity to rest.

With three to go there were two up the road and a group of 4 chasers between the front pair and the pack.  I bridged from the bunch to the chasers, announced my approach as I got there, but none of the 4 chasers went with me and I blew right past them into no man's land with no one to help, so I dangled there for half a lap, but the pack caught me as they started to wind it up for the sprint and I got swarmed.  I had too many riders in front of me heading up the hill the final time, and I thought, "There's gonna be carnage..."  Sure enough, some knucklehead went down right in front of me, another guy ran over his arm (Ouch!) and lost control, I missed it to the left by about a foot, and just rode in.

Just enough time to switch race numbers.  A shot of honey during my warm-up/cool-down lap and we're off again.   The 3/4 field is bigger and faster, with teams trying to control things, especially Keltic Construction and Bethel Cycles.  Adler brought two guys, Tron and a new guy I didn't know.  The CRCA junior team had three guys racing as well.  If they had guys up the road, they would get on the front and the pace would get SLLOOOWWW.   I was actively trying to pedal as little as possible in this race, so no stupid efforts or break chasing.  I just behaved myself and rode around to get the race miles. 

A fast clean sprint with no crashes and I think I was somewhere top half.  Joe Straub of DKNY won the sprint.

Total of about 46 miles of racing to get the season started.

PL

Peta’s Race Report

Well, here we are back in nyc - safe and sound (no thanks to Steph's driving) and much much much wiser after our first race

for the season. I only found out late last night that the race was not just a category 4 women's field and was an open field -

oops too late to pull out now!!!!

 

We arrived in Bethel (middle of nowhere) and have minimal time to warm - one loop of the course thank goodness is about

all we had time for. It is freezing here........brrrrrr

 

Bethel race consists of 22 laps of 0.9 mile loop with a catpaws equivalent to complete each lap - making up 20 miles of total racing.

Great course - bit windy in parts but nice wide roads. You mean I have to do this 22 times?????

 

Steph and I did not finish with the pack - we both managed 12 or so loops and both for various reasons ended up getting dropped - I got boxed in on the hill and the girl in front was too slow up the hill so by the time we crested the hill the pack was "bye bye".......and Steph had a similar experience....I think we were both quite annoyed that we didnt finish with the pack but most of the pack was Pro 1/2/3 riders. We did take note that we beat 2 girls that we knew were cat 4 and we did not come last :).  Anne Marie Miller - CRCA - Sanchez - Cat 1 rider finished - job well done for her. That gives us hope that at 50 years of age - we might be half as good.

 

All we can say is getting dropped is no fun whether its by other Cat 4's or pro women - the feeling is not so good, especially for your first race of the season. Suprisingly though the pace was not out of control and we did feel good and did not feel like we were completely out of our leg.

We know for next time what our strategy would be and the only real advice we have is the following for the new razettes:

 

(i) know the apex of a crit race or any race for that matter.

(ii) take trainer and get a good warm up in;

(iii) take snacks for the ride home - esp. when you get lost (also print out reverse directions)

(iv) on the hill where people are charging up it in the attempt to drop people -- get up the front - we did that for the first part of the race and then just lost position on lap 13 ........position is everything!!!!!!!! CHOOSE YOUR WHEEL WISELY!!!!

 

Getting dropped can only be viewed as a good motivator for future training and on the days that we want to be slack we will remember the feeling of not finishing with the pack .........and how demoralizing it is. We will refuse to eat as little shit as possible in the future open races - well any race for that matter.

 

Hopefully this is not the first of many droppings ....hahah

 

It doesnt have to be fun to be fun - does it?

 

On a positive note - we both ended up towing around other people that did not have the strength to do so; and learning to power up cat's paw in our training really helped in that race.

 

It was a great experience and I am sure the first of many. At the end of the day the more you  race - the more you learn about your strengths, your weaknesses, what to do and not what to do.......Bring it on!  

 

Peta / Steph

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