Sea Otter Road Race - Men Cat 5 Elite

Race:   Sea Otter Road Race

Date:    4/15/2011

Category/Field Size:    Elite 5, about 50-60 racers

Team Mates:  Chris Grove (Army of One)

Weather/Course Description: Warm and windy with a 3:30pm start time.  Neutral start down a canyon road to a looped course and then you climb back up the hill that served as a neutral start.

Race Plan:  Stay towards the front.  Look for breaks and get on one if I can.  Be in the lead group for the final climb.

Race

The Naval Post Grad team was there in full force with at least 9 riders (that is how many were in front of me at the start, there might have been more scattered around).  The 9 that I counted were at the front of the start line stretched from side to side.  I lined up directly behind then so that I could spy on them and use them as a wind break as the race got started (is it legal for me to do that to our military?).

As the race got off to a neutral start, the peloton was really sketchy, especially on the descent down Barloy Canyon Rd.  My spider senses were tingling and I was looking for a safe spot to descend when someone in front and to my right crashed.  His crash went left (towards the riders in front of me) and took all of them out as well.  I was suddenly dodging bodies, wheels, hands, legs, and a frame pump (who races with a frame pump?!?!?).  I made it out okay but somehow my seat angle got knocked all the way forward.  I couldn’t get it to go back in place while riding so I got off the bike, got it close enough, hopped back on and caught back on to the peloton.

 

As we went around the loops we would lose riders off the main pack with every climb.  I was worried that the Naval team would have some sort of strategy, but most of them dropped off the main group quickly.  On an early break attempt I used momentum on the rollers to slingshot the gap but the break didn’t stick.  

As the race was going on I was getting tired keeping the pace up the two climbs in the loop.  I sucked through one of my bottles in no time.  I still had a full second bottle when I hit a series of small pot holes the knocked my second bottle (Good bye Body Concepts bottle) out of the cage.  Fortunately Hammer Nutrition was providing support with bottles filled with some sort of energy drink.  It was foul tasting but I needed the energy more than the taste.  

At this point there are about 12 of us left in the lead group. As we go around to the start of another lap a racer aggressively attacks the hill.  I didn’t really consider it much of a threat (the guy seemed pretty tired on previous climbs) and neither did anyone else.  Next thing we knew this guy had a huge lead.  The lead was too big for me to try and gap and I was barely hanging on as it was.  The group eventually organized to get a pace line going to try and catch him.  I was extremely tired and decided not to participate in the line and hung off the back.  That may have ruffled feathers but I felt that if I took a lead I would be too tired to latch back on at the end of the line.  Once organized, the guy was caught pretty quickly and the pace settled down for the last lap through as everyone was anticipating the big climb out.

There were some strong climbers in this group and I didn’t really think I stood a chance at finishing in the top 3 as they had outpaced my best efforts in the loop.  So my plan was to work my way up as many riders as I could on the climb out.  Top 5 isn’t out of the question.  During the climb I was with the group when some riders started to fall off the pace.  Things were going well until a guy next to me started to have shifting problems.  He stared down at his gears and veered left, right towards me.  I stopped pedaling and veered left as well to avoid being hit.  This instantly gave the group a good sized gap on me.  And I was left going solo the rest of the way up.    I did pass another rider, maybe two…  Not enough oxygen to keep the brain working properly so I can’t remember.  

While, because of the pace, the final hill was difficult it wasn’t really that steep, which would have worked to my strengths. I tried to push as hard as I could all the way to the finish and I was thankful to see the white line coming up because I was getting light-headed. In the end I was satisfied because I was utterly wiped; I had put forth my best effort and I raced in the strongest group of riders I have ever ridden against in an elite age-group in such a major race with folks participating from all over.

Results

I finished 8^th.

Lessons

1.  Listen to your spider senses.

2.  Don’t carry a frame pump.

3.  This is the third time that an obstacle arose close to the finish which caused me to stop pedaling or throw me off my pace.  I need to get better at blocking that stuff out and pedal through problems.