Race Report - Clear Lake Road Race
The BBQ road race had a few new faces in it on Sunday morning and four of those were my teammates including Chad Mason, Tony Muse, Jason Alread, and Dustin Mars. With five of us in the class we had a pretty good chance at controlling the field as well as getting a good finish so I think we were all pretty happy about that. We rolled out of the Surf Ballroom at 10:10am for our 41 mile race with the first three miles being under neutral control to get to the edge of town. Once to the edge of town, the pace slowly works it's way up although it is still sane. It's when we make the first turn on course to head South that the racing actually starts. The group gets stretched out into singlefile pretty quick and the rotations amongst the first 5-10 riders begin. The Rassy Black had a pretty strong presence on the front and we were doing a pretty good job of keeping things steady. If anyone tried to attack the group there was always at least one Rassy rider tagging along for the ride and the Rassy riders that remained in the group did what they could to keep the pace of the group controlled so that any breaks were left alone.
Eventually we had Tony get off the front and pull a pretty good gap on the field. He stayed away for a short distance before coming back to the group only to try again a little later after we made our left turn to head East into the wind. The second time he actually was able to hold it for quite a while as Dustin and Jason sat in 3rd and 4th positions letting the first two guys in the field do all the work. It took them a few miles of working hard to reel in Tony but, eventually they did it. When Tony came back to the group there was an attack from a MOB Racing rider that gained a short gap. I took the opportunity to launch across the gap to the MOB rider and attempt to gain some extra ground. Alas, it seemed that my breakaway partner did not have enough gas in the tank and we were brought back by the group as well. It did not take long after that for the group to start an attempt and getting a separation with Tim Putnam (NISpin) taking some hard pulls up the hills and stringing out the group again. As a whole the group seemed pretty strong and stayed together really well so the attacking eventually subsided as well. Making our next left turn to head North and the attacks began again. The good thing was that, since we were over the halfway point in the race, a couple of the other teams were more than willing to chase attacks and we were willing to let them. By the time we made our next turn, now heading West with a tailwind, it was actually pretty calm and we rode along at tempo at around 28-30mph. As we neared the right-hander at the end of that stretch, I had taken over the front of the group and made a terrible misjudgement on the turn where I ran wide left, off the pavement and into the gravel on the side. No problems, kept it on two wheels and was back in the group in second wheel pretty quick. A few of the guys in the group just gave me a hard time about getting ready for cyclocross season during a road race. It was a good laugh.
The short section heading North was where the mood of the group took a drastic change. Our pace went from the high 20s to the low 20s and no one wanted to come to the front of the group. Rick Noyes (ICCC) sat on front for about a mile or so before we swung way off to the right to force others to the front as well and even when they were there, the speeds stayed right around 20mph. Eventually we made it to the final right hand turn and began the three mile final stretch to the finish. No one would take over the lead for the longest time and we actually dropped below 18mph at one point. Eventually someone kicked it up a bit and we were moving along again. I was on the left side of the lane and could see all of the guys that had taken a free ride for the entire race starting to move towards the front of the group as we neared the finish. The last 500 feet were going to be open so that we had the entire road available but, it was never utilized. Consequently the field sprint erupted at the 200 foot mark with riders going every which way in search of a clear hole in fron of them. Tony was still able to pull off a 3rd overall finish but, the rest of us were mid-pack in 10th, 11th, 12th, and 16th.
It was still a good race for me though. I had the chance to relax a bit more than I had anticipated and I could also take some harder pulls since I had the time to recover. It definitely is nice to have teammates in the field with me.
I also would like to congratulate Rassy riders Lou Waugaman for his 1st place finish in the Cat. 1/2 class and Rich Wince for his 1st place finish in the Cat. 3 race. Rich also took the field sprint in that race which put him and Lou 1-2 across the line, very cool.
Full results can be seen here.
Eventually we had Tony get off the front and pull a pretty good gap on the field. He stayed away for a short distance before coming back to the group only to try again a little later after we made our left turn to head East into the wind. The second time he actually was able to hold it for quite a while as Dustin and Jason sat in 3rd and 4th positions letting the first two guys in the field do all the work. It took them a few miles of working hard to reel in Tony but, eventually they did it. When Tony came back to the group there was an attack from a MOB Racing rider that gained a short gap. I took the opportunity to launch across the gap to the MOB rider and attempt to gain some extra ground. Alas, it seemed that my breakaway partner did not have enough gas in the tank and we were brought back by the group as well. It did not take long after that for the group to start an attempt and getting a separation with Tim Putnam (NISpin) taking some hard pulls up the hills and stringing out the group again. As a whole the group seemed pretty strong and stayed together really well so the attacking eventually subsided as well. Making our next left turn to head North and the attacks began again. The good thing was that, since we were over the halfway point in the race, a couple of the other teams were more than willing to chase attacks and we were willing to let them. By the time we made our next turn, now heading West with a tailwind, it was actually pretty calm and we rode along at tempo at around 28-30mph. As we neared the right-hander at the end of that stretch, I had taken over the front of the group and made a terrible misjudgement on the turn where I ran wide left, off the pavement and into the gravel on the side. No problems, kept it on two wheels and was back in the group in second wheel pretty quick. A few of the guys in the group just gave me a hard time about getting ready for cyclocross season during a road race. It was a good laugh.
The short section heading North was where the mood of the group took a drastic change. Our pace went from the high 20s to the low 20s and no one wanted to come to the front of the group. Rick Noyes (ICCC) sat on front for about a mile or so before we swung way off to the right to force others to the front as well and even when they were there, the speeds stayed right around 20mph. Eventually we made it to the final right hand turn and began the three mile final stretch to the finish. No one would take over the lead for the longest time and we actually dropped below 18mph at one point. Eventually someone kicked it up a bit and we were moving along again. I was on the left side of the lane and could see all of the guys that had taken a free ride for the entire race starting to move towards the front of the group as we neared the finish. The last 500 feet were going to be open so that we had the entire road available but, it was never utilized. Consequently the field sprint erupted at the 200 foot mark with riders going every which way in search of a clear hole in fron of them. Tony was still able to pull off a 3rd overall finish but, the rest of us were mid-pack in 10th, 11th, 12th, and 16th.
It was still a good race for me though. I had the chance to relax a bit more than I had anticipated and I could also take some harder pulls since I had the time to recover. It definitely is nice to have teammates in the field with me.
I also would like to congratulate Rassy riders Lou Waugaman for his 1st place finish in the Cat. 1/2 class and Rich Wince for his 1st place finish in the Cat. 3 race. Rich also took the field sprint in that race which put him and Lou 1-2 across the line, very cool.
Full results can be seen here.
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on 7.14.2009 at 6:00 AM.
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