The whole concept of "overall" is dumb at a race like this. The standings in the wave starts is all that should matter since every wave has a different race, and different motivations. I certainly didn't care at all about our total time while riding -- it's all about staying in the front group and hitting the tape first. In triathlons and TT's, the overall time is important. But road races? No way, unless you know before you start what the time to beat is.
I probably had the biggest wave when I started since it was all of the groups 34 & under. It seemed like a big ass group anyway. Like Rich and Todd, I was denied entry since I didn't have my hand marked -- had to rush over and do that and then started in the very back, the one thing I had told myself I couldn't afford to do. Rain started coming down pretty good as we were rolling out and I was spitting out a ton of road debris for the next hour. Rainy peloton rides need flavored bike tires -- rubber & dirt just wasn't doing it for me.
It's a long, easy descent for the first few miles. I was just trying to stay out of the wind and in the group. I didn't really know what to expect out of the race yet -- was it going to stay together until the hill or were people going to try to break away? We had a lead car up the road a few hundred feet and I kept waiting for it to pull off so the real racing would begin, but it was there the whole time -- I think it was clearing the course since we were the first wave.
My big worries for the race were (no surprise) the turn onto/from Stuart Mesa and the descent of the climb. Rain probably helped me since it slowed the fast guys through these parts, and I was about the same as I would have been in the turn. I moved up into the first group of 30 or so guys before the first turn. I stayed up there all the way down the back section before the hill -- I'd lose a few spots on the descents and push back up on the smaller climbs. Never in front, but never behind any gaps. There was a 19 year old kid in full HTC Colombia kit on a TT bike who looked like he was going to break away, but he never did. He came in 10 minutes later, so maybe he was planning on getting dropped and having to solo in...
The rest of my race plan was to stay as close to the front on the climb as possible so that I wouldn't get dropped too much on the descent, and then stay in the first group into the finish. I had no plans of contesting the sprint unless it was just 2 or 3 of us -- I was just looking to have a decent ride.
When we turned onto the climb, I was probably about 30th place. I went to the left because I knew that gaps were going to open and if you're on the right, you can get trapped. Sure enough, it started to split a bit so I just jumped left and hammered up to the next group each time. The climb has two slopes with a flat part in the middle. I was about 10th wheel after the first section, and moved up into 2nd on the final part. I wanted to stay right at the front so everyone else would have to go around me on the way back down. The loop at the top was longer than I expected -- a few guys joined back on to our small group up there. When the descent started, I went over to the right side of the road to stay out of everyone's way and descended like normal -- eyes closed and brakes locked... After the ride, I saw I hit 42.5 on that section, which is fast for me, especially since it was wet. I find it easier to go fast in races with a lot of people around. At the turn at the bottom of the hill, I was probably around 30th position -- there were 3 of us that were about 200 feet behind the main group. A guy in a Revo kit picked up the pace and I sat on his wheel until we caught the main group.
This was the rolling section before the right turn to final few miles of uphill. The guys at the front would hit the little rollers hard to string the group out, so I'd just jump around any little gaps to stay up front. Since I was staying up front, I didn't notice people dropping off, but there were only about 20 of us left when we hit that right turn. There were two guys in Swami's kit (from San Diego) and two guys in the Bannings team kit (Fullerton), so they were trying to control things. One guy from each team attacked, but we let them go since there was a lot of racing lef -- they came back after a minute or so. I chatted with the Revo guy for a second since a friend of mine worked there -- I was trying to make a friend in case things got exciting. There were a few guys talking about how they were getting ready to attack, so I sat near them but they were all talk. The pace was decent up the last few miles, but I was happy to just sit in the group and watch things -- there were a few small moves, but nothing that was going to stay away.
As we got near the finish, I decided to just sit in and stay out of trouble -- most crashes in the lower category races are in the finish straight, and I wasn't in the mood to scuff up my sweet Broadcom jersey. The finish area was pretty sketchy -- hard left, hard right, then a slight left into the chute, all with some crappy pavement. Everyone was slowing down before that first left and seemed to be a bit wide, so I cut in on the left and passed by all of them except one guy in a generic orange jersey. I sped up a bit to stay next to him and hit the right turn in 2nd position. I was expecting the group to come swinging around me so I didn’t really hammer it. I just stayed over to the left side of the road. When we made the slight left and could see the line, I thought that maybe I was going to stay away after all so I hit it pretty good until the line. I finished behind the orange guy, but he turned out to be 20-something so I won my wave.
In the end, they gave me 3rd overall behind a guy from Shannon's wave and the orange jersey guy, but as I already said that's kind of a weird ruling. I'll settle for winning my group -- a 1st place medal would have been cooler to have, but I didn't get a pretty sweet plaque out of it. As well run as the race seemed to be for that many people, I was disappointed with the finish ceremony (or lack thereof). They had me pose for a few pics for the overall, but there was nothing for everyone else who won their divisions -- no podium, no nothing. You just had to walk over to a table to claim your stuff -- pretty weak.
Overall, very fun race. I was nervous how the group would ride since they didn't go by skill/experience categories, but it worked out great -- we dropped most of the total newbies on the first long downhill so it didn't seem dangerous at all. I would have liked more climbing, but that would have meant more downhill so this worked out fine.
Thanks to Shannon and Gary for hauling my tree-hugging ass down there and back, and to Rich for hosting the after party and letting us see all his man-porn photos in his hallway. Very hot.
Broadcom kicked some ass -- can't wait for the next one!
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