Strava: http://www.strava.com/activities/134486423
It took me a while to register for this race. First, I wasn't sure I wanted to do a road race with some moderate climbing given I don't really think it's something I could do well in...but it was interesting to know where I'd fall. I also thought doing a race like this alone would definitely be more challenging since there's no one to ally up with who can bail you out in a bind. Lastly, the weather forecast for it earlier during the week was showing 30% chance of rain, and I didn't want to race that bad and take chances not being able to continue the GP series should I crash. In the end, I ended up doing it obviously but it was definitely one that had me questioning it all the way up to the drive down to the race.
The funny thing about the weather was that when I was at GP hanging with Todd and Pam on Thursday, TWC forecast for Bonsall where the race is held had reduced the chance of rain down to 10%. I even checked again when I got home. It was important for me to decide then as it was the last night to register online or it will go up $11 for same day registration. With the reduced chance of rain, I registered that evening. When I got up on Friday, I thought I'd check again to see and strangely enough, it had gone up to 50%! Of course, it rained pretty heavy that evening, and even was still raining some here and there on the way down. The 76 highway was even pretty soaked where I almost decided to turn around. The only reason I kept going was just to check out the course should I decide to do it again next time. Upon nearing Bonsall, however, the clouds broke and the skies cleared up and all of a sudden it seemed boned dry. The only thing to contend with weather-wise was the heavy winds, but I figured after putting on my aluminum wheels the night before that I should be okay. Plus, others had to work through the same weather as me, so that definitely wouldn't be something I'd use as an excuse to get out of racing.
I didn't realize this when I signed up but the race was setup where the roads were still open to vehicle traffic during the race. I found this out as I was heading to the middle school where the race started from and ended up being behind a couple racers who had a vehicle behind them flashing their lights as warning. There was another guy who had dropped behind that I felt bad about because he had to keep to the side as a few cars including mine lined up taking the road while he had to continue racing on the edge. I kept looking back to make sure I would give him room should he need to pass. I was hoping that something like that wouldn't happen to me!
The parking lot was pretty full, so they had us go all the way around and park on the basketball courts. I was barely able to get a space, but managed to do so after a guy told me to just have some people move out of the way. After asking nicely, they did.
While I could go on about the registration process, my warm-up, my bio situation, etc., let's get down to talking about the race, shall we?
The number of racers were not up to the maximum limit by any means. I think there may have been 30 riders or so at the most. I met one guy named Spencer who introduced himself to me and indicated it was his first race ever. Originally, I thought I may be able to ally with him but after seeing he had a mirror on his glasses since he thought it would be good for racing (he ended up taking it off as instructed by the race organizer), I decided he may be more of a liability than helpful. I will say, however, that for a first race, he was definitely going for it taking pulls and breaking away here and there...most likely due to the inexperience and not knowing how everyone was just using him up. I thought he popped off on the 2nd lap, but he actually was still there. It was on the 2nd climb up, that he dropped off. I hope he continues to race....
For me, my plan was not to take any chances. I REALLY didn't want to get dropped in the race. There were a lot of young people racing and some who are rail thin, so I hoped that they would be kind to the fatty (me) and not expect much. The descent down the course was fast, and I think we lost 1-2 guys by the time we got to the bottom of W. Lilac Road. I was able to stay toward the back on Camino Del Rey both directions, but I started pushing up for the 2.2 mile climb up W. Lilac.
I would characterize the climb as being comparable to the last part of Silverado. I didn't think I would need to drop down to the small ring, but I ended up doing so just so I can save some of my legs for the latter part of the race. I ended up being in the front group on the climb as some started to pop off, but it was pretty taxing much like how it feels to crest toward the front of a Como ride after Cook's. I wondered what 2 more of those climbs would feel like, so I continued to play it safe.
As we were descending a 2nd time, one guy decided to break away before we got on Camino Del Rey, and no one responded. I didn't know what the one guy could do on his own, especially in the wind, so I was fine with staying with the rest. The 2nd chase group actually ended up catching us at one point, so I let others push up ahead of me as they seemed eager to continue working. I saw one guy who I thought was being fairly careful and climbed pretty well, so I thought it would be good to do what he's doing and save it for the last lap climb.
Upon reaching the turn around spot on the 2nd lap, however, 2 guys started to break away as well, so I saw that as an opportunity to see if I could work with them. I took off and left the chase group to try and catch up to the two ahead of me and seemed to have made a clean break from the others. However, the two could see me closing and opted to work together to keep me from catching them rather then letting me join to help chase down the other guy. This pretty much put me in a bad situation given I lit a lot of matches riding against the wind trying to catch them. Eventually, the peloton ended up catching up to me, but instead of taking a pull to reel the two in, they held me out instead and sat in my draft. This was followed with an attack, which pretty much took everything I had just to latch back on. Fortunately, I was successful...barely.
On the 2nd climb up, I still managed to stay with the head of the chase group, but we never managed to reel in the two in front of us. We got close at times, but when they turned around at the top to descent, they increased the gap. I was thinking of trying to help with the descent as there were times we would slow up where I knew those ahead of us were just increasing the gaps, but I didn't want to get taken advantage of and get dropped as the group had dwindled down to probably 10 or so.
I remained in the back on Camino Del Rey and was saving it as much as I could see others doing the same thing. The younger and/or more aggressive continued to push the pace up front, which worked to my fat ass' advantage. When we got to the turn around point, however, I thought I better step up as racing for a non-podium spot seemed pretty lame. I was hoping the others would want to work with me to reel the two guys ahead as we did seem to close a little bit after the turn around. However, rather than working together, people were maneuvering around instead. I realized from this that no one was interested in getting a podium spot anymore where the 3 all together ahead of us had clinched it. I was pushed up front a couple times, and I even bridged a gap from an attack, but I started to get a little nervous as we neared the last climb. People seemed to be getting nervous also, as people were starting to slow down a lot beforehand.
On the last climb, I was toward the back and there were some attacks occurring in front of me. I had to sprint by a couple riders just to close the gap that some had created ahead of us. As they continued to attack one another, I found myself a little off where I figured pushing on seemed pointless. I remembered the crit on Thursday when Todd and Shannon was saying sprinting for 10th place is pretty weak, so I found myself comfortable with where I was knowing some other guys dropped behind me. One of the guys, Zack, a RB4U rider who rides with Vin and Jeremy and who I met on the last lap, had dropped during the attacks, and I didn't see anyone behind me for some time. I could have put some effort to try and catch the guy just in front of me, but I figured I'll just hold a steady pace for the finish. I must have looked behind me 2 or 3 times though, just to make sure, but ended up getting caught sleeping near the finish. Zack, and one other guy had caught me, and Zack passed me just before the finish. When he passed, I didn't think I would do more, but it was like a natural reaction to get back up and sprint. I just couldn't do enough to pass him again when he passed. The other guy with him almost passed me too, but we pretty much crossed together. In the end, I'm not sure where I ended up but it may have been top 10 or just outside of it. Oh well, that's what I get for sleeping.
I didn't even stick around afterwards, and I pretty much just got changed and headed home. I suppose I should have stuck around for the results, but I wanted to get back before traffic got bad given it was the end of spring break for some places. It was a great experience but one that I know would be better with other team mates. I think our climbers would have fun on this race, so maybe I'll convince them to come out next year...while I watch.
It took me a while to register for this race. First, I wasn't sure I wanted to do a road race with some moderate climbing given I don't really think it's something I could do well in...but it was interesting to know where I'd fall. I also thought doing a race like this alone would definitely be more challenging since there's no one to ally up with who can bail you out in a bind. Lastly, the weather forecast for it earlier during the week was showing 30% chance of rain, and I didn't want to race that bad and take chances not being able to continue the GP series should I crash. In the end, I ended up doing it obviously but it was definitely one that had me questioning it all the way up to the drive down to the race.
The funny thing about the weather was that when I was at GP hanging with Todd and Pam on Thursday, TWC forecast for Bonsall where the race is held had reduced the chance of rain down to 10%. I even checked again when I got home. It was important for me to decide then as it was the last night to register online or it will go up $11 for same day registration. With the reduced chance of rain, I registered that evening. When I got up on Friday, I thought I'd check again to see and strangely enough, it had gone up to 50%! Of course, it rained pretty heavy that evening, and even was still raining some here and there on the way down. The 76 highway was even pretty soaked where I almost decided to turn around. The only reason I kept going was just to check out the course should I decide to do it again next time. Upon nearing Bonsall, however, the clouds broke and the skies cleared up and all of a sudden it seemed boned dry. The only thing to contend with weather-wise was the heavy winds, but I figured after putting on my aluminum wheels the night before that I should be okay. Plus, others had to work through the same weather as me, so that definitely wouldn't be something I'd use as an excuse to get out of racing.
I didn't realize this when I signed up but the race was setup where the roads were still open to vehicle traffic during the race. I found this out as I was heading to the middle school where the race started from and ended up being behind a couple racers who had a vehicle behind them flashing their lights as warning. There was another guy who had dropped behind that I felt bad about because he had to keep to the side as a few cars including mine lined up taking the road while he had to continue racing on the edge. I kept looking back to make sure I would give him room should he need to pass. I was hoping that something like that wouldn't happen to me!
The parking lot was pretty full, so they had us go all the way around and park on the basketball courts. I was barely able to get a space, but managed to do so after a guy told me to just have some people move out of the way. After asking nicely, they did.
While I could go on about the registration process, my warm-up, my bio situation, etc., let's get down to talking about the race, shall we?
The number of racers were not up to the maximum limit by any means. I think there may have been 30 riders or so at the most. I met one guy named Spencer who introduced himself to me and indicated it was his first race ever. Originally, I thought I may be able to ally with him but after seeing he had a mirror on his glasses since he thought it would be good for racing (he ended up taking it off as instructed by the race organizer), I decided he may be more of a liability than helpful. I will say, however, that for a first race, he was definitely going for it taking pulls and breaking away here and there...most likely due to the inexperience and not knowing how everyone was just using him up. I thought he popped off on the 2nd lap, but he actually was still there. It was on the 2nd climb up, that he dropped off. I hope he continues to race....
For me, my plan was not to take any chances. I REALLY didn't want to get dropped in the race. There were a lot of young people racing and some who are rail thin, so I hoped that they would be kind to the fatty (me) and not expect much. The descent down the course was fast, and I think we lost 1-2 guys by the time we got to the bottom of W. Lilac Road. I was able to stay toward the back on Camino Del Rey both directions, but I started pushing up for the 2.2 mile climb up W. Lilac.
I would characterize the climb as being comparable to the last part of Silverado. I didn't think I would need to drop down to the small ring, but I ended up doing so just so I can save some of my legs for the latter part of the race. I ended up being in the front group on the climb as some started to pop off, but it was pretty taxing much like how it feels to crest toward the front of a Como ride after Cook's. I wondered what 2 more of those climbs would feel like, so I continued to play it safe.
As we were descending a 2nd time, one guy decided to break away before we got on Camino Del Rey, and no one responded. I didn't know what the one guy could do on his own, especially in the wind, so I was fine with staying with the rest. The 2nd chase group actually ended up catching us at one point, so I let others push up ahead of me as they seemed eager to continue working. I saw one guy who I thought was being fairly careful and climbed pretty well, so I thought it would be good to do what he's doing and save it for the last lap climb.
Upon reaching the turn around spot on the 2nd lap, however, 2 guys started to break away as well, so I saw that as an opportunity to see if I could work with them. I took off and left the chase group to try and catch up to the two ahead of me and seemed to have made a clean break from the others. However, the two could see me closing and opted to work together to keep me from catching them rather then letting me join to help chase down the other guy. This pretty much put me in a bad situation given I lit a lot of matches riding against the wind trying to catch them. Eventually, the peloton ended up catching up to me, but instead of taking a pull to reel the two in, they held me out instead and sat in my draft. This was followed with an attack, which pretty much took everything I had just to latch back on. Fortunately, I was successful...barely.
On the 2nd climb up, I still managed to stay with the head of the chase group, but we never managed to reel in the two in front of us. We got close at times, but when they turned around at the top to descent, they increased the gap. I was thinking of trying to help with the descent as there were times we would slow up where I knew those ahead of us were just increasing the gaps, but I didn't want to get taken advantage of and get dropped as the group had dwindled down to probably 10 or so.
I remained in the back on Camino Del Rey and was saving it as much as I could see others doing the same thing. The younger and/or more aggressive continued to push the pace up front, which worked to my fat ass' advantage. When we got to the turn around point, however, I thought I better step up as racing for a non-podium spot seemed pretty lame. I was hoping the others would want to work with me to reel the two guys ahead as we did seem to close a little bit after the turn around. However, rather than working together, people were maneuvering around instead. I realized from this that no one was interested in getting a podium spot anymore where the 3 all together ahead of us had clinched it. I was pushed up front a couple times, and I even bridged a gap from an attack, but I started to get a little nervous as we neared the last climb. People seemed to be getting nervous also, as people were starting to slow down a lot beforehand.
On the last climb, I was toward the back and there were some attacks occurring in front of me. I had to sprint by a couple riders just to close the gap that some had created ahead of us. As they continued to attack one another, I found myself a little off where I figured pushing on seemed pointless. I remembered the crit on Thursday when Todd and Shannon was saying sprinting for 10th place is pretty weak, so I found myself comfortable with where I was knowing some other guys dropped behind me. One of the guys, Zack, a RB4U rider who rides with Vin and Jeremy and who I met on the last lap, had dropped during the attacks, and I didn't see anyone behind me for some time. I could have put some effort to try and catch the guy just in front of me, but I figured I'll just hold a steady pace for the finish. I must have looked behind me 2 or 3 times though, just to make sure, but ended up getting caught sleeping near the finish. Zack, and one other guy had caught me, and Zack passed me just before the finish. When he passed, I didn't think I would do more, but it was like a natural reaction to get back up and sprint. I just couldn't do enough to pass him again when he passed. The other guy with him almost passed me too, but we pretty much crossed together. In the end, I'm not sure where I ended up but it may have been top 10 or just outside of it. Oh well, that's what I get for sleeping.
I didn't even stick around afterwards, and I pretty much just got changed and headed home. I suppose I should have stuck around for the results, but I wanted to get back before traffic got bad given it was the end of spring break for some places. It was a great experience but one that I know would be better with other team mates. I think our climbers would have fun on this race, so maybe I'll convince them to come out next year...while I watch.
