Memorial Day Criterium

Event: Memorial Day Criterium
Length: 40 minutes
Category: Masters 35+ cat4/5 and Masters 45+4/5
# of Racers: 75
Weather: Sunny 65 degrees, light winds
Results: 20th out of 35 (masters 35+ 4/5


View Larger Map

This past weekend I took part in the Memorial Day Criterium. This was my third Crit ever and it was a little sketchy.

Going into a turn with six other riders at 25 MPH that only had room for five. Really? is this how it's going to be? I was so not into racing like that for 40 minutes so I drifted to near the back and tried to stay with the pack. The pace was steady until the 35 minute mark when a rider went down in front and to the left of me. The only thing I could do was to keep my line and not make any sudden moves to take other riders around me out. The race immediately went neutral and stayed that way until the rider could be taken care of by the EMT's.




After a few neutral laps the race was on again. At this point only 10 minutes remained and the pace started picking up between 25 and 30 MPH. I was staying out of the action up front and was safely tucked in behind a few of the many bigger riders.

Panoche Road Race

This racing thing is HARD!



Event: Panoche Road Race
Length: 40 miles
Category: Masters 35+ cat5
Weather: Hot 85 degrees, light winds
# of Racers: 30
Results: 18th


View Larger Map

A month ago I signed up to race the Panoche Road Race. Had I known it was going to be HOT and windy I might have stayed away. However, This is bike racing so you have to race in all weather conditions.

So I teammate and I from Velo Club Monterey decided to give it a go. Since this was only the second road race for the both of us we only had a few goals.
1. Don't crash
2. Stay with the pack.
3. Have fun.

I was only able to do 1 of the three. The good thing is it was #1. The course was a 40 mile out and back with 2000 feet of climbing. The climbing didn't really start until mile 10 or so. I was able to stay with the pack on the first climb. When we hit the second climb the pack was getting strung out and the pace was picking up. I went hard for about 5 min but that was all I had. At that point I knew I still had about 1000 feet of climbing ahead so I decided to fall back to the second group. When I was unable to stay with this group I decided to just go at my own pace and finish the climb and try to catch a few riders on the way down.

As I continued to climb I saw the lead group of about 8 riders already on the way down. A few minutes later I saw my teammate pass me already going back down. My only goal at this point was to reach my teammate so we could work together through the headwind in the last 10 miles. At the turn around I was able to hook up with another rider and we worked together to catch up with the next group on the road. After about 20 minutes we were able to catch a group of two (including my teammate) At this point all we wanted to do was to finish and get some cold water, The temperature was around 85 degrees (too hot for a coastal bum like me)

The last 10 mile seemed to drag on as we fought through the heat and headwind. The four of us finished near the back. I'll have to wait to see who was the red lantern when the results come out later this week.