Super Week Day 1: Beverly Cycling Classic.
Posted on Saturday, July 12, 2008
This race is always an interesting one, it's one of the hardest courses we do and its the first day out so you never know whos gonna be there or how the legs will react. My flight was delayed by about 5 hours on Thursday night, so I ended up spending about 12-13 hours on planes and in airports, not exactly what I wanted for a good set up to a hard race. No matter JD picked me up at about 2 oclock am and I managed to get to sleep by 4....ouch.
As for the racing, we lined up about 80 guys for the hot hilly race with a strong cast of characters including Bahaati, Justin Williams and Sterling from RR, a couple of hard aussies from Jittery Joes, a full Kelly Benefits team, and a host of local hitters. It was absolutely house from the gun with the entire first thirty minutes pretty much lined out with the occassional attack making it even faster. JD and I stayed pretty well up and covered as best we could, I thought I felt pretty good until I started looking for the lap counter and realized we had done less than half the race, 35 laps to go and I was hurting a bit already. Lucky for me, the pace slowed a bit and a couple of breaks managed to get a bit of time but came back, I knew this would likely mean the winning move would come quick.
And just as predicted it went, JD and I missed the move as did Kelly Benefits, who quickly sent all 5 or 6 guys to the front and drilled it for two laps bringing the gap down just enough to send two across and then shut it down. The breakneck speed at which Kelly implemented this beautiful piece of textbook racing left just about everybody else (save for Richard England who went across with em...Kudos to that guy!) gasping for breath and unable to do much. So that was the top 10 up the road.
Shortly after, at about the time I was wondering if I was gonna make it through the race a few guys dawdled off and got a gap so off I went to give it a shot. We worked well for a few laps and were eventually joined by Vic Ayala, Bahaati, some Candelario clone from Kelly and a few others and we began to make it happen. Lots of primes and attacks kept us varying between kinda going and going like hell, while up front the lead 10 lapped the field. We ended up with 15 in our group so everyone should get paid as long as we didnt get caught. Late in the game I managed to snag a 100 dollar prime just barely from a late charging Bahaati and settled in to try and make it to the end. There was a bit more action in our group with me working a good bit to keep things smooth and try to stay up front, and at about 3 to go 3 of us ended up with a bit of a gap and charged to try and make it stick but no dice. We were caught just before one to go and unfortunately I ended up in the lead out role going in to the hill.
Knowing that if I slowed it up to get off I would be caught out by the flurry of attacks I opted to lead it out, the race here is basically to the decent two corners from the line so I did my best to just lead it to that corner knowing if I got there towards the front I would hold my own. I did just that until about 10 feet from the corner where I got swamed by four riders, came out of the last corner in 5th wheels and managed to hold off all but one for what should have been 16th place, key word should have...
With no finishing camera (huh?) and a few dishonest clowns that have been here too many years past my very solid and positive 16th place turned into me arguing with the officials and getting given the firs "unkown rider" spot in 19th. Not exactly the way I wanted things to go, I had even checked in at the finish as my jersey was unzipped but apparently Im just not cool enough.
Good job to JD who rode real strong and looked good all day, to Logan who came out trying to make the break that stuck and ended up feeding and to a real tough Dylan that gave it a solid go till his post surgery incision started to bleed. All in all Im satisfied-ish with the days ride if not the "official" result, with the easier days and the promise of a finishing camera I think things should get a good bit better.
As for the racing, we lined up about 80 guys for the hot hilly race with a strong cast of characters including Bahaati, Justin Williams and Sterling from RR, a couple of hard aussies from Jittery Joes, a full Kelly Benefits team, and a host of local hitters. It was absolutely house from the gun with the entire first thirty minutes pretty much lined out with the occassional attack making it even faster. JD and I stayed pretty well up and covered as best we could, I thought I felt pretty good until I started looking for the lap counter and realized we had done less than half the race, 35 laps to go and I was hurting a bit already. Lucky for me, the pace slowed a bit and a couple of breaks managed to get a bit of time but came back, I knew this would likely mean the winning move would come quick.
And just as predicted it went, JD and I missed the move as did Kelly Benefits, who quickly sent all 5 or 6 guys to the front and drilled it for two laps bringing the gap down just enough to send two across and then shut it down. The breakneck speed at which Kelly implemented this beautiful piece of textbook racing left just about everybody else (save for Richard England who went across with em...Kudos to that guy!) gasping for breath and unable to do much. So that was the top 10 up the road.
Shortly after, at about the time I was wondering if I was gonna make it through the race a few guys dawdled off and got a gap so off I went to give it a shot. We worked well for a few laps and were eventually joined by Vic Ayala, Bahaati, some Candelario clone from Kelly and a few others and we began to make it happen. Lots of primes and attacks kept us varying between kinda going and going like hell, while up front the lead 10 lapped the field. We ended up with 15 in our group so everyone should get paid as long as we didnt get caught. Late in the game I managed to snag a 100 dollar prime just barely from a late charging Bahaati and settled in to try and make it to the end. There was a bit more action in our group with me working a good bit to keep things smooth and try to stay up front, and at about 3 to go 3 of us ended up with a bit of a gap and charged to try and make it stick but no dice. We were caught just before one to go and unfortunately I ended up in the lead out role going in to the hill.
Knowing that if I slowed it up to get off I would be caught out by the flurry of attacks I opted to lead it out, the race here is basically to the decent two corners from the line so I did my best to just lead it to that corner knowing if I got there towards the front I would hold my own. I did just that until about 10 feet from the corner where I got swamed by four riders, came out of the last corner in 5th wheels and managed to hold off all but one for what should have been 16th place, key word should have...
With no finishing camera (huh?) and a few dishonest clowns that have been here too many years past my very solid and positive 16th place turned into me arguing with the officials and getting given the firs "unkown rider" spot in 19th. Not exactly the way I wanted things to go, I had even checked in at the finish as my jersey was unzipped but apparently Im just not cool enough.
Good job to JD who rode real strong and looked good all day, to Logan who came out trying to make the break that stuck and ended up feeding and to a real tough Dylan that gave it a solid go till his post surgery incision started to bleed. All in all Im satisfied-ish with the days ride if not the "official" result, with the easier days and the promise of a finishing camera I think things should get a good bit better.
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