Saturday night was a night race at Sierra Point near Brisbane (South SF) in the Bay. The course was a blast, bumpy a few steep run ups, barriers at the base of a short hill, lots of partying fans, and hey it was lit up, pretty cool. Racing the 35+ A group I figured it would be a wee bit tamer than the Open A category...what was I thinking!? A few former world champions (mtb and CX), a few multiple national champions, what seemed like most of Cal Giant racing this category....lets just say it was gonna be fast! Cool!
I had a Marja-esque starting position, back of the back with nothing but daylight (or moonlight I guess) behind me on the pavement, but hey, its my first go at the gear thing so I thought I'd ease into it. Plus with all the roadies I still stress about being taken out, especially on first laps... Race starts, feeling good, move up from the rears to the middle of the field in the first and then second turns (note: see reference to roadies above). No crashes but bizarre lines on dirt/grass allowed me to take advantage of the inside of both turns. We fly down to a 180 turn, oopps there's face plant #1 and the guy looked like he was in pain. Steep up, steep down, run-up up some stairs, back on having fun. Legs and lungs feel good. Go through a few hairpins in the grass/dirt, head back to to some barriers at the bottom of a hill, crest, hard left down a steep descent to an immediate rise, catch some air and get some beer sprayed on me....so on. Having fun to say the least.
Half way through lap #2 I notice a chatter in my front end. Wrap my hand around the headset, no movement, oh crap!!
- is my fork busted (have had issues with flex, etc with this new carbon fork)??!!; or
- does my fork have lawyer tabs, cause my wheel is loose!!?? YIKES
Race ends, no catastrophe, just the plug started to pull out of the fork thus allowing the steer tube to rattle around like a rock in a diet coke can!
Hats off to Scott, he started 45 seconds behind and passed me on the last lap, got about 10 meters on me then i luckily out sprinted him to the line to save a wee-bit-o pride amongst friends... I think it was the "YEE_HAW" he yelled as he passed me that spurred me on. He was still 45 seconds faster than me though, nicely done!!
Marja's A race was right before ours. She was lucky enough to be called up which should have given her an OK starting spot, but a lot of the other women rolled up as Marja was going up so I think she got a little screwed there...Women! I tell ya!
She started faster than I have seen her and she started moving up after lap 2. And I mean really moving up. She caught one of her main rivals with a few laps left and left her behind and almost caught Lizzie on the last lap. She looked strong the whole race and is not being shy about passing! She surely ended up with some strong results, still waiting to see exactly where!
We watched most of the Open A race and then headed back to Cameron Park. Got to bed about midnight, woke to the alarm at 7am (impressed I slept that late, wanted more!) to get up and prep for the next race at Folsom HS, Bicycle Planet's covert CX race - someone needs to tell them to advertise better!! Marja's start was at 9:45, 14+ hrs after she finished her last CX race. I was lucky and got to start at 12:45 in the A's.
Marja's race started FAST....translation: Marja was 30 seconds behind the leader at the end of lap 1, 15 seconds behind Emily who was in 2nd....typical start, but Scott and I figured she'd start winding up! Lap 2, same split to Emily, the leader was about 25 seconds up on her. Marja looked good and was powering through the start/finish straight. A few laps later Marja was 10 seconds behind the two leaders, Emily had reeled in the Velo-Bella gal and I was worried the two would now work together and pull away from Marja but she was on fire. Seems in that lap the Velo-Bella woman took a face plant into a barrier at the bottom of a hill and struggled to get back up to stay with Emily....she punctured trying to catch back up to her. Emily came through the start/finish and Marja was now 5 seconds behind.
In roadie fashion, Emily waited for Marja so they could work together and leave the rest of the field, but as Marja came over the top of her to pull through, Emily punctured as she was riding from dirt to a wooden bridge.... Marja rode the next two laps solo to a win in the women's A race. STUD!!!
She tries to minimize her win by referring to the other women's flats, but she caught'em and its all part of it!! She was a stud.
My race rolled around, finally, and I have to admit, after the night before I was nervous about my fork and the gears. In the night race I was fumbling with my gears, always seemed to be too ez or too hard, longing for my single speed so I did not have to think I just had to pedal... Truthfully, I was tired as hell too!
I started near the rear, the Open A's and 45+ A's went together. I slowly moved up through the pack down the straight and a few tight turns and some technical sections, as we flew down a section of hard pack dirt (and cobble, duh..its Folsom always assume half buried cobble) we came to a tight left. AS I set up to take it fast, a Davis Bike Club guys flies to my outside along with a SGW inside of him who is going to pinch me off in the corner.... this is gonna be ugly!!
As we start into the turn, I have my elbow and right knee sticking out to keep the SGW guy from pushing me off my line....my first thought as we entered the turn was that DBC guy is toast, and as I thought it I hear the sound of deep dish carbon tubulars skidding across the cobble....Then, the SGW next to me hits the deck and they get all tangled up....being on the inside of the turn, I immediately stood up and pedaled through it to miss the carnage!
"F-ing Roadies!!" slips out of my mouth....
Bruno from Davis comes by as I am still shell shocked from being taken out of the race, "man I can't believe you didn't get taken out!!" It was good to see it wasn't Bruno who was in the DBC kit...jumped on his wheel for several laps but couldn't hold his pace, he's strong!
Rode up through several people and started to slowly make my way up. Rode strong, I was really happy with my race. A couple of the longer straight aways I just couldn't spin up with the roadies and caught myself thinking, "I gotta ride my road bike more"...but oh well.
Going into the last 2 laps I was catching another DBC rider, got on his wheel through the start/finish straight and then the next straight he opened up a can of whoop-ass...ouch...I didn't panic and figured we had the whole last lap ahead and I was faster through the technical stuff. 1/3 lap later we hit another straight and he gets more distance after I closed the gap, and as we approach the final run up he looks over his shoulder and saw me closing the gap. at the top of the run up I just wasn't close enough to get by the line.
Ended up 6th in the Open A class, but more importantly I was just happy how my race went! Got a little bit better with the gears but still felt completely inefficient...but getting there! Love the bike when the front end isn't coming a part!! I would like to have that night race back to ride again.
For me, the two races were as different as Night and Day.....
Sorry, I had to do it!
Marja's A race was right before ours. She was lucky enough to be called up which should have given her an OK starting spot, but a lot of the other women rolled up as Marja was going up so I think she got a little screwed there...Women! I tell ya!
She started faster than I have seen her and she started moving up after lap 2. And I mean really moving up. She caught one of her main rivals with a few laps left and left her behind and almost caught Lizzie on the last lap. She looked strong the whole race and is not being shy about passing! She surely ended up with some strong results, still waiting to see exactly where!
We watched most of the Open A race and then headed back to Cameron Park. Got to bed about midnight, woke to the alarm at 7am (impressed I slept that late, wanted more!) to get up and prep for the next race at Folsom HS, Bicycle Planet's covert CX race - someone needs to tell them to advertise better!! Marja's start was at 9:45, 14+ hrs after she finished her last CX race. I was lucky and got to start at 12:45 in the A's.
Marja's race started FAST....translation: Marja was 30 seconds behind the leader at the end of lap 1, 15 seconds behind Emily who was in 2nd....typical start, but Scott and I figured she'd start winding up! Lap 2, same split to Emily, the leader was about 25 seconds up on her. Marja looked good and was powering through the start/finish straight. A few laps later Marja was 10 seconds behind the two leaders, Emily had reeled in the Velo-Bella gal and I was worried the two would now work together and pull away from Marja but she was on fire. Seems in that lap the Velo-Bella woman took a face plant into a barrier at the bottom of a hill and struggled to get back up to stay with Emily....she punctured trying to catch back up to her. Emily came through the start/finish and Marja was now 5 seconds behind.
In roadie fashion, Emily waited for Marja so they could work together and leave the rest of the field, but as Marja came over the top of her to pull through, Emily punctured as she was riding from dirt to a wooden bridge.... Marja rode the next two laps solo to a win in the women's A race. STUD!!!
She tries to minimize her win by referring to the other women's flats, but she caught'em and its all part of it!! She was a stud.
My race rolled around, finally, and I have to admit, after the night before I was nervous about my fork and the gears. In the night race I was fumbling with my gears, always seemed to be too ez or too hard, longing for my single speed so I did not have to think I just had to pedal... Truthfully, I was tired as hell too!
I started near the rear, the Open A's and 45+ A's went together. I slowly moved up through the pack down the straight and a few tight turns and some technical sections, as we flew down a section of hard pack dirt (and cobble, duh..its Folsom always assume half buried cobble) we came to a tight left. AS I set up to take it fast, a Davis Bike Club guys flies to my outside along with a SGW inside of him who is going to pinch me off in the corner.... this is gonna be ugly!!
As we start into the turn, I have my elbow and right knee sticking out to keep the SGW guy from pushing me off my line....my first thought as we entered the turn was that DBC guy is toast, and as I thought it I hear the sound of deep dish carbon tubulars skidding across the cobble....Then, the SGW next to me hits the deck and they get all tangled up....being on the inside of the turn, I immediately stood up and pedaled through it to miss the carnage!
"F-ing Roadies!!" slips out of my mouth....
Bruno from Davis comes by as I am still shell shocked from being taken out of the race, "man I can't believe you didn't get taken out!!" It was good to see it wasn't Bruno who was in the DBC kit...jumped on his wheel for several laps but couldn't hold his pace, he's strong!
Rode up through several people and started to slowly make my way up. Rode strong, I was really happy with my race. A couple of the longer straight aways I just couldn't spin up with the roadies and caught myself thinking, "I gotta ride my road bike more"...but oh well.
Going into the last 2 laps I was catching another DBC rider, got on his wheel through the start/finish straight and then the next straight he opened up a can of whoop-ass...ouch...I didn't panic and figured we had the whole last lap ahead and I was faster through the technical stuff. 1/3 lap later we hit another straight and he gets more distance after I closed the gap, and as we approach the final run up he looks over his shoulder and saw me closing the gap. at the top of the run up I just wasn't close enough to get by the line.
Ended up 6th in the Open A class, but more importantly I was just happy how my race went! Got a little bit better with the gears but still felt completely inefficient...but getting there! Love the bike when the front end isn't coming a part!! I would like to have that night race back to ride again.
For me, the two races were as different as Night and Day.....
Sorry, I had to do it!
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