Vandenburg AFB Road Race

The Vandenburg RR is our state championship road race. At one point during our race, a heard one racer ask another "hey, did you do the 'old guy' races yesterday?", referring to the previous day's masters races. Then I said "Hey, this is the old guy race. No one under age 44 has won this race in at least 5 years". Thurlow Rogers and Chris Walker have alternated wins here for the last million years. I've been there with them, coming closer each time, but old guys...they've got that endless endurance, and it really works on a course like this.

So. Teammate Field and I left Oak Park at around 6am, got to the airforce base at 8. Made the start okay. Bigger field than previous years, and I was surprised to see some crit-superstars taking the start. Most people won't touch this race because it's usually very hot, you need feeds, it's long, windy, etc etc. But it comes at a time on our race calendar that's loaded with crits, so it's a welcome change in my mind. It's also a good indicator of how the rest of your season's gonna go. You ride well, you'll be allright. So, notes from the start: LaGrange had at least 10 riders, again, uncharacteristic for this race. Teamwork doesn't really factor in usually. Last year I finished 11th, and it was really really hard. I attacked a small chase group with 25 miles to go, and finished solo for 11th place, one spot out of the money. The last lap was difficult..easily one of the 5 hardest races i'd ever done. Just going with attack after attack as the field withered away and Walker/Rogers ran the show in a brutal crosswind with high temps. This year would be different. Bigger field (more room to hide and sag-climb), cooler temps (60-70s), almost no wind, and teams to control the race. Field and I had a simple gameplan: conserve energy, don't go with attacks, let the other guys kill each other, and turn up the aggression late.

So, race starts gingerly enough. Some futile attacks went and came, and eventually a group of 5 went. 2 LaGrange (ahh, man, what'd I do for a team of 10 guys that make breaks), 1 Giant Strawberries, 1 Monex (Christian from the 'bowl...and he's probably the main reason they stayed off for as long as they did), and 1 Coates Cyclery (I think Ruben Meza, another guy from the rosebowl crew). They stayed off for a good bit. LaGrangers in the field coasted and cruised. A Lagrange guy was dropped from the break early, leaving 4. Then the Strawberry guy flatted, leaving 3. No one was overly concerned with chasing, but the SDBC guys set a decent tempo at some points to limit the advantage. The Moto official was mad cool, giving up time gaps AND break composition details often. Good guy. 5'30" was the biggest the gap got. I sag-climbed everything, and was comfortable for all of the first 2 laps. Last lap comes (keep in mind, each lap is 30 something miles for 109 miles total). The break has 2 minutes, and it's falling. Eventually they're caught. Thurlow breaks his chain. He's done. Attacks come and go, I'm in a couple. Nothing sticks, but each successive move takes it's toll on the field. We're down to about 30, from the 70+ who started. Then, there's a small, harmless split in the field. Maybe 10 guys up the road. I thought nothing of it. Field said "hey, that's the break, man". "No dude, too many guys". Sure enough, that stuck, barely. They had about 10 seconds at the finish. I finished 2nd in the field, for 13th on the day. The LAST money spot, oddly enough, they paid 13 deep. Took the envelope to the car, sarcastically told Field "hey, we're eating big tonight". Open up the envelope....[drum roll]....$10!!! A new record! It was a $1350 purse, 13 deep. So how'd I end up with 10? Ah well. We do it for the money, obviously. I was bummed 'cause I finished 2 spots lower than the previous year, but hey! Ex-teammate Tay Tolleson finished 13th last year and got picked up by tiaacreff! Haha. So it bodes well. Random stat: This is the 3rd time this year that i've been 13th in a RR.

And...of course...the Oil.
Game 7. Stanley Cup Finals. Oil v. Canes. 5pm. NBC.