Smashed Up

Hey Hey.

The season started already, look at that. Race numbers and wattage are recession proof, at least. Let me fire off a race report then go to the meaningless pulps. The first one of the year was the CBR Long Beach Race. AKA: CBR BAR #1. Happy to see the purse was at $1000. Still a swell time. To give the readers outside of the SoCal scene an idea of what a "hapless local way-early-season crit" is like in socal, here's a quick sample of the 100+ starters....

R Bahatski-Current US Crit Champ
Justin Williams-Current U23 Crit Champ
Brad Huff-Former US Elite/Pro Crit Champ, Nutter
Tony Cruz-Former US Crit Champ


There were others, but hey: 4 super crit riders. Was surprised with Huff showing up (he's from the midwest). Turns out Jelly Belly has a training camp nearby. Nice. I'm really begining to love our scene, though. Everyone knows each other, everyone's gotten into a fight/argument/crack with someone at somepoint, and it's cool. Under the bridge, always. I can trust the wheels i'm around, and have a swell time while I'm out there with that in mind.

On that note...I think the peleton is a bit more civil now in contrast to the pre-internet decades. This occured to me as I scolded an older guy (40+) for for aggressively trying to grab a wheel while caught out of the echelon in the gutter on the back side with 60 minutes of racing still to go. I say "scolded" but was polite in every regard. I got a sarcastic "THANKS COACH" in response, which, given the lack of f-bombs, confirms that I was in fact polite in my approach. Fact is, with 60 minutes left, if a guy wants the wheel in front of me, just ask or signal or at the very least, gently and predictably slide into place. This guy wasn't having it. He swung out, then in a "either i'm crashing everyone or getting that wheel" kind of move swung back into the paceline and got the wheel, setting off a chain reaction of braking and swearing behind. More annoying than dangerous, but i'd rather neither. None of the aforementioned guys do this stuff. If they did, EVERYONE would know. People blog. People facebook. There are photographers, videos, text messages. Point is, as racers and people, we're infinitely more networked now than before, and nothing but good comes out as a result. Reps spread REAL quick. A lot less of the "traditional" elbowing and chopping and diving (and whatever inane stuff that old-schoolers think is part of crit racing) very much still is, but not with 60 minutes to go. Not ever. Not in any race. Save it for the bell lap, dudes. Or I call you out. Let's make crit racing classy.

Hmm...sorry for that paragraph. I guess the pulp made it to the middle instead of the end. The race. Lots of fast dudes, but it's January. Also...I should mention...I've got a new sponsor, at least for the time being. I'm riding for Armin Rahm's team: Sixtumed Cycling. Big thanks to him for helping out. The kit you saw me race in was last year's. New kit coming, I think. Anyhow, we lined up. Everyone's there save for the SoCalCycling team. I think there's some kind of rift between the higher ups, but eh. These things happen. Like i'd mentioned a few entries ago, teams look smaller, more color in the peleton, and really tough to pick a winner from the bunch. Now, this would be my first race of the season, yes? Since the vast majority of the 1/2 peleton is 30+, it was the 2nd or even 3rd race of the season (and of the day) for lots of those guys. So a bit less "special" for them than for me, but eh...these things happen, too.

The race was hard. The cross wind on the backside hurt, closing gaps in the gutter hurt, being caught out of position between turns 2 and 3 hurt. Regretably, I wasn't close enough to the front to write about all the happs in the race. I kept it mellow in the middle. The legs have no snap yet, so I'm limited with what I can go with. Brad Huff had plenty of snap though. He jumped at every lull and countered or bridged up to what seemed like any break that formed. At some point, a break got a steady gap of 15 seconds. I jumped in pursuit. This is what a jump in pursuit looks like...

(3% smoothing)

...when you fail. Power goes up, speed goes up. Gap is established....thennnnn after a few minutes you realize it isn't gonna happen. A guy bridged up to me and was motoring nicely, but we were shut down. Funny though, it took me quite a while to recover from what looks like a pretty meager effort on paper (screen). That effort was at the midpoint. The pace slowed after I got back to the peleton, and the break's gap grew. Then it shrunk. Then 5 to go sounded and it was still clear. 3 to go I was in pretty good company with Cruz, Paul Che, and a couple rock dudes alongside...so thought we were sprinting for 9th. I'm still not sure what we were sprinting for as I didn't check the results. Bell lap, Che jumped right before the last corner. I responded with what little snap the legs had. He was gone, but while behind him, we passed a blob of riders in the middle of turn 4. No idea who/what. I think bahati was among them? Odd. Rolled in with one of the waves of a real tattered sprint. Tough one. Will update when I find out how I did. Outside the top 20 I think. Tip of the hat to Sergio Hernandez for winning it.