NorCal Cycling News – Cycling and Racing in Northern California

Editors Note: This is a new feature written by guest writer Cat3 Bloggity covering action in the Cat3 world.  He thinks nobody cares about his world, but i disagree, so I’m leaving out his tag line of …. “Races that nobody cares about and results that don’t matter.”

 

In case you didn’t get it the first time, this is for fun and I definitely don’t know what the hell I’m talking about.  If I offend you, feel free to squirt cytomax on me at the next criterium.  My sense of humor is definitely on the irreverent side and it is my belief that anyone who dresses up in brightly colored lycra to charge around business parks on Sunday mornings should not take themselves too seriously.  This post is a follow-up to my hindsight post last week.

April – Apple Pie is the best pie and that’s why we drive for 3 hours to race 50 minutes on this course.  Here’s a little note to all you would-be breakaway artist in the Cat3 field:  If you’re going in a breakaway, you have to make two or more people in the pack quit chasing.  The race came down to a sprint despite the half-hearted attacks.   Luther Kopf took a handy little win with a combination of bike handling skill and great kick.

Next up was the Santa Cruz Classic which has hill and the capability of sucking the life out of the riders.  It started very fast and the lap by lap attrition was high.  A Santa Cruz local found a great location to watch the race and smoke a doobie.  Those who thought blowing pot smoke into the peloton would calm them the fuck down were wrong.  The race was full gas start to finish.  William Myers was strongest on the day and won the race with a punchy sprint.

April was a big month of racing, starting with the Menlo Park Gran Prix.  This race is so awesome!   There was a sizable field and a few attacks but the Peninsula Velo and Form Fitness teams seemed to enjoy driving the pace and quashing any real breakaways.   Another note and this time it is for you sprinters:  If you find yourself at the front of the race too soon, don’t sit up.  Take a few more pedal strokes, maintain your speed, hit the next corner and reintegrate into the pack.  How many times we seen guys hit the front, freak out, and slow down?  It sucks…  That is exactly what happened at Menlo.  Young Nick Kinney, from Whole Athlete got into a break (with yours truly) and he looked super strong.  A decent sized gap opened, but it all came together at the last corner and Danny Boyle from Red Peloton took a well deserved win.  Watch for Nick this year.  That kid is knocking on the door!

May – The Wente Crit just snuck into May and we showed up to find it windy and warm (as usual).  This time the race was a mixed field (Cat 3 & 4) and we had close to the maximum number of riders.  It was stupid.  Most of the time the peloton rode slowly and tried not to run into each other.  That didn’t really work as the refs called multiple neutral laps and at least 2 full race stoppages as people hit deck on the widest turns in the history of criterium racing.  The last stoppage came just as the pack was reeling two Red Peloton riders.  Everyone had to line up again and Team Audi and Red Peloton (they were all over this race) drove the pace.  Once again someone sat up and the front got swamped, but somehow Keiran Cox found his way through the mess to take a quality win.  Quick note about Keiran; he didn’t listen to Zinn cycles when they told him he wasn’t tall enough for a tall-person bike.   Gotta love those 200mm cranks!

The Tri Valley Velo Criterium presented by PG&E wins the longest race name of the year.  The course is always fast and not too technical.  Overall it just an awesome race for the fast men of the peloton.  Mark Davis was definitely there because we could hear his commentary throughout the race.  If Mark was alone in a breakaway, would he still be talking?  Probably…  There were a few attacks but the nature of the course lends itself to a field sprint.  Matt Chatlaong found a nice position in the final meters and was able to win at the line.  Keiran Cox grabbed another podium.

So that about wraps up the season so far.  I’ll have another post for you about the fun times I had at Dash for Cash and the Taleo Criterium later this week.

 

Editors Note: This is a new feature written by guest writer Cat3 Bloggity covering action in the Cat3 world.  He thinks nobody cares about his world, but i disagree, so I’m leaving out his tag line of …. “Races that nobody cares about and results that don’t matter.”   He’s like an amateur Big Pink. which is appropriate considering the topics and races he is covering. If Rand didn’t have such a distate for all things Cat 3 I think he should pick this guy up.

Oh crap, did I really just tell Hernando that I would blog about Cat3 racing?  Yes I did…  Well before you get mad and wonder if I know what the hell I’m talking about, just know that this is for fun and I definitely don’t know what the hell I’m talking about.  So we’re already near our second weekend of racing in June and the shit-talking is in full swing, but before we get into it let’s jump in the hindsight mobile and figure out what the hell happened this year.  I’ll post a couple of these so I don’t bore you to death right now.

One important note about this blog:  I don’t like hills and they don’t like me.  It’s an issue that goes way back.  They know what they did.  So I don’t really know what goes on at those Road Races.  Whenever I show up at a road race, I don’t recognize most of the skinny bastards lining up next to me.  Which is fine because we don’t hang out very long after the racing starts (I get dropped).

January – I’m pretty sure there was some racing.  Some people attacked and they got caught.  Some other people sprinted and won…

February – Ronde Van Brisbeen started off the racing season.  Instead of the usual rain it was a sunny and warm.  This course is better in rain.  Staying up front is always an issue at this one and the good spots are usually taken by the familiar blue jerseys of Fusion Sport.  The pack was slowly whittled down due to the accelerations of those who got through the 180 near the front.  Tyron Hooper took the win with a massive sprint at the end.

March – March is always been about Merco.  The altered course for the criterium was pretty sucky.  Here’s hoping the downtown construction is complete and the course is back to normal next year.  The racing however was good.  There were lots and lots of attacks and fairly high pace the whole time.  The young guns came to win and looking at the top 10, they succeeded.  William Myers won and most of the guys at the front of that race cannot legally drink booze.

The road race was the following day and it boasted some epic weather.  It rained all night and into Sunday.  It was cold, wet and pretty miserable.  Perfect racing conditions.  It is strange that the same dudes who can corner at 30 mph in a crit, get off their bikes and tip-toe through each corner in a road race.  There was a lot of attacking in the second lap.  It was fun, I like attacking…  I’m told Eliot Logan from Webcor took the win, but I was already on the way home.

It was another day of rain and only eleven hearty souls decided to truck on down to Ft Ord for some windy fun.  Bay 101 always shows up ready to race and they sent Big Mike Holt off the front very early on.  There was lots of yelling at people to get up and chase.  Mike’s Bay 101 teammate and good Italian lad, Nick Della Maggiore, did a good job of disrupting the chase.  As the pack chased, Allen Wulczynski from SJBC would get the front and slow us down.  This was confusing because Allen doesn’t ride for Bay 101.  I’m calling shenanigans on that one.   Big Mike would have stayed away anyway.  He came in for a solo win and landed himself on the ‘marked rider’ list for the remainder of the season.

So that’s it for now, I’ll post something early next week on the April, May and June races and the racing this weekend.