Since I’m so heavily involved with ABD’s events, I can appreciate what promoters go through to hold races and close courses, and therefore I can understand some of the reasoning behind the San Dimas Stage Race promoters’ decision a few years back to reroute a section of the Road Race course to stay inside state park boundaries where fewer marshalls and local police are required. However, the section they use to do that includes about a 3/4 mile of one-lane service road along a dam that has a fence on one side, a precipitous 75-foot drop of jagged, football sized rocks to the other, and fierce crosswinds as the day heats up. In 2004, the Pro/1 Men’s field actually protested the circuit race stage that included nothing but park roads with the start/finish on this section, and several heated words were exchanged between riders, manager and the promoters.
Anyway, sure enough, with about 20 miles left in yesterday’s race there was a wreck on this section about 15 riders from the front. I was hanging out near the back just getting in my race miles, and watched as several riders aimed for the wreckage to avoid shooting off into the rocky drop. Quite the predicament: “I better hit the pavement so that I don’t break bones going the other way...” No riders went off the “wrong side”, but the carnage caused a massive pile-up and the 13 riders that made it through the wreck went on to finish 4 minutes up. That’s bike racing.
After clipping out and scooting through wreckage I was in about the third or fourth chase group and put in a two big pulls to get into the main field, but I made the fatal mistake of pulling off in the crosswind after those pulls and was forced all the way to the back. Then when guys started popping off the pace in front of me, I didn’t have enough gas to keep jumping around them and stay with the field - damn. I ended up with another group of four that kept picking up riders until we were about 12 strong and just rode tempo to the line, finishing about 35 seconds down on the 30-rider “field”.
Since I was really just looking for some race miles and inensity, I accomplished that goal, and as it turned out, I probably got a harder workout those last three laps than if I’d sat in the field the whole time. The first four laps of the race were super fast too, and we averaged 27mph on a 7-mile course with 500 feet of climbing per lap. Unfortunately, Brett had the worst luck on the day, flatting less than 2 miles into the race and then being misdirected by course marshalls to top it off! Alex had a good day in the Cat. 2 race though, finishing with the main field and sailing over the climbs with ease.
Today is crit-day. Now that the top six in the overall standings are a BMC rider, Navigators rider, BMC rider, Navigators rider, BMC rider, Navigators rider... the stage might be a bit boring -- but with a four-minute gap after 13th place, there’s always the possibility those teams could let a break go because even if it gets a lap their lead is still safe and then they wouldn’t have to worry about Jittery Joe’s sprinter Jeff Hopkins racking up Sprint Points to challenge Navigators rider Ben Brooks’ lead in that competition. Of course, after getting caught out yesterday, the coffee boys will certainly be looking for redemption.
As for me, opportunistic is the word of the day.
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