Home from the Otter

First I want to post one picture from my drive out to Sea Otter. The trip was a two day drive, and on the in-between night, I stopped for the night at the Utah/Nevada boarder. I knew from my map that the Bonneville Salt Flats were right off the interstate, and that they are on BLM land (read: free camping). I couldn't pass up this opportunity, so I drove out onto the Salt Flats and pitched my tent. The night sky was full of stars (there's not much in the way of light pollution out there), and the sunrise was breathtaking.

Fast forward to Sunday at Sea Otter. I woke up with a scratchy throat and some congestion--always a sign that I'm coming down with something bad. This was the extent of the symptoms at that time, so I decided I would give the cross country race my best shot.
As usual, the race started off very fast, and I maintained a good position near the front of the group. By half way through the first lap (of 2 18 mile laps), people were starting to settle into their paces. It was obvious that many people went out too hard at the start, as they were slowing down quite a bit.
I settled in with one other guy who was going at my pace, and we started riding through the field. We were so evenly matched that we pretty much were riding together for the rest (3/4) of the race. We grouped up with several other riders, and continued passing people. On the final climb to the finish, the one guy I had been with most of the race hit the gas, and opened up a small gap. I dropped the rest of the guys in our group and gave chase, but didn't quite have enough. I finished the race in 17th place, making this my best finish ever for the Sea Otter Classic cross country (out of seven years, though I did finish 15th once in a lower category). Not bad for having a slight cold.
One thing I haven't mentioned yet, is how awesome my host family was all weekend. Just having a comfortable place to eat and sleep, would have been better than what I've had most years at Sea Otter. However, I was served absolutely delicious meals each night, was given many words of encouragement (amongst many other things), and they even came out to cheer for me during the cross country event. Thanks Rosaleen, Scott, and Christian!

Nice car! Cedric Gracia in a photo shoot with his bike, some models, and a very cherry Chevy SS. (In the Skip Barber Racing School paddock at Laguna Seca.)

Ouch!

Today I thought I just didn't have it in the legs. I got dropped pretty early on in the Sea Otter Pro NRC circuit race and rode about half the race with other guys who fell off the pace of the front group. You never can feel too bad about yourself in this situation when you are riding with guys from bigger pro teams.
At the time I pulled out of the race, I just happened to reach down and feel my front tire (force of habit, I guess), and I realized I only had 30-40 psi left in my tire (down from 120psi). I have no idea when this puncture happened--maybe it was a minute earlier, but maybe it happened at the start of the race.
Before the start of the race, Laguna Seca was getting a lot of rain, and the start of the race ended up getting postponed an hour and a half. With the rain came sand and rocks from the sides of the race track, leaving a bit of debris on the track, probably resulting in my flat tire.
I've got one more race to do here at Sea Otter, and one last chance for redemption. Today is the mountain bike cross country event, one that I have done seven years in a row. Here's to hoping...

What if...?

What if I didn't drop my chain today during the Sea Otter road race, right after making a key break? Well, I do know that the guy's wheel that I was on when I dropped the chain, finished 27th, so I could have potentially finished in the top 30. However, I don't want to dwell on the what if's, and instead concentrate on getting a good finish in tomorrow's NRC (National Race Calendar) circuit race.
What happened during the race was that on the key climb at the start of the 5th of 8 laps, the race shattered. By this point in the race only about half of the approx 100 starters were left. I made it over the top of the climb with a small group chasing another small group about a 100 feet up the road. In order to stay with the group over the top of the climb, I needed to immediately shift into my big chain ring. My front derailleur was slightly misadjusted, and allowed my chain to jump off of the ring. I tried getting it to go back on while riding, but that just wasn't happening. So, I had to pull over and put the chain back on by hand. Within about 5 seconds, the last main group passed me. Because everyone was going flat out at this point, there was no chance of me chasing a group down solo. That was the end of the race for me, though I didn't give up until about half a lap later. There was a steady stream of guys being blown out the back of the race, and I eventually caught up with JP from the Vitamin Cottage team (we used to work together at a bike shop back home). We rode for another lap (completed 6 of 8), and then pulled out and watched the finish.
I felt I was holding my own in the race up to the point of my mechanical, so I'm not writing it off as a total loss. It was a good learning experience, and it looks like my form is coming along, so I'm happy. Tomorrow's going to be an even bigger deal, so I hope I'm ready.

Oval Race and Koppenburg

Well, I've got the first (and second) races of the season out of the way. Going into the Oval race (raced partially on the CSU Oval), my goal was to ease into race speed and pack riding, not get dropped, and to not crash. It only took a couple laps to get used to the high speed pack riding. While the pace was high, I've struggled more in other races, and was more than happy to finish the race with the front group.
The Koppenburg race last weekend was a little different. The race is becoming a local classic, and a lot of pros who live in the area come out for the race. In case you are wondering, Koppenburg is the name of a famous climb in the Tour of Flanders (Belgium). Our local Koppenburg course features approx 3 miles of dirt roads (along with an approx equal amount of paved road), and a short, steep (17% grade) dirt climb.
Its always a good idea to line up at the front of the group for this race, as it is always a mad dash to the dirt climb, and there is always a bottleneck at its base. I got to the front, and immediately knew the race was going to be hard, as Karl Menzies (Health Net) and Jon Garcia (BMC) squeezed in front of me, in addition to being surrounded by Slipstream/Chipotle, Jelly Belly, Kodak/Sierra Nevada, Toyota/United and other BMC riders (like Scott Moniger). As somewhat expected in this company, it was a struggle to stay with the lead group. Half way through the 3rd of 8 laps, was dropped by the front group, and was in a smaller chase group. We would swallow up riders as they dropped off of the lead group, and then usually spit them out the back of our group, keeping us at about 4-5 guys for the remainder of the race. I ended up finishing 34th out of 42 finishers, who were all that were left of 70 starters, showing how tough this race is.

My teammate Nate (far left), finishing strong in the Cat 3 race.

I learned some things from this race, like how I need to show up with more food and water for a Pro/1/2 race. Rookie mistake.