EVENT
Red Kite #8 Criterium - Pleasanton Course

CATEGORY
35+ 1/2/3

DATE
Saturday, June 20, 2015


COURSE DESCRIPTION
Flat Business Park Crit w/ 4 sweeping turns
PREVIOUS RESULTS
Got 5th on this course at Districts last year

WEATHER
Sunny & HOT!  Strong Northerly Wind, which really dried everyone out.

TEAMMATES
Hobbs, Oli, Funke & Danny V.

GOALS
Just a training race for all of us, I think, but still, put someone from Mike's in first at the end

PLAN
Loose plan to stay patient early, look for breaks with Stanko & Evans mid way through.  Line it up for me or Oli at the end.

RACE SUMMARY
Started out easy, got hard in the middle, everyone rested for a bit then the finish was really hard.  Just kidding, this seems like how every race flows, but it was pretty accurate today.  Early on, Oli was very present near the front, racing smart and trying to be ready to not let anything go.  Danny V. was active jumping on many attacks, essentially shutting them down.  After  the first few laps, Hobbs basically towed the field around chasing down anything that got off the front.  Another beastly effort of riding per usual, from the Donkey.  It seemed like there was always a slowing into the headwind after turn 1 and nobody wanted anything to do with the front.  It was so slow that even Jacob tried to go for it a couple times, not really getting too far away from Hobbs.  Oli got more active jumping into a couple breaks with Stanko and Evans, but the mix was wrong and the field would bring them back.  Just after the lap cards (10 to go) came out, Evans pulled through hard into the headwind with a ZOCA rider on his wheel who I had never seen or heard of.  I jumped on and when it appeared that they were gonna work, I decided to take some turns and see what kind of gap we could get.  After only a lap or two like this, up comes Stanko with Dave's buddy Matthew & Funke.  So, with 2 of us and the strongest riders not on TMB from the race, in the break, I knew our chances of staying away were really good this point. And that is what we did.  Everyone pulled through for a couple laps, but when we got to 5 to go, I spoke with Funke and we decided I should sit on for the sprint.  Funke continued to work with Matthew, Stanko & Evans, but the ZOCA rider refused to pull, sitting on the back with me.  At 2 to go, Stanko played a bit of possum dropping behind, along with Evans.  Funke then went to the front and pulled us around for 2 laps almost by himself!  It was awesome.  So, last lap turn 3 it's Funke, Matthew, Me then the ZOCA guy with a 2 bike gap on Evans & Stanko.  Apparently, Evans really didn't want us to win, because he pulled Stanko back on and gave him a slingshot up the inside between 3 & 4.  I jumped immediately, but had to sprint to get onto his wheel, while the ZOCA guy just rode me to the corner.  He came around me in the last 50 ft. and I couldn't come around Stanko, so ended up 3rd.  Just didn't have that little extra in the finish to win it today.  It was a super fun day racing with the team.  I consider myself extremely lucky to have a team of strong, experienced racers to ride with and laugh and joke with after racing.  We really do have something special on TMB.  I tend to forget that sometimes.  Thanks to everyone who raced.  And to all our sponsors too.
TAKEAWAYS
I probably missed a bunch of stuff or got it wrong, so please chime in with your views
I shouldn't have gone to the front at all on the last lap but honestly, I don't think that's why I got third.
I really should know to protect the inside by now.  I screwed that up bad.
Mark Niiro, from ZOCA knows what to do at the end to win.  He earned his spot by racing smarter than me.
I'm pretty psyched to get on the podium after a week of Rum Cake & Mojitos, with very little riding.
Nevada City tomorrow is gonna hurt real, real bad.
NUMBERS
Distance: 26.4 mi
Time: 57:47
Elevation Gain: 0 ft
Avg Speed: 27.0 mph
Max Speed: 47.7 mph
Avg Power: 264 W
Weighted Avg Power: 303 W
Max Power: 1272 W
Max Temp: 100.4F

https://www.strava.com/activities/329626631/overview