Santa Cruz Crit-written by Keith S.

It was really fun to see Brianne racing competitively. She is very talented in climbing and accelerations. She hasn't trained like we used to train when she got her cat. 1 upgrade, but the form is still there and she's a threat on any difficult training ride. I have encouraged her to do some local races sometimes even though she might not be in mega-brianne racing shape because it kind of forces her to race conservatively. When this happens, she races really smart and does a great sprint at the end. For a while, it looked like she was effortlessly hanging in the pack and I thought she might win the race on Sunday. Axel and I were very happy to see her do so well and we had lots of fun cheering for mommy.

My race in the M35+ 1/2/3 was a bit different. Most of the racers there are former or current p/1/2 guys and there are some significant masters teams out there. It makes the race a little more strategic than difficult. I'm used to doing about 40 laps in the p/1/2 and surviving the first half of crazy fast racing to start racing in the 2nd half. The issue is that the masters race is simply equal in distance to the first half of the p/1/2 race. I wasn't warmed up until about 4 laps to go. That's a good place to be warmed up though.

Racing started with Andrew saving a spot on the line for me. Thanks! That helps. If I see a hole during a race or a chance for a move, I like to go for it. "Sometimes I attack" (famous quote by Abdujaborov sp?). Sometimes it works, sometimes it gets you warmed up. It is good to do an effort or two to bridge or attack in the first few laps to practice for the final sprint or final selection when it is needed. A safeway rider went off on the first lap and he was out there by himself. With my good start spot, I took off the first time up the little hill to bridge. It took about 1/4 lap to get to him at the hairpin. However, just when I caught his wheel, although we had a little gap, he stopped pedaling completely. Occurances like this are why I am going to retire from 35+ racing and go back to p/1/2. There was no reason to stop pedaling and we could have made a little run of it for a few laps at least. Strategic non-racing is a little too negative for me.
The race continued at an okay pace with a bunch of 'teams' sending a few guys off the front and then others chasing them back quickly. There wasn't much reason to go chase, so I hung in and enjoyed the short race as much as I could. I told Andrew before the race that I would not chase 2 or 3 guys, but that if a selection of 10 occured, I wanted to be in it. I drifted back and found Andrew in the middle and he seemed to be doing just fine. As the race went on, I found my groove up the hill and could move up if I wanted. I practiced inside and outside of the final turn and sitting on the left of the road and going up the right into the small wind. At about 10 to go, I saw a good move with 5 guys - old teammates and top 5 regular finishers. Around the final turn and one or two had just bridged, so I decided to do a solo bridge. With no teammates in the field, the goal is not to drag the pack, but instead to attack hard enough at an opportune time to open a gap and get yourself to the front group. You have to have the motor to go alone and you have to make the bridge quickly - otherwise, you are just wearing yourself out and possibly killing the chase. If you drag everybody up, then you have helped all of the other teams in the pack and worn yourself out. With my practice bridge at the end of the first lap, I knew where to go. I went a little harder this time and TT'd across to the break before the downhill hairpin. They seemed disorganized and I made the bridge easily. Unfortunately, I inspired one or two in the pack to try to do the same. They were not on my wheel, but soon after I made the move, everybody else made the move. I think it was growing too big for the teams to feel comfortable. So, we were all back together again. Had I not gone, I think that the move would have stuck and the pack would have ridden slow. If one guy would not have been inspired by my move, I think that the break would have stuck. oh well. Its always a gamble.
After that, I just sat in, realizing that the finish wasn't far away and there was too much chasing. With several laps to go, a small group of 2-4 was just off the front and guys weren't really chasing. Were they tired? I don't know. I decided to not stir things up because I have too many 'buddies' in the pack that would not let me get in a move at the end with the pack close. I was hoping it would be brought back out of ridiculosity of how small the race was. I think it was sort of caught on the last lap. I didn't fight for position with 1 to go and came out of the last turn in poor position. I finished around 15th