Keith's P/1/2 San Ardo Road Race Report

The official Race Report from San Ardo by Keith Szolusha. (pic by Tim Westmore)

San Ardo p/1/2 RR (should we call it San fArdo?)
Sat. August 20, 2011
4th place out of 90?
87 miles?
overcast - 60-70 degrees, light wind

I had a team meeting (ed note: he raced as the lone CoreTechs rep) before the race and decided that I was the designated sprinter. nobody argued.

4 laps of relatively flat-to-rolly terrain with a long straight at the end - 8 miles long.
Pace was faster than M35+ from previous week because of the size of the field. 7 or more berry guys and 7 McGuires, 7 Fremont Bank (don't know these gusy), some guys from Socal, other local sprinter and calcup guys and a bunch of fodder. It didn't seem that a long break would stick unless one from every team was in it, and once that mixture was formed and brought back multiple times, I knew it would be a field sprint. I sat in and enjoyed the walk in the park.
The most selective thing about this course was the goat-heads that found their way into some of the riders' wheels. Its really unfortunate to see somebody get a flat in the middle of no where after a long drive, but it happens. Riding in the gutter in this race is a risk and some riders don't seem to care to avoid it. I stayed out of trouble today. I drank as much water as I could - took a Velo Promo feed. Sometimes, I was even a bit bored, but it was an exercise in patience today since I know the finish pretty well. I chose my guys to mark for the finish and plotted the entire race.
At one point, the entire pack almost rear ended a motorist that stopped in our lane - I think the official had something to do with it. However, nobody even rubbed wheels. amazingly impressive.
Final stretch... I moved slowly from middle back to middle front over 8 miles. I stayed away from yellow lines and bots dots. Local SJBC guy went 15-30 sec off the front in a suicide attack with 8 miles to go. Everybody slowly got organized and he was reeled in. Berries went to the front to form an easy train. It was easy enough that a Kyoto University guy (yes from Japan) attacked and one berry followed him. The rest of the pack played a game with who would chase with McGuire guys and Fremont guys trying to get each other to pull. A few solo attacks and soon we were in town just behind the pair. The kamikaze rider came back, but going up the hill, everybody seemed to lose their juice. I cruised from the middle-ish section of the pack to the front as if I was in a vaccuum. It was strange because I think I should have just jumped with everything I had early. I watched a few guys scramble to figure out who was leading into the chase and finally a McGuire guy did what I should have done 20 seconds later on the right side. I hesitated and then busted out of the pack in pursuit and only one or two came with me in tow around the corner. I was pissed because I had more than the McGuire guy and berry guy, but they had gone much earlier than me. The one guy on my wheel came around me as I was looking back over my shoulder to see if the field was in tow or if I was free. After him, I was free, but he took 3rd from me. We were catching the other two and if I would have gone earlier, things might have been different. I was happy with 4th after having a few years of difficult luck in the finishes there in the past. One year, I was in a similar spot and the official park his motobike on the inside corner in front of me just as I was roaring into the turn. That set me back 10 spots. Thanks. Well, I'm not bitter anymore after this email about that.

Data from my Garmin for this race and both races last weekend is on strava.com under my Strava name Rob VanWinkle. I also have some data under Fabio Cancerella for anybody that wants to follow - if you are into that sort of thing. I have the top San Ardo finish time now on Strava - not listed as KOM though. The guy that is tied with me is listed instead. argh

something to learn from the race: don't be the (insert expletive here) that has to throw your water bottle into a field of cows or crops in the middle of nowhere. First, be professional and hold your bottles until you are in town or in the feedzone and toss them there. Second, there are no hills at San fArdo and saving precious grams up a climb there by throwing your empty plastic into our food supply is not going to help you win the race.