Ken Spencer's University Road Race Report

University Road Race (UC Santa Cruz campus)
Cat 4/5 combined
Field of 75; 6th place
Course: 15 laps of 3 miles each on campus (repeats of 1 mile uphill, 2 miles downhill)

Summary:
- I think I was the lone CoreTechs guy in Santa Cruz. Surprising since the race is much closer than all those races near Sac-town AND it's really more of a 'power guy' circuit than a climbers circuit. I think our team would do well on this course.
- Weather was the typical cloudy, cool, damp pavement
- First 4 laps were fast and we shed 20-30% of the pack
- Laps 5-8 laps slowed down a bit but we continued to drop people
- Laps 9-12 were tough. It was more mental fatigue than anything. Every few minutes I would see my family, see the ocean, think about having lunch and a beer. And since the pace wasn't very fast we remained a large peloton, about 30 strong. No attacks.
- On lap 13 I moved from back to front.
- At beginning of lap 14 I accelerated - partly out of boredom, partly out of the need to stand up and work out my cramps. Created a gap and the cheers from the crowd kept me going. I was solo about 50-60 meters in front for the whole lap. Slowed up and let them catch.
- Lap 15 - bell lap - at the start/finish line the climb is at it's steepest point. I learned from prior lap that I could stay out if I attacked. So I did again. Went hard on the bell. 2 guys bridged and we were 3. One guy didn't do any work so it was going to be a suicide mission if we pressed on. Descent had most huge headwind so the ~15 strong peleton was gaining major ground. Final turn into the ~0.5 mile finish. It was going to be a field sprint into the wind. I don't enjoy sprinting or wind. So I happily took 6th and a t-shirt.
- By end of the race, sunny & 70 (not a single cloud in the sky!), and we refueled with burgers & beer.