Another great weekend in Central Texas (San Marcos, to be exact), this one accompanied with some enjoyable collegiate racing in the SCCCCCCC... While the organization of the race was lacking, the courses themselves were nearly perfect, so thanks to the Texas State Cycling Team for that! With my experience co-organizing Sweatin' Burnt Orange this past year, I know it is a very daunting task to put on a cycling event, so I can understand, but hopefully they will learn and improve for next year.
First up for the weekend was the hill climb time trial, which consisted of a short flat section, followed by about a 1 km climb at 18% grade, and then a .5 mile flat section to the finish. Leaving campus around 7:15, we managed to make it to the TT site by around 8:15 after getting a bit lost, but the registration table was late too, so it was no big deal. And thus the fun began.
The time trial was really short, under 2 miles, and most completed it in around 5 or 6 minutes. I ended up 15th with a time just under 6 minutes. However, this included at least about 15 seconds that I was late to my start because we were not given start times and I thought I had more time than I had. I am curious to see how I actually would have done. Depending on how much time I lost due to that late state, I may have actually ended up around 6th place. Ah well. Clay blew everyone out of the water, winning our category (Men's C) by almost 30 seconds! He actually had the best time out of anyone on our team. Crazy!
We also took 3rd and 9th in Men's C, 2nd and 3rd in Men's B, 8th and 10th in Men's A, 3rd 5th and 9th in Women's B, and 3rd in Women's A! not too shabby, eh
Next up was the crit, but first we stopped at Alvin Ord's, a local San Marcos sandwich shop, for some tasty sandwiches. On the way to lunch, we passed by a Shipley Donuts, and of course, we had to stop by there after lunch to pick up a dozen glazed ones. Mmmm. It's a good thing I don't live closer to one of those, or I would be in trouble...
The crit took place on the Texas State campus in a parking lot and on a bordering street. At first, it looked to be quite a sketchy place to have a crit, and there were cars driving all over the course, due to a lack of volunteers/organization. But, things got worked out, and the first race was only delayed half an hour, and all was well. Apart from being a bit short, the course turned out to be very enjoyable with a 180 degree u-turn into a hill that played to my advantage, allowing me to pass people who have trouble handling their bikes and climbing, and a couple other short descents and climbs, including a climb to the finish line, that made for another spot to move up a few spots. The only really bad part about the course was a certain right hand turn that had a dip in the middle of it, causing much fear in the hearts of riders, but only ended up causing minimal problems in the end. Oh, and that trash can I grazed on just about every lap... All in all it was a very fast and fun crit and quite enjoyable.
In the men's Cs, Clay went off the front towards the beginning and stayed there for the win, making him a marked man after winning both of Saturday's events seemingly uncontested. There was a three-man chase after Clay who ended up taking second and third, and then a group of six of us behind them. Ken had some trouble in the corner with the dip and left us with 5 in our group. It was 3 UT riders an OU rider, and a Tech rider, not sure who, but we had an obvious advantage and were able to sit on the Tech guy's wheel. However, we were never able to make anything happen and ended up getting beat by both the Tech and OU rider, putting us at 7th, 8th, and 9th, myself being 9th. It was rather frustrating considering what could have been, but to have 4 in the top 10 isn't too bad I suppose.
We also managed to take 1st and 3rd in the men's B (Way to go guys!), 7th and 9th in Men's A, 3rd and 7th in Women's B, and 2nd in Women's A!
That evening, we refueled our muscles with some delicious shrimp, quinoa, and scrumptious rustic bread and cheese. It was quite a meal, I only wish my camera was working...
Sunday was the road race, and my first actual road race at that, (I'm not counting Pace Bend as a true road race) so I did not quite know what to expect. The course was just east of 35 behind the ridiculous outlets in San Marcos, and the same course that is usually used for the Tour of New Braunfels road race. The course was about 13 miles long, mostly flat with one noticeable climb in the first 5 miles of the course and a short descent soon after and then another that was just enough to stir things up a bit near the end of the course. Due to the narrow roads and the yellow line rule, some of the turns got a bit hairy, but there were no catastrophies, and all was well.
So here's how it went down in the C race:
We had pretty good positioning from the beginning, with about 8 of us at the front, who would (for the most part) stay there the rest of the race. There were 63 riders in the race, so we had a good-sized field. The first, and biggest climb on the course caught me a little by surprise, as it was steeper than I originally thought, and I was in my big ring. I made the stupid mistake of shifting into my small ring while out of the saddle, and like clockwork, I dropped the chain to the inside. So there I am, in the middle of the hill, sitting about 10th wheel in the pack, shifting my front derailleur all the way over and spinning like a mad man trying to pick up my chain and also not cause a terrible mishap in the field. No dice. For some reason, even after shifting my derailleur as far as it would go, I could not pick up my chain. So, I stopped, got off the bike, and had to manually put my chain back on. Awesome.
So now I'm midway up a hill, dead last in the pack, with the follow car behind me (who actually got impatient and left me before I even got back on my bike) within the first 5 miles of the race. Great start... I briefly thought about just riding back to the start, but so early on in the race, I figured it would be worth a shot to catch back up. Luckily, the next 10 miles or so were relatively flat, so I caught up to some guys who had been spit out of the pack, and told them to get on my wheel to catch up. There were about 3 of us, doing somewhat of a paceline, and by that I mean I pulled until I started to get tired, and then an A&M guy pulled until he got tired, and then I pulled again, with 2 guys sitting on our wheels... Either way, I managed to catch the pack and sit in to catch my breath and relax a little bit.
Due to the yellow line rule, the pack was spread across the entire lane and there was really no way to move up in the pack, until somewhere towards the end of the first lap when a shoulder suddenly appeared, and the front of the pack seemed to be staying to the left of the white line. I took this opportunity to move up to the front of the pack, and ended up about where I had started, somewhere around 8th wheel. My teammates welcomed me back, and now we were all even, except that I had just put forth a whole lot more effort than them to get to the same place. Great.
The rest of the race was entirely uneventful, no attacks, no breakaways, nothing. There were a couple of crashes, one in a corner and another in a straight (how did that happen?) but otherwise nothing noteworthy. We pretty much controlled the entire race, sitting on the front with a couple Rice riders pulling for us. I tried to get some sort of teamwork together since we had the numbers and the strength, but nobody really seemed to have the desire or experience to do anything. I tried a couple of attacks, but my legs were shot, and I was quickly caught by the pack, and towards the end there were some attacks by other riders, to which we launched counter-attacks, but it seemed that somehow the pace always ended up being much too easy, foreshadowing a field sprint at the end.
Somehow, only some of the riders had an idea of where the finish line was, so several people sprinted early, almost to overshoot or nearly overshoot the final turn, at which point the whole field started to go crazy, and everyone was riding squirrelly. There were blatant yellow line violations followed by an uncontrolled field sprint for the finish. Despite the fact that we had at least 6 guys at the front, the best any of us finished was 4th, when we could have gotten organized and likely swept the top 3 spots at least. We managed to take 4th, 6th, 7th, and 9th, which isn't bad, but disappointing considering what could/should have been. But, you live and learn. I ended up somewhere around 15th to 20th, as my legs were shot by then from my efforts at the beginning, and I did my best to catch a wheel for the sprint, but just had nothing left.
In the Men's B race we took 7th and 8th, 9th in the Women's B, and 4th in Women's A.
Overall, the weekend was a blast, and I think we all learned a thing or two about racing, and I know I certainly learned a whole lot both as an idividual and as a team member. So, I would consider it a very successful weekend, especially if we put this experience to use come our next race in Wichita Falls.
Oh yes, and pictures from the weekend's races can be found here.
So here's how it went down in the C race:
We had pretty good positioning from the beginning, with about 8 of us at the front, who would (for the most part) stay there the rest of the race. There were 63 riders in the race, so we had a good-sized field. The first, and biggest climb on the course caught me a little by surprise, as it was steeper than I originally thought, and I was in my big ring. I made the stupid mistake of shifting into my small ring while out of the saddle, and like clockwork, I dropped the chain to the inside. So there I am, in the middle of the hill, sitting about 10th wheel in the pack, shifting my front derailleur all the way over and spinning like a mad man trying to pick up my chain and also not cause a terrible mishap in the field. No dice. For some reason, even after shifting my derailleur as far as it would go, I could not pick up my chain. So, I stopped, got off the bike, and had to manually put my chain back on. Awesome.
So now I'm midway up a hill, dead last in the pack, with the follow car behind me (who actually got impatient and left me before I even got back on my bike) within the first 5 miles of the race. Great start... I briefly thought about just riding back to the start, but so early on in the race, I figured it would be worth a shot to catch back up. Luckily, the next 10 miles or so were relatively flat, so I caught up to some guys who had been spit out of the pack, and told them to get on my wheel to catch up. There were about 3 of us, doing somewhat of a paceline, and by that I mean I pulled until I started to get tired, and then an A&M guy pulled until he got tired, and then I pulled again, with 2 guys sitting on our wheels... Either way, I managed to catch the pack and sit in to catch my breath and relax a little bit.
Due to the yellow line rule, the pack was spread across the entire lane and there was really no way to move up in the pack, until somewhere towards the end of the first lap when a shoulder suddenly appeared, and the front of the pack seemed to be staying to the left of the white line. I took this opportunity to move up to the front of the pack, and ended up about where I had started, somewhere around 8th wheel. My teammates welcomed me back, and now we were all even, except that I had just put forth a whole lot more effort than them to get to the same place. Great.
The rest of the race was entirely uneventful, no attacks, no breakaways, nothing. There were a couple of crashes, one in a corner and another in a straight (how did that happen?) but otherwise nothing noteworthy. We pretty much controlled the entire race, sitting on the front with a couple Rice riders pulling for us. I tried to get some sort of teamwork together since we had the numbers and the strength, but nobody really seemed to have the desire or experience to do anything. I tried a couple of attacks, but my legs were shot, and I was quickly caught by the pack, and towards the end there were some attacks by other riders, to which we launched counter-attacks, but it seemed that somehow the pace always ended up being much too easy, foreshadowing a field sprint at the end.
Somehow, only some of the riders had an idea of where the finish line was, so several people sprinted early, almost to overshoot or nearly overshoot the final turn, at which point the whole field started to go crazy, and everyone was riding squirrelly. There were blatant yellow line violations followed by an uncontrolled field sprint for the finish. Despite the fact that we had at least 6 guys at the front, the best any of us finished was 4th, when we could have gotten organized and likely swept the top 3 spots at least. We managed to take 4th, 6th, 7th, and 9th, which isn't bad, but disappointing considering what could/should have been. But, you live and learn. I ended up somewhere around 15th to 20th, as my legs were shot by then from my efforts at the beginning, and I did my best to catch a wheel for the sprint, but just had nothing left.
In the Men's B race we took 7th and 8th, 9th in the Women's B, and 4th in Women's A.
Overall, the weekend was a blast, and I think we all learned a thing or two about racing, and I know I certainly learned a whole lot both as an idividual and as a team member. So, I would consider it a very successful weekend, especially if we put this experience to use come our next race in Wichita Falls.
Oh yes, and pictures from the weekend's races can be found here.
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